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.
SFC Harry L. Ettmueller, USA, was the Chief Engineer at Hue, 1967-68. He was captured by the North Vietnamese during the TET ’68 offensive on February 5, 1968 and remained a POW until March 5, 1973.I have not been able to find Harry’s obituary, which is what I would normally
Between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day lies a lesser-known but no less important commemoration. POW/MIA Day, Sept. 15, is a day for remembering the men and women who, like Air Force Col. Vernon P. Ligon Jr., have suffered at the hands of a wartime enemy. All too often, those who
Between November 1969, when he was shot down over Laos during a reconnaissance mission, and March 1973, when he was freed as part of Operation Homecoming, Navy Lt. j.g. Henry James Bedinger was a prisoner of war at Hỏa Lò Prison — the infamous Hanoi Hilton.
William Spencer’s world turned upside down as he felt his F-4 Phantom hit by a heat-seeking missile fired from an MiG-21 that had come up underneath him. In a split second it began cartwheeling its fiery way to the ground, its tail section and left wing missing. The 29-year-old Air