Book: Locked Up With God – Amazon; I was shot down and rescued the first time with Capt Charlie Neel. The USAF sent now Major Charlie Neel and his wonderful wife Linda to bring my wife Sandy to meet the aircraft that flew us home from North Vietnam to Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. There the video starts as I meet my youngest brother, Peter, my Dad, my Mom, my sisters Mary Ann, Jeannie and
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
Communist East German made propaganda film about American Prisoners of War held by the North Vietnamese.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords, which officially ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. One local man spent six and a half years in captivity, as a prisoner of war. Naval aviator George Coker returned to America as part of “Operation Homecoming” a half-century ago. He spoke about it today with Mike Gooding.
