Wilkes County native Wilson Denver “Denny” Key was a prisoner of war in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” in North Vietnam during essentially the same 5½-year period Sen. John McCain, who died Saturday, was held there.
McCain, being remembered this week for his bravery and resolve as a POW, was captured by the North Vietnamese in October 1967, and Key was captured a month later. Both were released from captivity on March 14, 1973, along with 589 other Americans.
Jacksonville will remember missing military members Friday and Saturday at events marking National POW/MIA Recognition Day. An open house is scheduled Friday at Jacksonville’s National POW/MIA Memorial at Cecil Airport on the city’s Westside. Speakers on Saturday will include Meghan Wagner, daughter of Navy Capt. Scott Speicher, a Cecil-based aviator who became the
Trapped in the bleak prisoner of war camps of North Vietnam, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dale Doss remembers the quiet taps he and his fellow prisoner and aviator John McCain sent each other between the cement walls. Doss, a Tallahassee resident, looks back fondly at the bond he shared with McCain, who died Saturday, a day
In an AAFES parking lot at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, rests a plaque dedicated to former POWs from the Vietnam war, including some from the 388th Fighter Wing. It’s easy to walk past plaques, but this one is worth stopping to consider. For nearly a decade before it moved to Hill
The 560th Flying Training Squadron honored three former Vietnam veterans during the 47th Annual Freedom Flyer Reunion at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph March 25-26. The annual reunion allows Air Force combat pilots who were shot down in the Vietnam War, many suffering long periods in captivity as prisoners of war,
On 22 December 1965, on a combat mission over North Vietnam, I was shot down and captured. I spent Christmas on a concrete floor in a North Vietnamese prison, arms tightly bound behind my back. For eight holiday seasons I enjoyed “the humane and lenient treatment of the North Vietnamese people,”