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

Former prisoner of war celebrates 30 years of freedom (Robert Sponeybarger)

Retired fighter pilot Robert Sponeybarger doesn’t suffer flashbacks and isn’t jarred awake in a cold sweat from nightmares of being held captive by the North Vietnamese. Never was a problem for him, he says. And he says he rarely thinks of ejecting from his crippled plane, threats of execution or

Vietnam P.O.W. remembered as devoted grandfather, hunter (Thomas Van Putten)

To his children, Thomas Van Putten talked little about his service in the Vietnam War and his 13 months as a prisoner. But they knew he was a hero. “We all knew it was a big deal,” said Linda Milley, his daughter. Mr. Van Putten, whose escape from a Viet

Wellfleet general was Vietnam POW (Kenneth North)

In the last few months of his life, as Alzheimer’s gradually crept over his orderly mind, retired Air Force Gen. Kenneth Walter North began to recall vividly his years spent as a prisoner of war, a time that exemplified his devotion and service to his country. It started gradually. A

“I came here to get a friend’ (Thomas Davis)

Nearly 25 years ago, when the war was raging in Vietnam, a 20-year-old private from Alabama said a prayer and buried his Marine buddy in a Viet Cong prisoner of war camp where both were held. Thomas Davis survived five years in POW camps and has returned to Vietnam for

The Unsavory Truth: Stories from Frederick Crow ’51, Vietnam War POW and American Hero

Today I shook the hand of my alma mater’s most decorated alum. Was it Bill Nye ’77? Bill Maher ’78? Maybe Keith Olbermann ’79? Well it couldn’t have been any of these celebrities, because they’ve never filled a room with less than 10 people delivering a keynote address. So it