Navy Pilot Chronicles his POW Experiences (Jack Ensch)

Family remembers Vietnam POW from Kentucky (Dewey Smith)

The word hero gets thrown around a lot. A Fairdale family has no doubt it fits Colonel Dewey Lee Smith. The former prisoner of war died this week at age 85. His death comes after a life spent with the memories of five tortuous years in North Vietnam and the

Always Out Front (Donald Rander)

During the night of January 31, 1968, a Villa in Hue occupied by the 135th MI Group regional team came under attack. The shelling awakened Sergeant Donald Rander, assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Hue Regional Headquarters. Grabbing flak jackets and weapons, the members grouped on the second floor. They remained there

Col. Hall- P.O.W. Veteran at the Hanoi Hilton

One of the most honored occasions that I’ve ever experienced was meeting a Vietnam War Veteran and P.O.W., who was held at the infamous Hanoi Hilton in North Vietnam for seven-and-a-half-years. I had just concluded a meeting with a major supplier (ALCOA) at the Hattiesburg Country Club in south Mississippi,

Stirring Up a Hornet’s Nest of MiGs: Maj. Leo Thorsness and Capt. Harold Johnson (Sterling, Madison)

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

Navy pilot who was second-longest held US prisoner of war in line to receive Congressional Gold Medal

Lawmakers are pushing for swift passage of legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal — the nation’s highest civilian honor — to a Navy veteran who was the first aviator shot down in the Vietnam War and the second-longest held prisoner of war in U.S. history. Retired Cmdr. Everett Alvarez