Walking next to his father near a lake he fished as a boy, Navy Lieut. Markham Gartley looked up at the clear, blue sky and filled his lungs with crisp autumn air.
The 28‐year‐old pilot noted the colors of the northern Maine woods—the McIntosh reds of the sugar maples, the pumpkin yellow of the hardwood birch and the evergreens of spruce and balsam fir. The setting sun was riding low on the mountains, sending orange sparks across the wind‐rippled water.
Navy Lt. Brad Smith was on a bombing run to destroy a bridge in North Vietnam when he was shot down in 1966. He didn’t see what ripped into his A-4 Skyhawk, but he saw the ground approaching at 600 mph as his crippled jet nose-dived toward the ground. Smith
“Major Carl Light Pistol 02 described the incident involving Capt Lasiter as follows: ‘As we approached a point about 30 miles west of the target, I saw Pistol Four burst into flames and immediately afterward a MiG-21 approached from his six o’clock position and pulled up and to the left
Travis AFB, Calif: USAF Capt. Michael S. Kerr embraces his children, Michele (L) and Rick, who holds US flag, as his wife Jerri wipes tears of joy from her eyes. The reunion was at planeside here 3/7, as Capt. Kerr, of Seqium, Wash., and 19 other POWs returned. Kerr was
Air Force Maj. James R. “Jim” Berger spent over six years as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war after his FC-4 jet was shot down on Dec. 2, 1966. He was released 50 years ago this past February. His release made front-page news in The News-Gazette in the weeks that
Col. Will Gideon, former 437th Supply Squadron commander, who spent nearly seven years locked deep within the jungles of North Vietnam as a POW. Through the darkness, Gideon never lost his light.