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.
On August 16, 1960, Joe Kittinger went for a balloon ride. Sitting inside an open gondola suspended from an enormous helium-filled envelope, the U.S. Air Force captain rose to a height more than 19 miles above the Earth’s surface. His mission that day—part of Project Excelsior—was to test a new
After an almost imperceptible hesitation, Mike Lenker stood. About 500 people politely applauded when Lenker, 60, was introduced as a prisoner of the Vietnam War. It was a fleeting formality between the Harlem High School Choraleers’ “Song for the Unsung Hero” and the keynote speech, part of the hourlong Tribute
Memories of being caged, shackled and exposed to the powerful herbicide Agent Orange linger in the mind of retired U.S. Army Captain Isaac “Ike” Camacho, the first American to escape a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam. Still, Camacho, who spent nearly two years as a prisoner of war, said
On October 1, Thomas Pyle ’53 shared his story about coming to CFS as a 12-year-old from Wilmington, DE, and how the discipline, work and faith he learned at the school helped him through 6 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
On Saturday, when President Donald J. Trump passed on celebrating American war heroes because … rain, it immediately reminded me of stories I was told during a couple of cookouts I attended. The first was when I visited one of my best friends. He was a soldier in the U.S.