Homecoming or Rude Awakening? (Jose Luna)

Soon after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, the United States prepared for Operation Homecoming. Five hundred and ninety-one American prisoners of war returned home from Vietnam during the two-month process. Previously, during the war, 129 pows “escaped from,
evaded, or were released by their captors,” including 95 who were paroled early.

Other Publications You Might Be Interested In

Looking Back: Vietnam War POW returns home in 1973 (Charles Greene)

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.

8-year POW recalls return home 45 years later (Smitty Harris)

Stepping off the bus, recently freed American prisoners of war formed up from the tallest to shortest, stiff at attention facing Capt. Carlyle “Smitty” Harris and with a salute they defied their Vietnamese captors one final time. Proving their grit and American pride could outlast any amount of torture or

Injured POW Salutes Flag (Roy Madden Jr)

Colorado Springs man details escape from Vietnam prison in self-published book (Trautman)

As a young Air Force public affairs sergeant in 1990, George Hayward learned firsthand accounts of Americans tortured in North Vietnamese prisons and a little-known story of escape. The telling came from retired Col. William Baugh, a civilian public affairs chief Hayward served under at Falcon Air Force Base— now

P.O. W.’s Felt Their Mission Was to Resist (Alan Lurie)

Everybody says we had nothing to do, but we did have something to do, we had an obligation to fulfill,” Lieut. Col. Alan Lurie said recently. “That was to follow the Code of Conduct, to resist the North Vietnamese attempts to exploit us. And that was full‐time job in that