March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Two years ago, we were fortunate to receive a donation from the son of CAPT Kay Russell, a naval aviator who served time in a North Vietnamese POW (prisoner of war) camp. When I first saw the shirt he wore as a POW and the letters he wrote home to his family, I was touched by the deeply personal nature of this collection, and I knew that we had to share it with our visitors.
Kay Russell was born in 1934 in Stephenville, Texas. He earned his commission through the NROTC program at Rice University in 1956. Russell graduated from flight training in 1958 and flew F4D Skyrays with VF(AW)-3 at NAS North Island, California. The following year he switched to the FJ-3 Fury and then again to the F-8 Crusader, ultimately taking an assignment with VU-7 at NAAS Brown Field, California. After a number of intermediate assignments, he joined VF-211 at NAS Miramar and was deployed to Vietnam aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) in January 1966. On May 19, 1967, LCDR Russell’s section of four aircraft was engaged by a MiG-17 while flying over North Vietnam. As the American aircraft began to maneuver, Russell’s wingman reported seeing an explosion followed by falling metal fragments. Thankfully, he also spotted a parachute on the ground soon after. As Russell jokingly told an audience years later, he managed to evade capture “for fully thirty seconds” before enemy soldiers found him.
