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.
Five years ago I wrote “Jack, Will You Sing Again?” — a story about Col. Jack Tomes, a POW for six and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton, a notorious camp for POWs in Vietnam known for its brutal treatment of American prisoners. Spence Field brought Jack to Moultrie
Retired Air Force Col. James W. O’Neil, a decorated Vietnam War pilot and ex-prisoner of war who spent six months in the “Hanoi Hilton” Hoa Loa prison camp, died June 7 of complications from a heart ailment, his widow said. He was 82. He will be buried at noon Monday
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.
Lieutenant Colonel Galand Dwight Kramer was born 5 September 1941 in Wichita, Kansas. He grew up in Kansas and Oklahoma, graduating from Tulsa’s Edison High School in 1959. He is a 1964 graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a Petroleum Land Management degree. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant
The Bartlesville Area History Museum received a unique remembrance for its permanent gallery from graduates of a local College-High School class on Thursday. The Wildcat class of 1961 typically uses its “flower fund” to send condolences and flowers to classmates who have lost loved ones. But the former students dipped