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.”
This database is designed to assist researchers in accessing U.S. government documents related to American military personnel who are unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. The formal title of this collection is “Correlated and Uncorrelated Information Relating to Missing Americans in Southeast Asia.” The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA; formerly
A synoptic, personal analysis is made of the situations associated with those Americans lost in Southeast Asia SEA from 1962 to 1979 and considered as Prisoners of War POW or as missing in action MIA. The geographic loss points, prisoner treatment, indigenous population attitudes, and political environment are discussed. Probable
Former prisoner of war retired U.S. Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 4 Bill Thomas and Mrs. Thomas take a moment to reflect after placing a traditional Hawaiian lei during a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of Operation Homecoming April 4, 2013. In 1973, the last Vietnam conflict prisoner of war
Travis AFB, Calif: USAF Capt. Michael S. Kerr embraces his children, Michele (L) and Rick, who holds US flag, as his wife Jerri wipes tears of joy from her eyes. The reunion was at planeside here 3/7, as Capt. Kerr, of Seqium, Wash., and 19 other POWs returned. Kerr was
This Veterans Day marks a turning point in our nation’s recovery from the trauma of Vietnam. The last official prisoner of war, Col. Charles Shelton, an Air Force pilot, was declared dead this fall after having been kept administratively “alive” by the Pentagon for 30 years. Acknowledging Colonel Shelton’s death…..