Niece ensures uncle’s time as POW in Vietnam secured in D.C. so others can learn (John Stavast)

Kathryn Mann of Arvada knew the trove of wartime documents she found was special.

But she didn’t know just what to do with the notes her uncle took in a Vietnam prisoner-of-war camp.

Now, thanks to her, the details of the five years Air Force Col. John Stavast spent in the Hanoi Hilton will be available to scholars and historians via the Library of Congress.

“The magnitude of this was overwhelming to me,” Mann said. “The more I read about his time in prison, the more I thought, ‘How could you do this to my Uncle John?’ To my family, he was Superman.”

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