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Hanoi Hilton prisoners of war share survival stories | WJLA.com

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Keynote speaker?

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one could omly hope.........

I wore POW bracelets for both these POW's until they were released. I had the pleasure to give each one their bracelet when I was able to meet them later in life.

Denton smiled and said "Thank You for your belief in our return" and McCain said "The North Vietnamese did not realize how these bracelets kept us in the hearts and minds of our people and made the negotiations for our release possible".

I do not know what Denton did with his bracelet but I gave Sen McCain his in his office in the Old Senate Office building and he took me into the alcove behind his desk where the walls and shelves were covered with Kachina dolls and Photos and his decorations. On the wall was a mahogany "shadow" box with a glass cover, inside were 4 of the POW bracelets in both chrome plating and copper with room for 8 more. He asked me to open the cover and he placed my bracelet- a beat up scrtched copper one with his name barely visible-inside. I closed the cover and he shook my hand and gave me a smile and said asked why mine was so beaten up. I told him that for 4 years I never took it off and it went thru surfing, Shop Class, work in a Machine shop and Shipyard and lots of boyhood life. He said "it looks like I did when I came home."

I have photos of both men and myself holding the bracelets as I returned them. My nephew, now a Lt. in the USNR asked one me one day when he was a teenager - "Who are those old guys in the pictures?"

"Survivors" said I...

That is a fine story, Stoney. I hope you write down for your great-grandchildren.

My mom still has the bracelet she wore...the Corporal never made it home, and his remains are still missing. Dad wore one after he got home from serving, and wore it for many, many years. It was put in with his ashes in November of 2010, when we had the service at the National Cemetary for him after he passed. His Ace of Spades went with him as well. He carried that Ace in his wallet until he died.

__________________
1987 560SL
85,000 miles

I knew a guy who was locked up at the LBJ, which was the Long Binh Jail in Saigon.

He took a shot at what he thinks was a Captain, but it was dark and the Captain was drunk. All he knew was that he shot at someone who refused to identify himself and when the MP's showed up they beat him into a stupor.

He did about ten days of hard labor and then the MP's showed up and tossed him out the door. He still has no concept of what was going on, and he retired with 20 years of service and NO mention of the incident in any of his paperwork.

I asked him about forming a reunion group and he told me is was different with the guys in the US Army jail than with the guys locked up in the HH.

He did tell me that the perception among many in the US Army of those locked up in the North was that they would wind up like some of those taken POW during Korea and never be seen again, and that was why they would move Heaven and Earth to recover a downed Pilot.

He said he never met any of the returning POW's, but he was involved rescuing a number of people who could easily have become 'guests' of the Worker Paradise in North Veit-Nam.

If your buddy was enlisted then he forked-up, big time. Drunk in a war zone ain't gonna mitigate.

Glad he survived.

His name was never on any bracelets. His wife wouldn't permit it.

Yet he was the longest held POW in the Vietnam War. No, wait. Make that in the history of the United States. 10 days short of 9 years. On March 26, 1964 he was shot down in a Cessna L-19 observation plane near Khe Sahn. He was released March 16, 1973. For the first 4 years of captivity he saw no other American.


Bio, Thompson, Floyd J.


RIP Colonel.

He was not the one who was drunk. The Captain who refused to identify himself was. He shot at him because a few days earlier the camp had been infiltrated by someone posing as a drunk Officer. The infiltrator had killed two US Army personnel before he was killed and one of them was the guy on guard duty.

Since my friend was on guard duty he was told to take no chances. He did remember firing at the person's feet and that stopped them and the gunshot bought out the MP's. That's the last thing he remembered until he woke up in jail.

The only thing he could figure was that after it was all sorted out someone with enough stroke decided to just paper over the entire thing.

Oh, misunderstood. Given your description, the outcome sounds about right.

Nowadays your buddy could have started a Big Stink.

At the time he just wanted the whole thing to be over, but after he got back from Veit-Nam he did some serious thinking and decided to re-up. He even asked to go back but he was sent to Germany for a few months and then would up teaching aircraft mechanics.

Today he is a tech person with a major airline.

And what I think is weird is that while he can repair the most complex piece of aircraft equipment he is still confused when it comes to basic auto repair.