Jay Hess was 14 years into his Air Force service.
The fighter pilot, in the cockpit of an F-105 Thunderchief, was dropping 600 pound bombs in the heavily defended area around Hanoi, in north Vietnam. Hess finished the steep dive, released his bombs and began to pull out when his aircraft was hit by enemy fire. With no way out, he pulled the ejection handle.
This Veterans Day marks a turning point in our nation’s recovery from the trauma of Vietnam. The last official prisoner of war, Col. Charles Shelton, an Air Force pilot, was declared dead this fall after having been kept administratively “alive” by the Pentagon for 30 years. Acknowledging Colonel Shelton’s death…..
On August 16, 1960, Joe Kittinger went for a balloon ride. Sitting inside an open gondola suspended from an enormous helium-filled envelope, the U.S. Air Force captain rose to a height more than 19 miles above the Earth’s surface. His mission that day—part of Project Excelsior—was to test a new
Dennis Hammond’s death came with little warning. The Marine staff sergeant laid down on his bamboo mat beside the other American prisoners of war one evening in the spring of 1970. James Pfister, an Evansville native, found him the next morning. Hammond was still. Pfister shook his friend. When he
It was a long time coming — too late for some of their comrades in arms — but Vietnam War veterans from Northeast Florida were recognized Saturday for their service to the country during the conflict. Ronald Michael of Jacksonville, a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant who served in Vietnam
High above the clouds, Hector Acosta is getting a unique view that most of us don’t get to experience. “It’s a shame,” Acosta said. “If more Americans could experience this, it would be awesome. Although it’s unique, it’s not the first time Acosta has been inside an Air Force jet