April 09, 2010Friday April 9th was National former POW Recognition Day.
Former Presidential candidate Senator John McCain is a former POW from the Vietnam War. As a naval aviator, Senator McCain was on a bombing mission over Hanoi, when the North Vietnamese shot down his plane.
Badly injured, they took him prisoner and kept him at what POW's refer to as the "Hanoi Hilton" . McCain remained a POW until 1973, while enduring unspeakable torture which left him with lifelong physical limitations.
The North Vietnamese held American POW's between August 11, 1964 and March 28, 1973.
Between February and April of 1973, a series of missions designed to pick up released prisoners of war in Vietnam brought home 591 American POW's. The North Vietnamese released the POW's in order of their length of time at the prisons. The first group released prisoners that spent 6-8 years in captivity.
The Vietnam War ended for our US troops when they left Vietnam in 1973.
On April 4, 1973, twenty-five-hundred POW/MIA's remained unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. Over the years since, several POW/MIA groups demanded that the US government do all that it could to bring our troops home.
Between 1973 and 1975, the United States obtained remains of some of those POW/MIA's. The North Vietnamese also returned remains. However, the seizing of Saigon by the North Vietnamese, halted those efforts. Eighteen-hundred remain missing today.
Visit the Hanoi Hilton
Take a look at John McCain's return visit to the Hanoi Hilton, with his son.
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