Five decades after surviving a year as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, the St. Joe’s graduate and former head of the Office of Veterans Services is being recognized for a lifetime of giving back.
Summer may be gone for a while, but the glorious, crisp mid-autumn weather that we so often experience in Iowa was in full bloom as we met at the Wakonda Club at noon for our weekly meeting. President Don Flannery welcomed us and called on Rob Hedgepeth for words of
When I worked in the Pentagon several years ago, I had the honor and privilege of working for Brig. Gen. David “Bull” Baker. Baker was a colorful character — I could always hear him coming long before I saw him. He was loud, good-natured and powerful and had earned the
During five years in prison camps, Sgt. Ed Flora survived a disabling gunshot wound and kept to himself all the information that North Vietnamese interrogators beat him regularly to get, said his daughter, Teresa Flora LaFratte. After her father’s death Sept. 15 in Arizona, LaFratte shared some details of his
David Everson got zapped on March 10, 1967. He fired a missile at his target then two seconds later heard a crack on the left side of his Thunderchief F-105. The shell didn’t explode, but it ripped into the main structural spur of his left wing, nearly flaying it from
Staff Sergeant Gary John Guggenberger, United States Army, was held as a Prisoner of War in South Vietnam and Cambodia from January 14, 1969 until his release on February 12, 1973. Gary was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal, The Purple Heart, and two Bronze Stars. After his release in