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.
He remembers being shot down like it was yesterday. On July 18, 1965, U.S. Navy Lt. Commander William M. Tschudy and his co-pilot Commander Jeremiah Denton were on a mission over Vietnam’s Song Ma river, with instructions to bomb North Vietnamese ships that were unloading supplies. At first, they thought
When Lt. Col. Harlan Chapman arrived in Hawaii after his release from seven years in North Vietnamese prisoner of war camps, Marine Lt. Gen. Louis Wilson was there to meet him. “Welcome back to the Marine Corps,” Wilson told Chapman. “Thank you, general,” Chapman replied, “But I never left.” Chapman
The United States and Vietnam have agreed to make a joint effort to resolve the lingering question of the 1,758 American military men still unaccounted for in Vietnam, American officials said today. The State Department said American and Vietnamese officials had just held four days of talks in Hanoi and
A story of survival, endurance, and overcoming obstacles for your Memorial Day. Lt. Col. Paul Kari spent nearly eight years as a POW after being shot down over North Vietnam. What happened afterward also tested his limits. Kari and I walked the land on his pristine spread in West Liberty.