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.”
Colonel Benjamin Purcell was executive commander of the 80th General Support Group in Vietnam when his helicopter was shot down on February 8, 1968. He and five other passengers were captured by the Viet Cong. Colonel Purcell was the highest ranking Army officer captured during the Vietnam War. He spent more
“The key word for all of us at first was fragility. Each of us, before we were ever in shouting distance of another American, was made to “take the ropes.” That was a real shock to our systems — and as with all shocks, its impact on our inner selves
Chaplain Col. Keith Lewis visiting the University of Findlay Veterans Honor Wall during 2018 Homecoming and Family Weekend. For Chaplain Col. Keith H. Lewis, USAF (RET), it was the little, yet profound things that kept him alive while he was a POW during the Vietnam War. For instance, a clock
For several months, a dank 6.5-by-7-foot cell at the Hanoi Hilton served as a crucible that tested the limits of human endurance for retired Air Force Col. Leon Ellis and three of his fellow prisoners.
In honor of Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Recognition Day, a former prisoner of war came to Ramstein Air Base, Sept. 16 to share his experience and visit one of his last duty stations before he retired. At the time of becoming a prisoner of war, retired Maj. Pete Camerota,