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.”
In an AAFES parking lot at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, rests a plaque dedicated to former POWs from the Vietnam war, including some from the 388th Fighter Wing. It’s easy to walk past plaques, but this one is worth stopping to consider. For nearly a decade before it moved to Hill
Mo Baker was born in 1932 in Morehouse, Missouri, the middle child of five. His dad was an insurance salesman and a master mason, and his mother raised the family.
Marion “Tony” Marshall had a penchant for pushing boundaries. This led to some rather intriguing experiences during his time as a POW in Vietnam. Tony always wanted to be a pilot. Despite “skating” in high school he secured an interview for a military academy appointment and was one of only 6
In his speech Sept. 2, 2008, to the Republican National Convention, former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., recounted John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his Navy plane was shot down in October 1967. “They took him to the Hanoi Hilton, where he lapsed in and
There are people in this world who, no matter what you’re going through, have had it worse. Allen Brady is one of them. The retired Navy Captain was flying his A-6 Intruder on a mission to take out a North Vietnamese bridge on January 19th, 1967. And then, suddenly everything went