John McCain, the Arizona Senator who died on Saturday, lived much of his life in the public political eye — but Americans started to learn about his famous courage at a time he was notably absent. The saga began 51 years ago. As TIME reported in 1967, North Vietnamese planes had, for the first
In January of 1964, Captain Harlan Chapman reported to Marine Fighter Squadron 212 based at Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station, Hawaii. In 1965, his Squadron deployed with Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard the USS ORISKANY (CVA 34) for combat operations from the South China Sea. Harlan flew his first combat
Lorain County native Lt. Col. Harlan Page Chapman, a veteran who spent seven years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, died on Monday at his home in Green Valley, Arizona. Chapman, 89, had lived in Arizona with his wife, Frances “Fran” Chapman, since 2015 and was diagnosed
Smiles come easily and often to Gordon Nakagawa — worthy of note when talking about a man whose childhood was interrupted by a stay in a Japanese internment camp, and whose distinguished 32-year military career included time as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, North Vietnam”s infamous prison. “The one
Navy Lt. Giles Norrington was making his 22nd reconnaissance flight into North Vietnamese territory when communist rebels shot off the right wing of his RA-5C Vigilante. The plane erupted into a fireball. As Norrington and his navigator, Richard Tangeman, tried to escape, Norrington thought, “It’s taking a long time to