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.
It’s a reunion four decades in the making. A group of 125 prisoners of war are in North Texas this week for a special opportunity to reconnect reminisce and celebrate their freedom. Five busloads of American veterans and their families arrived back in Frisco on Thursday afternoon.
Ironically, Cavaiani should never have been in Vietnam in the first place. Born in Britain in 1943, he immigrated to the United States in 1947. When American involvement in Vietnam was ramping up in the late 1960s, he discovered that he was considered medically unfit to serve because he was
The Patriot Guard Riders have been asked to escort US Air Force POW Vietnam Veteran, LtCol John O. Davies to his final rest at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. LtCol Davies entered officer training school in 1964 and graduated with a commission as a 2nd Lt. he went on to graduate from
Chase Wakelin interviews Bill Mayall, a veteran who served as a navigator on the B-52 strategic bomber during the later years of the Vietnam War. Bill recounts the missions he flew and his experience as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton.
This speech by Jim Collins for The Drucker Institute talks about The Stockdale Paradox, which is rooted in the story of Admiral James Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over twenty times during