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.
I had the honor of photographing George E. Smith, a Vietnam Veteran and former Prisoner of War for 614 Magazine. The Vietnam War has resurfaced in the American consciousness lately thanks in large part to the documentary by Ken Burns. The documentary tells the story of the Vietnam War through
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Drabic of Union Bridge received more good news Tuesday. Their son, Eddie, will be released from the Viet Cong and flown out of Hanoi Friday. Sgt. Eddie Drabic was listed as “missing in action” since 1968, being captured only four days after he arrived in Vietnam.
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
One of the senior American officers in the North Vietnamese prison camps said today that the prisoners “forced” their captors “to be brutal to us” by resisting their demands to the last possible point of human endurance. Navy Capt. Jeremiah A. Denton, who has been nominated for promotion to admiral,
Cambodia re leased today the five United States Navy men who “were captured Feb. 5 when an American gunboat sailed up the Mekong. River into Cam bodian territory, apparently by mistake. Military spokesmen said that the five were turned over to United States Embassy of ficials in Pnompenh and were