U.S. Air Force Capt. William R. Austin II and his aircraft commander, Maj. Ivan D. Appleby, had out-maneuvered certain death hundreds of times before they got hit. A fighter pilot with the storied “Triple Nickle” 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Austin had flown 80 combat missions over North Vietnam in the powerful F-4 Phantom II, despite the enemy’s relentless attempts to make each a one-way trip. By the time he landed his 80th mission in the fall of 1967, he’d earned a Silver Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 10 Air Medals.
Robert J. Flynn, Shot Down in Vietnam War and Held in China
Navy Cmdr. Robert J. Flynn, who spent five and a half years in a Communist Chinese prison during the Vietnam War, almost always in solitary confinement, after he was shot down on a bombing mission, died on May 15 in Pensacola, Fla. Commander Flynn, one of only two American servicemen
