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.
Jay Hess was 14 years into his Air Force service. The fighter pilot, in the cockpit of an F-105 Thunderchief, was dropping 600 pound bombs in the heavily defended area around Hanoi, in north Vietnam. Hess finished the steep dive, released his bombs and began to pull out when his
Five years ago I wrote “Jack, Will You Sing Again?” — a story about Col. Jack Tomes, a POW for six and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton, a notorious camp for POWs in Vietnam known for its brutal treatment of American prisoners. Spence Field brought Jack to Moultrie
On Jan. 19, 1967, Air Force Captain Julius “Jay” Jayroe was flying an F-4C Phantom on a reconnaissance mission over Hanoi, Vietnam, when he was shot down. After landing by parachute in the rice paddies sprinkled across the countryside, Jayroe became a prisoner of war during the thick of the
Vice Adm. Joseph Mobley, the U.S. military’s last Vietnam prisoner of war still on active duty, stepped down Thursday as commander of the Atlantic Fleet’s Naval Air Force. Mobley, 59, turned over command during a ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. He will retire May 1 after 35
POW comes marching home again and Lynnfield gets right in step By Marvin Olasky Globe Correspondent LYNNFIELD “Lauren Lengyel is OK in our books,” a sign at the public librayr proclaimed yesterday afternoon as Lengyel, an Air Force captain and six-year captive in North Vietnam, was honored by his neighbors
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