High above the clouds, Hector Acosta is getting a unique view that most of us don’t get to experience.
“It’s a shame,” Acosta said. “If more Americans could experience this, it would be awesome.
Although it’s unique, it’s not the first time Acosta has been inside an Air Force jet above the clouds.
“It’s Christmastime, Poppy, and we want a story!” “A story? Why don’t you play with your toys?” “We want a story! We want a story! We want…” “Okay! Okay. A story. All right, then, a story you shall have. What kind of story would you like, my children?” “We want
Mr. Everett Alvarez is a prior Navy pilot and officer who served during the Vietnam War as a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG, O-2). Mr. Alvarez was the first pilot shot down, captured, and held as a prisoner of war (POW) at the Hỏa Lò Prison, also known as the “Hanoi
Lt. Col. Arthur “Ted” Ballard was an experienced Air Force aviator who flew dozens of combat missions in his F-105 jet. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross before being shot down during a bombing run over North Vietnam in September 1966. He survived 2,351 days and seven Christmas holidays in captivity at various prisoner-of-war
Navy pilot Byron Fuller spent almost six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, where his battered body was tortured and starved, where he endured more than two years in solitary confinement in a 4-by-7-foot cell. Upon his release in 1973 from Hoa Lo, a prison camp known
Ben Pollard got a lot of mail his last week in prison, as many letters as he’d received in the preceding six years combined: four. – No matter that they dated to 1968, .and this was 1973. ; That sort of conduct “made (the iNorth Vietnamese) wonderful enemies,” said Pollard,