Vietnam War POWs gather, remember at Nixon Library reunion (Plumb, Ward, McGrath)

For Charlie Plumb, a retired Navy captain shot down after 74 successful missions, seeing many of the guys he was held with in a North Vietnamese prison was an indescribable experience on Tuesday, May 23.

“Seeing these guys I haven’t seen in a long time is really neat, especially when you’re in a prison cell with nothing else to do; you get to know these guys really well,” said Plumb, who spent six years in the “Hanoi Hilton” prison. “It’s a bond that can’t be replicated and can’t be broken. Some of the guys saved my life, and some guys said I saved their lives.”

Nearly 170 American prisoners of war, including Plumb, marked on Tuesday the 50th anniversary of their release following the Paris Peace Accords that ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War with a visit to the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda. It was the first day of what will be three days of events at the library.

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First Lieutenant Loren Harvey Torkelson was from Crosby and was a month shy of his 26th birthday when his plane was shot down over North Vietnam. He was in his second tour of duty as an Air Force F4 Phantom pilot with the 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron when it happened.

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Richard Bates, POW

On this date in 1973, the Viet Cong released First Lieutenant Richard Bates of the U.S. Air Force. While flying a mission nearly 6 months before, he was shot down over North Vietnam and taken prisoner. Bates was from Plaza, ND, and was 24 when he was captured.

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