Ronald J. Webb was commissioned a 2d Lt in the U.S. Air Force on January 22, 1960, through the Air Force ROTC program while he attended Indiana University. He would serve five years in the Air Force as a navigator, before an opportunity allowed him to earn his pilot wings in June 1966. Webb served as an F-4 pilot with the 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron at DaNang AB, South Vietnam beginning in March 1967. On his 44th mission over Vietnam, Webb was involved in a freak mid-air collision and was forced to eject over North Vietnam. On June 11, 1967 Webb was taken as a Prisoner of war and would spend the next 2,094 days in captivity. For nearly six years he would survive interrogations, physical abuse, and malnutrition at Hỏa Lò Prison, known to American POWs as the “Hanoi Hilton”. Major Webb would finally be released during Operation Homecoming on March 4, 1973.
Vietnam War U.S. Prisoners Of War Return With Honor
This extraordinary, declassified U.S. Air Force documentary “Return With Honor” pays tribute to those servicemen who became prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. The film focuses on first hand accounts by POWs who describe their methods of resistance, maintaining mental toughness, and most incredibly the innovative communication techniques they developed and used while held captive. The circa 1973 picture opens with General John P. Flynn (mark 00:20), who spent five years as a POW
