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.”
Capt. Leo Hyatt, USN (Ret.), held as a Vietnam prisoner of war for more than five-and-a-half years, was the keynote speaker at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay POW/MIA commemoration, held at the Subase Chapel. It was on Aug. 13, 1967, during a high-speed photo reconnaissance operation over a railroad
Charles “Chuck” Jackson has little memory of the crushing sound of metal as his F-4 Phantom II broke apart. What he does remember most is the split second before ejecting. A heat-seeking missile, about 6 to 8 feet long, fired by a pursuing North Vietnamese MIG-21 went right up the
Stretched on his back, hands bound behind him – Querin could feel the damp earth all around him.
After an almost imperceptible hesitation, Mike Lenker stood. About 500 people politely applauded when Lenker, 60, was introduced as a prisoner of the Vietnam War. It was a fleeting formality between the Harlem High School Choraleers’ “Song for the Unsung Hero” and the keynote speech, part of the hourlong Tribute
The food at the Hanoi Hilton was worse than just bad. As a prisoner of war, Ted Sienicki found the bread full of insects. Many of the POWs ate the rations anyway — with predictable results. One prisoner removed something from his body — just what isn’t clear — that