POWs
Operation Homecoming Part 9: The POW 40th Reunion
If as Ev Alvarez offers in the interview from Part 8, the POWs have held their last reunion, I want to preserve for further reference the panel discussion. POW Panel at the Nixon Library
Operation Homecoming Part 8: The First and the Last
Beginning on 23 May, many of the Viet Nam POW gathered for a reunion in Southern California centered around the Nixon Presidential Library to celebrate not only their 40th anniversary of regaining freedom but also of their night in the White House as a guest of President and Mrs. Nixon, May 24 1973. As first POW Ev Alvarez notes in the interview below, this may be the last reunion. The Viet Nam generation, particularly those from the earliest days of the war are well into their seventies. The interview includes Alvarez as the first POW and Al Agnew as the last POW released from Hanoi. Al [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 7: Lady and the Flag
When Carole Hickerson’s husband was missing in action during the Vietnam War, she started a movement of families frustrated by a lack of information on their missing loved ones. RememberSky Note: Carole and Jim Hickerson are great friends. Jim was Vice Commander at Pacific Missile Test Center when I was in flight test and Bill Thomas and I did a 2-plane A-7 Corair II fly-over/departing man for his retirement ceremony. He returned the favor being the speaker at my retirement. Jim was one of the first test pilots for the A-7 and unfortunately was the pilot of the first A-7 shot down over [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 6: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton
Naval Proceedings Magazine – November 2009 Vol. 135/11/1,281 By Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland The USS Stockdale (DDG-106) was commissioned in April 2009 in Santa Barbara, California. The man for whom the destroyer is named, Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale, left the U.S. Navy an inspiring legacy. During the Vietnam War, he was the senior ranking prisoner-of-war officer at the Hoa Lo Camp, Hanoi, better known as the Hanoi Hilton. Vice Admiral James Stockdale’s principles can inspire any organization’s leaders. […]
Operation Homecoming Part 5: Always Leading and Always Will
by Orson Swindle (USMC, Ret) Prisoner of War in North Viet Nam (Orson Swindle was shot down on November 11, 1966, released on March 4, 1973) Reproduced with permission of USNI and the author … 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 camps of North Vietnam on 4 September 1969. Recognized by his captors as the leader in the Prisoners’ of War resistance to interrogation and in their refusal to participate in propaganda exploitation, Rear Admiral Stockdale was singled out [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 4: The Bracelets
(Note: This piece was originally published on the Project White Horse Forum for Veterans Day 2010.) In high school, Joleta McNelis was never far away from a man she had never met. She carried Lt. John “Jack” Ensch in her heart — and on her wrist. Aside from his name, the only thing McNelis knew about Ensch was the date his fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam: 8-25-72. It was etched under his name on the metal bracelet she bought when she was 14. Three months earlier, on the day Jack Ensch and Mugs McKeown became double “MIG killers” – the [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 3: Jack Fellowes
By Commander Jack H. Fellowes, U. S. Navy, with Lisa Hillman John Heaphy “Jack” Fellowes (November 22, 1932 – May 3, 2010) was the the pilot of an A-6 Intruder from squadron VA-65 operating from the USS Constellation (CV-64), on his 55th bombing mission when he and his Bombardier–Navigator, Lieutenant, Junior Grade George Thomas Coker, were shot down over North Vietnam on August 27, 1966. He was known as “Happy Jack” because of his infectious sense of humor, which he maintained even while a POW. He was awarded the Silver Star for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity” while a POW, credited with “contributed significantly [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 2: Some History
“When we got airborne and the frailty of being a POW turned into the reality of freedom, we yelled, cried and cheered.” Feb. 18, 1973, Maj. Gen. Ed Mechenbier, the last Vietnam POW to serve in the USAF. Three’s In and the Fourth Allied POW Wing From the Three’s In webpage by Paul Galanti […]
Operation Homecoming Part 1: The POWs Come Home
The American Prisoners of War in Viet Nam began their first flight from Hanoi to freedom 40 years ago 12 February 1973. The last flight was 29 March 1973. I watched the students and their teacher’s faces closely as Jim began his talk on the Vietnam War to the Rio Mesa High School American History class. I had been the set-up man, talking about the war and being a Naval Aviator. The class was polite, they knew my son as a classmate sitting towards the back, but they were afterall teenagers, and they had all seen TopGun. Jim quickly described getting [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories, Epilogue: Linebacker II and the POWs – Prelude to Coming Home
Note this post includes two videos, the first discussing B-52 tactics and the second finishing with comments from our POWs during the days of the Christmas operations. On the third night of LB II three B-52s were shot down on the first raid. Seventh Air Force Headquarters Headquarters in Saigon and SAC Headquarters in Omaha went into shock. As a result they recalled the six B-52Gs targeted for Hanoi on the second raid, with the result that the North Vietnamese had done something that the Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans had never been able to to achieve – [...]
