It was a long time coming — too late for some of their comrades in arms — but Vietnam War veterans from Northeast Florida were recognized Saturday for their service to the country during the conflict.
Ronald Michael of Jacksonville, a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant who served in Vietnam in 1971 and 1972, was among about 175 veterans honored during the Vietnam War Veterans Commemoration Pinning Ceremony held at Beaches Veterans Memorial Park.
Freedom has a taste to those who fight and almost die that the protected will never know.” –A POW saying left on a wall in the Hoa-Lo Prison known to Westerners as the “Hanoi Hilton.” A small American flag on display at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum was a
Jim Lollar was born on August 23, 1945, in Kilmichael, Mississippi. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force on March 26, 1967, and was trained in Weapons Maintenance. He served a double-tour at Phan Rang AB, South Vietnam, first in aircraft armament, and then as a door-gunner from August 1967
When Lt. Col. Harlan Chapman arrived in Hawaii after his release from seven years in North Vietnamese prisoner of war camps, Marine Lt. Gen. Louis Wilson was there to meet him. “Welcome back to the Marine Corps,” Wilson told Chapman. “Thank you, general,” Chapman replied, “But I never left.” Chapman
News of the emergency landing of a U.S. spy plane on China’s Hainan Island is giving flashbacks to a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who spent 7-1/2 years as a POW in China. It was on that island that Philip Smith spent his first hours after he was shot down
Retired Navy Capt. Charles Gillespie Jr. of San Marcos, who was shot down over Vietnam and spent 5 1/2 years in the “Hanoi Hilton” POW prison, was identified Thursday as the pilot killed in a civilian plane crash, officials said. Gillespie, 60, was flying a turboprop plane 80 miles northwest