
John Wayne Addresses Vietnam POWs Upon Their Return
May 24, 1973: John Wayne thanks the President for his services to his country and warmly welcomes America’s POWs home at a historic White House dinner.

May 24, 1973: John Wayne thanks the President for his services to his country and warmly welcomes America’s POWs home at a historic White House dinner.


“I thought perhaps I was going to die,” McCain told ABC’s Sam Donaldson in a 1999 interview when describing being captured and tortured by the Vietcong.

Commander George Coker was one of the “Alcatraz 11,” a group considered by the North Vietnamese to be the resistance leadership, even though he was a junior officer. The Alcatraz 11 were moved from Hao Lo to a separate facility “Alcatraz” in 1967. Among them were Jim Stockdale and Bob Shumaker. Like Shumaker, Coker was a key communications link in the command structure at Hao Lo and the other Hanoi prisons. He also has the

Lt Col Tony Marshall (USAF ret.) shares experiences flying F-4 Phantom fighter-bombers over North Vietnam until his aircraft exploded, was captured and endured the ordeal as a POW.