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.”
Fifty Years After Their Release, Former Vietnam POWs Journey Back to Hanoi
Donald E. “Digger” Odell, an Air Force fighter pilot who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years after being shot down in 1967, died Thursday in Michigan. He was 86. “Lt. Col. Odell was an American hero and inspiration to several generation of Airmen,” said Brig. Gen. Rolf
Between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day lies a lesser-known but no less important commemoration. POW/MIA Day, Sept. 15, is a day for remembering the men and women who, like Air Force Col. Vernon P. Ligon Jr., have suffered at the hands of a wartime enemy. All too often, those who
Penny Grossman served 21 years of active duty as an Air Force nurse. In 1973, She was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines during Operation Homecoming, when nearly 600 American Prisoners of War were freed. The first leg of their journey home took them from Hanoi to Clark
Several decades before he was chosen as one of seven grand marshals in this year’s Veterans Day Parade, Col. Gobel James spent 32 years in the military, most of it as a U.S. Air Force pilot. “The Korean War was on when I joined the Air Force in 1952 and