For nearly a year, Kailua resident Emilia Thomas never knew that her husband, a Marine Corps aviation observer, was alive after being shot down in Vietnam and being held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.
“That’s the only thing that still bothers me,” said retired Marine Chief Warrant Officer William Thomas, who was captured on May 19, 1972, a few miles from Quang Tri city. “They never told my family they had me. I was always listed as missing in action.”
The Bartlesville Area History Museum received a unique remembrance for its permanent gallery from graduates of a local College-High School class on Thursday. The Wildcat class of 1961 typically uses its “flower fund” to send condolences and flowers to classmates who have lost loved ones. But the former students dipped
Six years, nine months and four days — that’s the length of time 1959 Conroe graduate Col. James E. Ray spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He was shot down on Mother’s Day 1966 and was released two days before Valentine’s Day 1973. Upon his return home to
Operation Homecoming, which freed now-retired Col. Tom McNish and more than 600 prisoners of war from Vietnam 50 years ago this spring, was the best military operation of McNish’s 34-year career. “Due to Operation Homecoming and the totally nourishing environment that it put us in immediately after getting out of
Wallace (Moe) Newcomb, a former U.S. Air Force pilot during the Vietnam War, was 27-years-old when he was deployed from his base in Thailand to strike a North Vietnemese railroad yard during the height of the conflict in 1967. While over the skies of North Vietnam, Newcomb’s F-105 fighter-bomber was heavily
Retired United States Marine Corps Lt. Col. Orson Swindle III spent 2,305 days as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam where he was tortured, beaten, interrogated and isolated. The fighter pilot was shot down in his F8 Crusader on Nov. 11, 1966, while flying his last mission (of more