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 12 July 1967; Sgt. Cordine McMurray, then Sgt. Martin S. Frank, SP4 James L. Van Bendegom; SP4 James F. Schiele, SP4 Nathan B. Henry, SP4 Stanley A. Newell, and SP4 Richard R. Perricone were riflemen assigned to a search and destroy patrol operating in the Ia Drang Valley, Pleiku
Fred Flom, a Menasha native and a pilot who spent more than six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has died. Flom died June 23, according to his obituary. He was 80 years old. Flom grew up in Menasha as the youngest of four children. His family lived on
Tom Latendresse has what his wife Melinda calls “the Latendresse laugh,” a big, boisterous chuckle that can shake up a room. It’s hard not to appreciate the sound and the man who voices it. Born in Yakima, Wash., Tom was infatuated with aviation as a child. “I would jump on
On a granite wall in Washington, D.C., the story of Capt. Edward A. Brudno’s suffering remains untold. There is no recognition of the beatings he took or the interrogations he resisted – nothing that acknowledges 7 1/2 years of captivity in a windowless room. Three decades after being tortured in
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