Nearly 25 years ago, when the war was raging in Vietnam, a 20-year-old private from Alabama said a prayer and buried his Marine buddy in a Viet Cong prisoner of war camp where both were held.
Thomas Davis survived five years in POW camps and has returned to Vietnam for the first time since his release in 1973 to help find the remains of his fallen comrade.
“I came here to get a friend,” he said. “I’m here through the grace of God.”
The Summerville man is modest, even while pointing at a display box of medals he’s earned through blood and sweat. Samuel Vaughan spent 16 months imprisoned at Hanoi in Vietnam. He was captured on April 18, 1971, only three months after arriving in Vietnam as a fighter pilot for the
It was the hardest thing Lt. Col. John Yuill had to do after the B-52 Stratofortress he and five crewmembers were flying in over Hanoi, Vietnam, was struck by two surface-to-air missiles on Dec. 22, 1972, during their third mission in four days as part of Linebacker II. It was
Diane Atkins and Howard J. Hill had never met, but for 17 years they shared a very special bond. Hill was an Air Force first lieutenant on Dec. 16, 1967, when the tail of his Phantom F-4D was blown off over Hanoi by a North Vietnamese MIG-27. He ejected and
The bombing started on Dec. 18, 1972 and lasted 11 days. Waves of B-52s dropped 20,000 tons of ordnance on and near the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong. For the nearly 600 American POWs held by the North Vietnamese, the destruction wreaked by Operation
Maj. John Stuart had a big decision to make after turning his B-52D for an attack run over Hanoi. The bomber had taken some hits from enemy fighters. Surface-to-air missiles now were streaking toward it. The choice: Break off the bombing run and evade, or stay on course. Stuart stayed on course.