Vietnam POWs honored at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (William Thomas)

Former prisoner of war retired U.S. Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 4 Bill Thomas and Mrs. Thomas take a moment to reflect after placing a traditional Hawaiian lei during a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of Operation Homecoming April 4, 2013. In 1973, the last Vietnam conflict prisoner of war landed on Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. (Department of Defense photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael R. Holzworth/Released

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Vietnam POW and Michigan native Donald ‘Digger’ Odell

Donald E. “Digger” Odell, an Air Force fighter pilot who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years after being shot down in 1967, died Thursday in Michigan. He was 86. “Lt. Col. Odell was an American hero and inspiration to several generation of Airmen,” said Brig. Gen. Rolf

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Lehigh Valley Hero (Robert Biss)

Their code was to return with honor. The inhumane treatment can hardly be understood by most of us. As prisoners of war in Vietnam, it was desperate at times after the torture, but Capt. Robert Biss says he always knew he was coming home.

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Homecoming or Rude Awakening? (Jose Luna)

Soon after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, the United States prepared for Operation Homecoming. Five hundred and ninety-one American prisoners of war returned home from Vietnam during the two-month process. Previously, during the war, 129 pows “escaped from,evaded, or were released by their captors,” including

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