Vietnam airman held captive nearly 8 years to be honored on Fourth of July (Arthur Black)

There were times I thought the end was coming.

That’s how Arthur Neil Black described his captivity after the helicopter he was aboard was shot down over North Vietnam on Sept. 20, 1965, while on a rescue mission for the U.S. Air Force.

“It was a very scary situation,” he recalled. “You don’t know if you are going to live or die. You start to pray. You don’t have anywhere else to turn. That becomes a saving grace.”

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