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.”
They are pictured cooking, laughing, seated with their pets, standing with their wives. The photographs of 30 former Vietnam war POWs portray a comforting normalcy, though their common history is anything but. Most hold no anger or bitterness.
Retired Navy Capt. Charles Gillespie Jr. of San Marcos, who was shot down over Vietnam and spent 5 1/2 years in the “Hanoi Hilton” POW prison, was identified Thursday as the pilot killed in a civilian plane crash, officials said. Gillespie, 60, was flying a turboprop plane 80 miles northwest
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
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
Robert Wideman was a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. The now Fort Collins resident, attended a veterans’ group breakfast in Loveland at Mimi’s Café a few years ago. Being a member of that group, I attended regularly. On Wideman’s first visit, he introduced himself. He stated as he stood