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.
On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. James Bond Stockdale was flying his A-4 Skyhawk on a mission over North Vietnam, just days after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, when his plane took fire and hurtled down. Forced to eject with seconds to spare, he landed with severe injuries: his left
Fifty years ago this week, returning Vietnam War released prisoner of war, Air Force Maj. Charles E. Greene Jr. of Schenectady, alighted a C-9 Nightingale at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Mass. and embraced his wife, Sandra, and 10-year-old daughter Kim, who had been escorted to the plane’s ramp.
US Air force Lieutenant William Acruri, a native of Tallahassee…
Stephen Long, 74, of Las Vegas, flew west for the last time August 10, 2018. He died from complications arising from Parkinson’s Disease. Steve graduated from Willamette University in 1966 and entered the U.S. Air Force March 13, 1967. He trained as a fighter pilot, was selected for 0-2 Forward Air Controller
The word hero gets thrown around a lot. A Fairdale family has no doubt it fits Colonel Dewey Lee Smith. The former prisoner of war died this week at age 85. His death comes after a life spent with the memories of five tortuous years in North Vietnam and the