Today marked 40 years since the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces and the end of the Vietnam War. But, for three men who spent years of their lives as prisoners of war, the memories of that era remain fresh.
The men shared their stories at an event hosted by the North Carolina Museum of History and North Carolina Vietnam Veterans Inc., in Raleigh, April 17, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.
Today I shook the hand of my alma mater’s most decorated alum. Was it Bill Nye ’77? Bill Maher ’78? Maybe Keith Olbermann ’79? Well it couldn’t have been any of these celebrities, because they’ve never filled a room with less than 10 people delivering a keynote address. So it
On October 1, Thomas Pyle ’53 shared his story about coming to CFS as a 12-year-old from Wilmington, DE, and how the discipline, work and faith he learned at the school helped him through 6 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
To his children, Thomas Van Putten talked little about his service in the Vietnam War and his 13 months as a prisoner. But they knew he was a hero. “We all knew it was a big deal,” said Linda Milley, his daughter. Mr. Van Putten, whose escape from a Viet
Stretched on his back, hands bound behind him – Querin could feel the damp earth all around him.
Fifty-six years after being designated a naval aviator, a former prisoner of war once again landed on the deck of an aircraft carrier — at one of Naval Air Station Lemoore’s F/A-18 Super Hornet flight simulators. “I got it, I got it,” exclaimed Capt. (Ret.) Theodore Kopfman as he sat