It was Nov. 7, 1967 and U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Leon Ellis was co-piloting an F-4C Phantom over North Vietnam when his aircraft was suddenly hit by enemy fire. It exploded into pieces and was quickly tumbling to the ground.
He managed to eject safely, but found himself parachuting into the same enemy territory he was attacking – not a good situation. He was almost immediately surrounded by North Vietnamese soldiers and captured.
Ever-vigilant, our archivist pursued the lead and discovered that Everett was a 1965 graduate of St. Albans. Wilkerson found his phone number and gave him a call, and they had a long conversation. Soon Upper School history teachers Ben Labaree and Robert Shurmer were exchanging emails with Everett, leading to
A career Air Force officer who was a North Vietnamese prisoner says the United States butted its “nose into somebody else’s business” and that President Nixon could have settled the war for the same terms four years ago. Maj. Hubert K. Flesher, 40 years old, a fighter pilot who spent
News stories about the Vietnam conflict were a daily staple in the spring of 1968 when I joined The Patriot Ledger as a copy reader on the news desk. I soon learned that the year before a Quincy native, Lt. Cmdr. Richard Stratton, had been captured after he was forced
HOISTING unidentified neighborhood youngster, Thomas W. Sima smiles returning ex-prisoner of war Air Force Lt. Col. he received in hometown POWs Return to Gnnaminson, Alloway Home to Crowd, Home By WAYNE PARTENHEIMER Courier-Post Staff Two former prisoners of war returned to their South Jersey homes in markedly M i JLav
In the early morning hours of 29 October 1963, at Tan Phu village in southernmost Vietnam, then-First Lieutenant (1LT) James N. ‘Nick’ Rowe, the Assistant Detachment Commander, Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 23, prepared for a ‘routine’ combat patrol. Rowe, Senior Special Forces (SF) Medic Master Sergeant Daniel L. Pitzer,