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.
But the matter of our American servicemen who have sacrificed their freedom, their health, and the peace of mind of themselves and their families in behalf of freedom for others—this is a matter that concerns us all. By the hundreds, these men languish in North Vietnam prisons and in Viet
When his country called, John Blanks answered. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam, one of the most unpopular wars in U.S. history and the subject of a 10-episode series on PBS by filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. A lot of his buddies went, too. Some came back
On this day in 2005, retired Navy Vice Admiral William “Bill” Lawrence passes away. Decades earlier, Lawrence had been a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton. He was one of the highest-ranking members of our military to be held in that infamous prison. Trouble began in June 1967. Lawrence
On August 16, 1960, Joe Kittinger went for a balloon ride. Sitting inside an open gondola suspended from an enormous helium-filled envelope, the U.S. Air Force captain rose to a height more than 19 miles above the Earth’s surface. His mission that day—part of Project Excelsior—was to test a new