As far back as he can recall, self-proclaimed Army brat Paul Galanti dreamed of soaring through the skies. While many teens yearn to sit behind the wheel of a car, Paul envisioned climbing into a cockpit.
“I always wanted to fly,” Galanti said. “Actually kindergarten was the first time I saw an airplane. I’m not sure I could count to 17 but I knew what a B-17 was.”
On 12 July 1967; Sgt. Cordine McMurray, then Sgt. Martin S. Frank, SP4 James L. Van Bendegom; SP4 James F. Schiele, SP4 Nathan B. Henry, SP4 Stanley A. Newell, and SP4 Richard R. Perricone were riflemen assigned to a search and destroy patrol operating in the Ia Drang Valley, Pleiku
My friend Captain Jerry Coffee spent seven years and nine days in Hanoi as a prisoner of war in the Communist prisons of North Vietnam. While flying reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam, piloting his jet fighter, Captain Coffee was shot down by enemy fire. After parachuting to safety, he was captured by
In his 21-year career as a pilot for the United States Air Force, Maj. James Marrott logged more than 7,000 flying hours. During a yearlong tour in Vietnam alone, he flew 108 combat missions. But the flight he remembers best, the one that means the most, hands down, had nothing
On this day in 2005, retired Navy Vice Admiral William “Bill” Lawrence passes away. Decades earlier, Lawrence had been a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton. He was one of the highest-ranking members of our military to be held in that infamous prison. Trouble began in June 1967. Lawrence