U.S. Air Force (Retired) Chaplain Thomas Azar delivered the opening prayer Thursday evening at a ceremony in Shalimar, Fla. to honor American troops captured in the Vietnam War and brought back home 50 years ago.
“The Elks, VFW groups, are sponsoring the 50–year anniversary when the U.S. government and the Vietnamese government worked out the trade, so the 591 Prisoners of War at the Hanoi Hilton were released,” Azar, a Dannemora resident, said.
For several months, a dank 6.5-by-7-foot cell at the Hanoi Hilton served as a crucible that tested the limits of human endurance for retired Air Force Col. Leon Ellis and three of his fellow prisoners.
On a granite wall in Washington, D.C., the story of Capt. Edward A. Brudno’s suffering remains untold. There is no recognition of the beatings he took or the interrogations he resisted – nothing that acknowledges 7 1/2 years of captivity in a windowless room. Three decades after being tortured in
Ret. U.S. Air Force Col. Carlyle “Smitty” Harris, former Vietnam prisoner of war, was honored with the dedication of a lounge room in his name at the American Legion Post #49 in Tupelo, Mississippi on September 18, 2020. He was honored for his exceptional service during the Vietnam War and
William Butler was an Air Force captain who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam – some of it in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” – before returning home to Calistoga to become a veterinarian who dedicated his life to helping fellow veterans and others in need.
Robert Wideman was a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. The now Fort Collins resident, attended a veterans’ group breakfast in Loveland at Mimi’s Café a few years ago. Being a member of that group, I attended regularly. On Wideman’s first visit, he introduced himself. He stated as he stood