Strength through endurance: from POW to Ohio farmer (Paul Kari)

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

POW recalls mission that led to capture 50 years ago (Richard Smith)

On Oct. 25, 1967, now retired Lt. Col. Richard Smith and his wingmen had orders to bomb the Paul Doumer Bridge in North Vietnam; the bridge was a mile long and one of the most heavily defended positions in Southeast Asia. Smith said that leading up to the mission, he

P.O.W.’S HAD LIST OF PROHIBITIONS (David Rollins)

The North Vietnamese captors of American servicemen were adamant. No writing on the pri son walls. No noise. No dis courtesy to the guards. Regulations issued by the North Vietnamese in 1969 pro mised a reward for prisoners who informed about violations and punishment for those who tried to oppose

A POW’s story (William McMurry)

Bill McMurry recently spoke to SaddleBrooke Sunrise Rotary about his experience as a POW in North Vietnam. He was captured on February 7, 1968 after helping defend the Lang Vei Special Forces surveillance camp in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam, about one and a half miles from the Laotian

Firsthand Account of Congressman Sam Johnson, Vietnam War POW

Congressman Sam Johnson, first elected in 1991 to represent the Plano area, spent twenty-nine years in the United States Air Force, where he distinguished himself piloting missions in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars before retiring in 1979 as a colonel. His F-4 Phantom was shot down in 1966 while