The Viet Nam Veterans of America Chapter 203 recognized POW John Sparks at its March meeting on Monday night.
In April, 1968, Mr. Sparks was flying a reconnaissance mission over North Viet Nam when his OV-1 Mohawk twin engine fixed wing aircraft was shot down. He was captured and spent five years in a Hanoi POW camp. He was released in March, 1973 and returned home two months later.
As far back as he can recall, self-proclaimed Army brat Paul Galanti dreamed of soaring through the skies. While many teens yearn to sit behind the wheel of a car, Paul envisioned climbing into a cockpit. “I always wanted to fly,” Galanti said. “Actually kindergarten was the first time I
F. Harold Kushner was four months into his deployment as an Army flight surgeon in the Vietnam War when a driving rainstorm caused the helicopter he and three other soldiers occupied to crash into the side of a mountain in the middle of enemy territory. The pilot was killed on
It was nearly 54 years ago, in 1966, when retired Air Force pilot, Col. Michael Lane was shot down in North Vietnam. He spent 2,270 days (nearly six and a half years) living in the Hoa Lo Prison camp, better known as the “Hanoi Hilton.” His first experience was being
Freedom has a taste to those who fight and almost die that the protected will never know.” –A POW saying left on a wall in the Hoa-Lo Prison known to Westerners as the “Hanoi Hilton.” A small American flag on display at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum was a
To the North Vietnamese, Capt. James A. Mulligan Jr. had a “bad attitude.” As a result, he suffered heavily during his seven years in Hanoi prison. He spent 42 months in solitary confinement during the first four years, and for 16 of those months he was kept in a camp