Lipps captured the magnitude of the moment in his account, "Operation Homecoming: The Return of American POWs from Vietnam." Everett Alvarez Jr., the first American pilot to be shot down in North Vietnam and a POW who spent eight-and-a-half years in captivity.Ĭelebration broke out aboard the first aircraft - nicknamed the "Hanoi Taxi" - as it lifted skyward and the POWs experienced their first taste of freedom. colors from his stretcher as he was carried aboard the aircraft. Cook, who suffered severe wounds when he bailed out of his stricken aircraft over North Vietnam in December 1972, saluted the U.S. The POWs ranged from privates first class to colonels, all wearing new gray uniforms issued by the North Vietnamese just before their release.Īir Force Tech. officers at the awaiting aircraft for the first flight from Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport. In a steady flow of flights through late March 1973 under terms set through the Paris Peace Accords, 591 POWs returned to American soil.Īmericans were spellbound as they watched news clips of the POWs being carried in stretchers or walking tentatively toward U.S. prisoners of war began their journey home through Operation Homecoming.īy the day's end, three C-141A aircraft would lift off from Hanoi, as well as a C-9A aircraft from Saigon, South Vietnam. Forty years ago today, a C-141A Starlifter transport jet with a distinctive red cross on its tail lifted off from Hanoi, North Vietnam, and the first flight of 40 U.S.
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