A local war hero who spent seven years in a prisoner of war camp with Arizona Senator John McCain has died.
74-year-old retired Air Force Colonel Warren Lilly died over the weekend after a sudden fall.
Lilly was shot down over Cambodia during the Vietnam War and spent more than seven years as a prisoner of war.
A Vietnam prisoner of war who spent years in captivity in the prison camp they dubbed the Hanoi Hilton and whose story was closely followed by the American public is set to be honored by Congress. For his grit under interrogation, and for his unbending commitment to survive the prison
50 years ago, direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War officially ended as the last remaining combat troops and prisoners of war returned to American soil. It was a complex moment for the country, as the war was deeply unpopular and ended in defeat. More than 58,000 Americans died in the war,
Another group of newly freed prisoners of war came home yesterday. “There’s no way we can express our feelings and emotions as we walk once more on pills wonderful land of ours,” said Capt. Charles Gillespie of San Diego, on his arrival at March Air Force Base in California. His
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
For weeks the returned P.O.W.s had been stepping from “freedom birds” onto the television screens—most of them saluting crisply, walking smartly, looking physically fit and acting mentally alert. As the nation’s early apprehensions faded, a new idea set in: perhaps the P.O.W.s had been humanely treated after all. That illusion