Larry Spencer was born and raised in Earlham, Iowa. He joined the Navy in 1963 and became an F-4 Phantom backseater. He was over the Gulf of Tonkin on February 18, 1966 when his plane was shot down. Larry spent the next 7 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. This story explains how he endured the uncertainty of his situation by keeping a positive attitude and above all, his faith.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Richard “Dog” Brenneman, pilot and Vietnam POW, shares his experience of being captured, kept prisoner and released from the Hanoi Hilton. Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John F. Gonge, commander and pilot, shares how the 22d Air Force executed Operation Homecoming in 1973. Kathy Freeberg, daughter of retired U.S. Air Force Col. Alan Leslie Brunstrom, pilot and Vietnam POW, shares stories of her father and his return. Operation
On September 9, 1965, Admiral James Stockdale’s A-4 Skyhawk jet was shot down in Vietnam. He was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese and spent the next seven years being tortured and subjected to unimaginable loneliness and terror. Fortunately, three years earlier, he was recommended a book. That book, he says, saved his life. After twenty years in the navy, Stockdale decided to go back to school. He enrolled in a two-year graduate program at
