The Air & Space Forces Association recognized American prisoners of war during its 2023 Air, Space & Cyber Conference, as part of the association’s ongoing commemoration of the end of the Vietnam War.
Of some 170 individuals who appeared on stage throughout the three-day conference in National Harbor, Md., five were Airmen who collectively endured 6,697 days as prisoners of war.
The six young servicemen, fresh from the prison camps of North Vietnam, stood at attention, saluted and wept as their comrade was lowered into his grave that Monday in a Denver cemetery. Marine Corps Sgt. Abel Larry Kavanaugh, 24, had been like a brother to them and before he had
During his time as a prisoner of war, Lt. Col. William “Bill” Gauntt remembers a Vietnamese soldier pressing a .45 pistol against his forehead and pulling the trigger. “I remember hearing the spring as it was being stretched and then pop,” he said. “On an empty chamber fortunately.” Gauntt told
I was hiding under a log. Doing my best to masquerade as North Vietnam terrain, I’d pulled branches on top of me, smeared mud on my face, and arranged leaves and other foliage to stick out of my clothes. I was 20 miles behind enemy lines, having parachuted out of
“The key word for all of us at first was fragility. Each of us, before we were ever in shouting distance of another American, was made to “take the ropes.” That was a real shock to our systems — and as with all shocks, its impact on our inner selves
On October 1, Thomas Pyle ’53 shared his story about coming to CFS as a 12-year-old from Wilmington, DE, and how the discipline, work and faith he learned at the school helped him through 6 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.