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.”
People passing by Memorial Park on the Clemson University campus Friday morning June 3, 2022, might have seen what looked like a typical group of visitors getting a tour of the carefully manicured grounds that sit directly across from Memorial Stadium. A cluster of grandfatherly men, some using walkers, most
50 Years Ago ■Mrs. Mary Cutter, 211 Elm St., grandmother of Capt. James Cutter, prisoner of war in North Vietnam, reported this morning that she has learned her grandson will be among the last prisoners to be returned to the U.S. “He hasn’t been there (as a POW) as long
In August of 1967 I was shot down on my 101st mission near Dong Hoi, just north of the Demilitarized Zone. I was the co-pilot on an F4C. Both the pilot and I survived the crash and spent the next five and one-half years in a Communist prison in Hanoi
Stephen Long, 74, of Las Vegas, flew west for the last time August 10, 2018. He died from complications arising from Parkinson’s Disease. Steve graduated from Willamette University in 1966 and entered the U.S. Air Force March 13, 1967. He trained as a fighter pilot, was selected for 0-2 Forward Air Controller
When the agony ended and everyone had told his story of horror, did anything come out of the tragedy that could be a lesson to others? That is the question being studied by a team of ex-prisoners of war, led by Col. Raymond W. Vissotzky, at the Survival School at