Retired Air Force Col. Robert Certain, a B-52 navigator and former prisoner of war, worked with MOAA to organize a trip back to Vietnam to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operation Homecoming and the return of more than 600 POWs from North Vietnam. Seven former POWs as well as family and friends joined Certain to see southern Vietnam and Cambodia and return to Hanoi to see what remains of the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison.
Your Story, His Story, the Legacy: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Wives
In the late 1960s, POW/MIA wives bucked government protocol and challenged the traditional role of “military wife.” These courageous women led by Sybil Stockdale on the West Coast, Jane Denton, Louise Mulligan, and Phyllis Galanti on the East Coast and later Helene Knapp in the Interior West organized to form the National League of POW/MIA Families. The women worked with Congress and the Nixon administration to demand accounting for their husbands and pursue their safe