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POWs
Operation Homecoming Part 9: The POW 40th Reunion
If as Ev Alvarez offers in the interview from Part 8, the POWs have held their last reunion, I want to preserve for further reference the panel discussion. POW Panel at the Nixon Library
Operation Homecoming Part 8: The First and the Last
Beginning on 23 May, many of the Viet Nam POW gathered for a reunion in Southern California centered around the Nixon Presidential Library to celebrate not only their 40th anniversary of regaining freedom but also of their night in the White House as a guest of President and Mrs. Nixon, May 24 1973. As first POW Ev Alvarez notes in the interview below, this may be the last reunion. The Viet Nam generation, particularly those from the earliest days of the war are well into their seventies. The interview includes Alvarez as the first POW and Al Agnew as the last POW released from Hanoi. Al [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 7: Lady and the Flag
When Carole Hickerson’s husband was missing in action during the Vietnam War, she started a movement of families frustrated by a lack of information on their missing loved ones. RememberSky Note: Carole and Jim Hickerson are great friends. Jim was Vice Commander at Pacific Missile Test Center when I was in flight test and Bill Thomas and I did a 2-plane A-7 Corair II fly-over/departing man for his retirement ceremony. He returned the favor being the speaker at my retirement. Jim was one of the first test pilots for the A-7 and unfortunately was the pilot of the first A-7 shot down over [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 6: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton
Naval Proceedings Magazine – November 2009 Vol. 135/11/1,281 By Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland The USS Stockdale (DDG-106) was commissioned in April 2009 in Santa Barbara, California. The man for whom the destroyer is named, Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale, left the U.S. Navy an inspiring legacy. During the Vietnam War, he was the senior ranking prisoner-of-war officer at the Hoa Lo Camp, Hanoi, better known as the Hanoi Hilton. Vice Admiral James Stockdale’s principles can inspire any organization’s leaders. […]
Operation Homecoming Part 5: Always Leading and Always Will
by Orson Swindle (USMC, Ret) Prisoner of War in North Viet Nam (Orson Swindle was shot down on November 11, 1966, released on March 4, 1973) Reproduced with permission of USNI and the author … 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 camps of North Vietnam on 4 September 1969. Recognized by his captors as the leader in the Prisoners’ of War resistance to interrogation and in their refusal to participate in propaganda exploitation, Rear Admiral Stockdale was singled out [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 4: The Bracelets
(Note: This piece was originally published on the Project White Horse Forum for Veterans Day 2010.) In high school, Joleta McNelis was never far away from a man she had never met. She carried Lt. John “Jack” Ensch in her heart — and on her wrist. Aside from his name, the only thing McNelis knew about Ensch was the date his fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam: 8-25-72. It was etched under his name on the metal bracelet she bought when she was 14. Three months earlier, on the day Jack Ensch and Mugs McKeown became double “MIG killers” – the [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 3: Jack Fellowes
By Commander Jack H. Fellowes, U. S. Navy, with Lisa Hillman John Heaphy “Jack” Fellowes (November 22, 1932 – May 3, 2010) was the the pilot of an A-6 Intruder from squadron VA-65 operating from the USS Constellation (CV-64), on his 55th bombing mission when he and his Bombardier–Navigator, Lieutenant, Junior Grade George Thomas Coker, were shot down over North Vietnam on August 27, 1966. He was known as “Happy Jack” because of his infectious sense of humor, which he maintained even while a POW. He was awarded the Silver Star for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity” while a POW, credited with “contributed significantly [...]
Operation Homecoming Part 2: Some History
“When we got airborne and the frailty of being a POW turned into the reality of freedom, we yelled, cried and cheered.” Feb. 18, 1973, Maj. Gen. Ed Mechenbier, the last Vietnam POW to serve in the USAF. Three’s In and the Fourth Allied POW Wing From the Three’s In webpage by Paul Galanti […]
Operation Homecoming Part 1: The POWs Come Home
The American Prisoners of War in Viet Nam began their first flight from Hanoi to freedom 40 years ago 12 February 1973. The last flight was 29 March 1973. I watched the students and their teacher’s faces closely as Jim began his talk on the Vietnam War to the Rio Mesa High School American History class. I had been the set-up man, talking about the war and being a Naval Aviator. The class was polite, they knew my son as a classmate sitting towards the back, but they were afterall teenagers, and they had all seen TopGun. Jim quickly described getting [...]
Christmas ’72 Stories, Epilogue: Linebacker II and the POWs – Prelude to Coming Home
Note this post includes two videos, the first discussing B-52 tactics and the second finishing with comments from our POWs during the days of the Christmas operations. On the third night of LB II three B-52s were shot down on the first raid. Seventh Air Force Headquarters Headquarters in Saigon and SAC Headquarters in Omaha went into shock. As a result they recalled the six B-52Gs targeted for Hanoi on the second raid, with the result that the North Vietnamese had done something that the Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans had never been able to to achieve – [...]