MEDAL OF HONOR ACTION PLACE: HOA LO PRISON, HANOI, NORTH VIETNAM MEDAL OF HONOR ACTION DATE: SEPTEMBER 4, 1969 RANK: REAR ADMIRAL (RANK AT TIME OF ACTION: CAPTAIN) CONFLICT/ERA: VIETNAM WAR – U.S. NAVY UNIT/COMMAND: ATTACK CARRIER AIR WING 16, U.S.S. ORISKANY MEDAL OF HONOR ACTION DATE: SEPTEMBER 4, 1969 For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while senior naval officer in the prisoner-of-war
One of the most remarkable stories to come out the Vietnam War involved American pilots who picked up their lives after brutal imprisonment in North Vietnam. NBC special correspondent Tom Brokaw joins them for a reunion in San Diego.
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
Vietnam is often called “the war that won’t go away”, largely because of the continuing controversy of the POW/MIA (Prisoners Of War / Missing In Action) issue. Families of those who were POW/MIA in Vietnam organized an activist movement which went on to pursue a question which still haunts America nearly decades later: were soldiers left behind in captivity after the Vietnam War? Once the exclusive domain of a select fraternity of soldiers’ wives, the