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

Vietnam POW retells his tale (Donald Heiliger)

A prisoner of war for seven years, a University of Wisconsin alum spoke to a group of UW Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets Tuesday, telling a jarring tale of courage, honor and service. Originally trained as a navigator, Col. Don Heiliger became an official pilot when the Air

Hanoi releases 108 American POWs (Hubert Walker)

A gaunt but cheerful 108 American prisoners of war regained their freedom today, with the senior ranking prisoner in North Vietnam declaring the U.S. POWs “performed magnificently … they were first class soldiers.” “I would like to say I’ve been in better places but I have never been with better

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Joseph Kittinger )

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

At Last She Gets It Off Her Hands (Howard J. Hill)

Diane Atkins and Howard J. Hill had never met, but for 17 years they shared a very special bond. Hill was an Air Force first lieutenant on Dec. 16, 1967, when the tail of his Phantom F-4D was blown off over Hanoi by a North Vietnamese MIG-27. He ejected and

Vietnam POW Jack Van Loan dies in Columbia SC at 87

Jack Van Loan, an Oregon native and fighter pilot who spent six years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and then served for 20 years as executive director of the Five Points Association in Columbia, has died. He was 87. “He was a mentor,