Former prisoner of war reflects on capture (Pete Camerota)

POW Ben Pollard

Ben Pollard got a lot of mail his last week in prison, as many letters as he’d received in the preceding six years combined: four. – No matter that they dated to 1968, .and this was 1973. ; That sort of conduct “made (the iNorth Vietnamese) wonderful enemies,” said Pollard,

Stirring Up a Hornet’s Nest of MiGs: Maj. Leo Thorsness and Capt. Harold Johnson (Sterling, Madison)

On April 19, 1967, Maj. Leo Thorsness (pilot) and Capt. Harold Johnson (EWO) led a Wild Weasel formation on a mission against the Xuan Mai army barracks about 30 miles southwest of Hanoi. After they silenced one SAM site and destroyed another, enemy anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) shot down the accompanying

How Naval Aviator Charles Klusmann escaped a vicious POW camp

Charles Frederic Klusmann was a Naval Aviator born on September 7, 1933, in San Diego, California. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve on February 23, 1952, and began active service on March 18, 1953. Lieutenant Chuck is known for his extraordinary heroism and achievement for his role in the aerial

One of these Vietnam War POWs spent 10 months in a ‘tiger cage.’ What happened to the other was even worse (Mark Smith, Wallingford)

Staff Sgt. Ken Wallingford had only days left to serve in the US Army when he found himself trapped – and seconds away from being burned alive. He’d spent the previous night hiding in a bunker with another soldier at a base that had been overrun by the North Vietnamese

Former POW and U.S. Air Force LCOL Armand Jesse Myers

Former POW and U.S. Air Force LCOL Armand Jesse Myers looks through a book on Vietnam prisoners of war in the hospital lounge. LCOL Myers was captured on 1 Jun 66 and released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi 12 Feb 1973