News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Reunion of Ex-POWs and Would-Be Rescuers

Date: November 29, 2000

"At reunion, ex-POWs say raid on empty camp was not a waste

DESTIN -- (AP) -- A raid on an empty prison camp in North Vietnam was not all in vain, said former prisoner of war Howard Hill as ex-POWs and their would-be rescuers held a 30-year reunion.

Hill, who had been shot down in 1967, watched a U.S. jet fighter, the first he had seen in two years, streak across the night sky Nov. 20, 1970, while a POW at Camp Faith.

He knew something was up, but was unaware that the F-105 Thunderchief was part of an assault on the Son Tay prison camp 11 miles away. The two POW camps were among many spread across North Vietnam.

The former Air Force pilot-navigator reminisced during a five-day reunion through Sunday for about 300 Son Tay raiders and ex-POWs at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort near this Florida Panhandle city. Sandestin is only about 20 miles from Hurlburt Field and adjacent Eglin Air Force Base where the raid was planned and rehearsed.

Hill, who lives in nearby Fort Walton Beach and serves on the Okaloosa County School Board, said the raid by Air Force and Navy air crews and Army special forces troops was not a failure in his mind. He said it caused the North Vietnamese to round up POWs from outlying camps and concentrate them at one prison, dubbed the Hanoi Hilton.

``That gave us a chance to standardize our policies, the policies to make sure we were all operating off the same sheet of music,'' Hill said. ``It made us stronger. It was the reason we formed the 4th POW Wing.''

Critics still debate why U.S. intelligence was unaware that the 61 prisoners at Son Tay, 23 miles outside Hanoi, had been moved several months before the raid because a river flood had tainted its water supply.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Larry Ropka, of Mary Esther, was on the mission's planning team. He said a decision was made to go on the chance some prisoners were still there.

``There was much concern about the morale of the POWs,'' Ropka said. ``This was a token, but the message was important.''

The reunion included a Thanksgiving dinner and a clambake hosted by former presidential candidate Ross Perot. Other dignitaries included former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird.

``We do this as a matter of remembrance of a great group of people who risked their lives for the mission,'' said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Leroy Manor, of Shalimar, who commanded the mission.
Miami Herald "