Captured and at the mercy of an increasingly cruel enemy, German-born US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler was left with no choice but to attempt a daring escape from the Pathet Lao prison camp in which he was being held during the Vietnam War. The fateful decision was made only after he and six other POWs had overheard plans to get rid of them as soon as the guards ran out of food. Dieter would choose
Although the Vietnam conflict lasted for 20 years – from 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in 1975 – the United States government never officially declared war. Over 3 million people perished in the conflict, and hundreds of American and Vietnamese citizens were held in prison camps as unofficial POWs. The North Vietnamese captured American troops and the South Vietnamese held hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers. These POWs were treated in different but perhaps equally
Communist East German made propaganda film about American Prisoners of War held by the North Vietnamese.
USAF Lt. Col.(Ret.) Tim Ayres was born in 1945 in Los Angeles, California. He received his commission through the U.S. Air Force Academy on Jun 5, 1968, and completed pilot training in June 1969. Lt Ayres was then trained as an O-2A Milirole Forward Air Controller and was assigned to Quang Ngai, South Vietnam the same year. After a one-year tour as a Forward Air Controller, he trained in the F-4 Phantom II and was
Colonel Bob Waggoner (Ret), a towering but gentle man and fly fishing guide, was shot down over North Vietnam and spent 6 ½ years as a POW, including time at the Hanoi Hilton with John McCain. This is his story from an interview my son did for a History Day Project in 2009.
