Quiet Vietnam POW ‘not a hero’ (Michael Lenker)

After an almost imperceptible hesitation, Mike Lenker stood.

About 500 people politely applauded when Lenker, 60, was introduced as a prisoner of the Vietnam War. It was a fleeting formality between the Harlem High School Choraleers’ “Song for the Unsung Hero” and the keynote speech, part of the hourlong Tribute to Veterans held Friday morning at Loves Park City Hall.

It was only a moment. Lenker hated it.

“I don’t consider myself a hero,” Lenker said later. “A lot of people wrote books and are going around speaking and that. If I’m asked questions, I’ll answer them. But I don’t go out and blow my horn.”

Other Publications You Might Be Interested In

A City in Conflict – Rochester During the Vietnam War (Bruce Archer)

Six months before American combat troops were committed to Vietnam, Eugene Richardson, a 21-year-ld flight mechanic from Monroe County was killed while flying ammunition to a Special Forces camp on October 24, 1964. Rochester soon became economically involved in the war. General Dynamics, Stromberg-Carlson, Graflex, EastmanKodak, Bausch and Lomb, and

Read More »

POW: James Latham

Brigadier General (Ret.) James Latham is an Air Force veteran who served for more than 27 years, from March 1969 to August 1997. He was a command pilot with more than 5,000 flying hours to include 383 combat missions in Southeast and Southwest Asia. On October 5th, 1972, while operating

Read More »