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

A story of survival, endurance, and overcoming obstacles for your Memorial Day.

Lt. Col. Paul Kari spent nearly eight years as a POW after being shot down over North Vietnam. What happened afterward also tested his limits.

Kari and I walked the land on his pristine spread in West Liberty. “I started with nothing and now I have what you see. 907 acres total.” Kari said.

For the old fighter pilot, the journey from freedom, here to West Liberty, was anything but as straight as the plane flies.

When asked to pick one word to describe his life, Kari thought for a moment and answered, “Perseverance” another long pause, “I never give up”.

Other Publications You Might Be Interested In

POWs and Politics: How Much does Hanoi Really Know A Paper Presented on 19 April 1996 at the Center for the Study of the Vietnam Conflict Symposium “After the Cold War: Reassessing Vietnam,” at Texas Tech University

The recent diplomatic recognition of Vietnam, along with the lifting of the economic embargo, offers an opportunity to re-examine one of the most pernicious legacies of the Vietnam War, the POW/MIA dilemma. Two decades after the war ended, the POW/MIA issue continues to divide Americans in a manner reminiscent of

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