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.”
In 1967, there was a “unit” of approximately 300 Americans fighting the Vietnam Warfrom within a Hanoi prison. The unit—later named the 4th Allied POW Wing—waslocated in the drab North Vietnamese capital. Within this unit, every man had thesame job: prisoner of war.All—except three enlisted airmen—were officers, including me. Our
50 Years Ago ■Mrs. Mary Cutter, 211 Elm St., grandmother of Capt. James Cutter, prisoner of war in North Vietnam, reported this morning that she has learned her grandson will be among the last prisoners to be returned to the U.S. “He hasn’t been there (as a POW) as long
“Major Carl Light Pistol 02 described the incident involving Capt Lasiter as follows: ‘As we approached a point about 30 miles west of the target, I saw Pistol Four burst into flames and immediately afterward a MiG-21 approached from his six o’clock position and pulled up and to the left
Washington, D. C.: National Defense University Press, 1995.
Fifteen Iowans who were held as prisoners of war will be honored with P-O-W medals in a ceremony this morning in northeast Iowa. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley will present the medals to the veterans or surviving family members in the 9-45 service at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fredericksburg. Grassley says