State Tells Vietnam Ex-POW Only Dead POWs’ Kin Get Aid (Johnnie Ray)

For nearly 20 years, former Army Capt. Johnnie Ray remained grateful that Oklahoma had eased his return as a Vietnam prisoner of war by granting free college tuition to his children.

But when he tried to get free tuition at his own alma mater, Oklahoma State University, for his daughter, Pammy, he was turned down.

“They told us that was only for children of prisoners of war who died in Vietnam,” Dorothy Ray said Tuesday from the family’s Wynnewood home.

Other Publications You Might Be Interested In

Edwin A. ‘Ned’ Shuman, Navy aviator and POW, dies at 82

On Nov. 29, 1970, 43 U.S. servicemen gathered in the Hoa Lo prison compound, often called the “Hanoi Hilton,” and performed an act of retaliation— a church service. Nine days earlier, after a failed attempt by U.S. Special Forces to liberate the prisoners, the North Vietnamese captors had removed them

Read More »

108 more POWs are flown to freedom (Dave Winn, Profilet)

One hundred and eight former American prisoners of war landed here Wednesday, and the first man to debark told a cheering crowd, “Thank God, the United States of America, and all you wonderful, good-looking people.” The first of three C141 Starlifters that brought the returnees from Gia Lam Airport outside

Read More »