Former POW, who was shot down and imprisoned, will be honored in Steamboat (Robert Waggoner)

Before his plane was shot down, before spending more than six years as a prisoner of war and before he was honored during his hometown’s Fourth of July parade, Col. Robert Waggoner called Steamboat Springs home.

“He was the youngest boy of eight children, and he grew up and went to school in Steamboat Springs,” said Sylvia Spangler, Waggoner’s niece.

Waggoner died June 21 in California. The U.S. Air Force colonel was 86 years old.

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