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.”
You’ve probably never heard of Col. James Helms Kasler. It’s a pity. Kasler is Indiana’s Sgt. York. Three times Kasler went off to war. Three times he returned home to Indianapolis a hero, and this Memorial Day is an appropriate time to celebrate him. The Air Force Cross is an
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
A gaunt but cheerful 108 American prisoners of war regained their freedom today, with the senior ranking prisoner in North Vietnam declaring the U.S. POWs “performed magnificently … they were first class soldiers.” “I would like to say I’ve been in better places but I have never been with better
U.S. Air Force 1955-1976Cold War 1955-1976Vietnam War 1965-1973 (POW)William Burroughs was born on September 29, 1932, in Indianhead, Maryland. He entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1951 and was commissioned a 2d Lt in the U.S. Air Force on June 3, 1955. Lt Burroughs graduated from Undergraduate
A prisoner of war gave riveting details of his experience in Vietnam Thursday night to members of Purdue’s Tri-Service ROTC. Retired Air Force Col. Kevin Cheney always wanted to fly planes. On July 1, 1972, the jet Cheney, then Capt. Cheney, was flying was shot down.