Thomas Collins III would like to clarify one point about his bombing missions in Vietnam, and the more than seven years he spent as a prisoner of war:
It was not a mistake, not a waste, not a failure.
“We needed to stop communism,” says Collins, 74, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel. “It was a good mission. We needed to nip that in the bud, and we did. Actually, Vietnam was successful. We stopped communism.”
When retired Lt. Col. James W. Williams returned to Southeast Asia this past fall, to the site of the worst 313 days of his life, the last thing he expected to find was himself. For a period spanning 1972-1973, Williams, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, was a prisoner at
On the Fourth of July, the 65-year-old former Navy pilot talked about his blessings while fingering the remnant of a 57-millimeter anti-aircraft shell that downed his plane in the Vietnam War. Osborne managed to eject from his A-4 Skyhawk before it crashed, but it seems the 30-year-old casing has found
This weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the fateful day the first U.S. troops went ashore in South Vietnam. But by then U.S. aircraft had already been bombing North Vietnam for seven months and downed American pilots had fallen into a hell that would last for the rest of the
He was just a soldier on a bracelet in a basket – Army 1st Lt. John Dunn, who was taken prisoner in 1968. I decided his Irish Dunn was a good match for my Irish Cahill. The Vietnam War was the first time I heard of prisoners of war. Though
“Paul K. “P.K.” Robinson, Jr., was born January 5, 1939, in Galion, Ohio. He graduated from Galion Senior High School in 1957. During his school years, he was on the National Honor Society and lettered on the football and baseball teams. Following graduation from High School, “P.K.” attended one year