Monument resident, a former Vietnam POW speaks at 50th anniversary of Operation Homecoming (Mike McGrath)

NORTH VIETNAM TRIED TO EXPLOIT AMERICAN RACISM WITH POWS. IT DIDN’T WORK (Fred Cherry)

Air Force Maj. Fred V. Cherry, the pilot of an F-105D Thunderchief shot down by anti-aircraft fire on Oct. 22, 1965, was sitting in a dark 10-by-12-foot cell in North Vietnam. His left foot was wrapped in a cast and his left arm in a sling. Suddenly the cell door

“Long-Term Non-Specific Optimism”: Surviving The Hanoi Hilton (Porter Halyburton)

Porter Halyburton was born in 1941 and grew up in Davidson, North Carolina, with his grandparents because his parents divorced when he was young. His grandfather taught at Davidson, and Porter later attended that university. He enjoyed sports and being outdoors, often roaming the area around Davidson with a .22

True Life: The man on the POW bracelet (John Dunn)

He was just a soldier on a bracelet in a basket – Army 1st Lt. John Dunn, who was taken prisoner in 1968. I decided his Irish Dunn was a good match for my Irish Cahill. The Vietnam War was the first time I heard of prisoners of war. Though

Honoring a Local Veteran: Meet Michael & Ruth Lane

It was nearly 54 years ago, in 1966, when retired Air Force pilot, Col. Michael Lane was shot down in North Vietnam. He spent 2,270 days (nearly six and a half years) living in the Hoa Lo Prison camp, better known as the “Hanoi Hilton.” His first experience was being

Naval aviator survived 6 years in Hanoi Hilton (Byron Fuller)

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