Dan Glenn sometimes dreams he’s back in North Vietnam as a prisoner of war. Imprisoned for six years, the former Navy pilot had plenty of time to get to know the prison buildings well. The Norman architect can recall the prisons’ layouts, the mortar or bamboo they were made of,
Almost 50 years ago this month, they began to arrive. It was called Operation Homecoming, and it saw 591 American military prisoners of war finally free after years of often brutal captivity in Vietnam. Over several weeks in February and March of 1973, they were returned to military bases in
Former prisoner of war retired U.S. Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 4 Bill Thomas and Mrs. Thomas take a moment to reflect after placing a traditional Hawaiian lei during a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of Operation Homecoming April 4, 2013. In 1973, the last Vietnam conflict prisoner of war
As an F-4 Phantom pilot, I had tried to kill these men. And they had tried to kill me. I thought it was time we had a talk.
On 22 December 1965, on a combat mission over North Vietnam, I was shot down and captured. I spent Christmas on a concrete floor in a North Vietnamese prison, arms tightly bound behind my back. For eight holiday seasons I enjoyed “the humane and lenient treatment of the North Vietnamese people,”