THE LONGEST RESCUE
and compliance. The whole production was just that, a rehearsed show to prove that our U.S. military men had been captured and were being held responsible for their actions against a peaceloving people. The people’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
In recognition of National POW Month, it is an honor to pay respect to those who were former POW’s as well as those MIA. There are many stories and accounts that shape our perception of what it would have been like to be captured, held prisoner, maltreated to include daily torture, and resigning your fate when you hear “prepare to die for your country” coming from a cellmate. As a young boy I recall seeing black and white TV broadcasts of men in striped pajamas. Their heads bowed not out of respect, but out of fear
Those broadcasts were not meant to inform and my interest was piqued. During the 70’s the news reported bits and pieces of truth and the prescribed propaganda we, as a Nation, were supposed to accept. It was hard to really understand what it was all about, and questions lingered with me for years. Decades later, as a man with a twenty-two-year Air Force Career behind me, my questions were answered. And by a man who knew the truth. A subject matter expert. I met Capt. William “Billy” Robinson. The longest held enlisted POW of the Vietnam war. Being held captive for 7.5 years, 2,703 days to be exact, no enlisted man in American Military History has been held longer than him. I met Bill at a Veterans gathering a few years ago. The gathering was a workshop designed to offer resources to Veteran’s. There were the obligatory representatives from the VA, American Legion, VFW, and a host of other Veterans service organizations in attendance. All good stuff. And then the guest speaker, a big man favoring a leg, approached the lectern. He began by telling of his service in the Air Force; enlisted to break away from a predetermined life working in the cotton mills of Roanoke Rapids, NC. Such work had served his family well, but it wasn’t for him. And then he said it. His rough life as a child and an adolescent had helped to prepare him for captivity. Captivity?? In an instant
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ThunderRoadsTennessee.com
APRIL 2022
