Navy Pilot Chronicles his POW Experiences (Jack Ensch)

‘Killed’ in Vietnam and buried with comrades, one Marine returned from the dead (Ronald Ridgeway)

Ronald Ridgeway was “killed” in Vietnam on Feb. 25, 1968. The 18-year-old Marine Corps private first class fell with a bullet to the shoulder during a savage firefight with the enemy outside Khe Sanh. Dozens of Marines, from what came to be called “the ghost patrol,” perished there. At first,

Former POW and U.S. Air Force MAJ Richard Eugene Bolstad (Captured 6 Nov 65) at the microphone salutes the people who came to greet his return.

Former POW and U.S. Air Force MAJ Richard Eugene Bolstad (Captured 6 Nov 65) at the microphone salutes the people who came to greet his return. GEN Paul Carlton, Commander, Military Airlift Command stands to the left and the Honor Guard to the right. MAJ Bolstad and LCOL Doughty were

Richard Bates, POW

On this date in 1973, the Viet Cong released First Lieutenant Richard Bates of the U.S. Air Force. While flying a mission nearly 6 months before, he was shot down over North Vietnam and taken prisoner. Bates was from Plaza, ND, and was 24 when he was captured.

CI agents released in Vietnam (Dierling, Gostas, Hayhurst, Rander)

On March 16 and 27 of 1973, two Army counterintelligence agents were released from North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camps as part of Operation HOMECOMING. Captured during Tet Offensive operations in Hue on February 1, 1968, the two spent more than five years as prisoners of war in North Vietnam. On January

Stirring Up a Hornet’s Nest of MiGs: Maj. Leo Thorsness and Capt. Harold Johnson

On April 19, 1967, Maj. Leo Thorsness (pilot) and Capt. Harold Johnson (EWO) led a Wild Weasel formation on a mission against the Xuan Mai army barracks about 30 miles southwest of Hanoi. After they silenced one SAM site and destroyed another, enemy anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) shot down the accompanying