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

Robert J. Flynn, Shot Down in Vietnam War and Held in China
Navy Cmdr. Robert J. Flynn, who spent five and a half years in a Communist Chinese prison during the Vietnam War, almost always in solitary confinement, after he was shot down on a bombing mission, died on May 15 in Pensacola, Fla. Commander Flynn, one of only two American servicemen

