Jack Van Loan, an Oregon native and fighter pilot who spent six years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and then served for 20 years as executive director of the Five Points Association in Columbia, has died. He was 87. “He was a mentor,
n December 1972—40 years ago this month—the US executed Linebacker II, the largest B-52 bombing campaign of all time. The period from Dec. 18 to Dec. 29 saw the huge USAF bombers mount shattering strikes on North Vietnamese railways, airfields, surface-to-air missile storage sites, petroleum dumps, and other infrastructure targets
He was just a soldier on a bracelet in a basket – Army 1st Lt. John Dunn, who was taken prisoner in 1968. I decided his Irish Dunn was a good match for my Irish Cahill. The Vietnam War was the first time I heard of prisoners of war. Though
Another group of newly freed prisoners of war came home yesterday. “There’s no way we can express our feelings and emotions as we walk once more on pills wonderful land of ours,” said Capt. Charles Gillespie of San Diego, on his arrival at March Air Force Base in California. His
The New York Times has reviewed the public comments of nearly 100 returned men and interviewed several dozen in depth. The “battle of Hanoi” as one prisoner called it, emerges as a complex and fascinating story of men under extreme stress. The tales of torture seem genuine, but physical brutality