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 Jr., now 86, was captured Aug. 5, 1964, while on a bombing mission near the North Vietnam-China border. “I was in the very first raids into North Vietnam,” Alvarez said in an oral history recorded for the Library of Congress. He was the first captured American during the war who was sent to the infamous North Vietnamese prison nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton.” He survived beatings, torture and starvation during 3,113 days of captivity. “Cmdr. Alvarez remained loyal to the United States and assisted other American prisoners of war,” according to the legislation.
Vietnam War POW to speak at Norton Air Force Base Museum (Raymond Merritt)
For US Air Force Col. Raymond J. Merritt, his accommodations in North Vietnam between 1965 and 1973 left a lot to be desired. Merritt, a former fighter pilot, was shot down by anti-aircraft fire in September 1965 and held captive at a number of camps, including the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.”
