News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Last POW Turns Over Command

Date: April 12, 2001

"Last Vietnam POW Turns Over Command
By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Vice Adm. Joseph Mobley, the U.S. military's last Vietnam prisoner of war still on active duty, stepped down Thursday as commander of the Atlantic Fleet's Naval Air Force.

Mobley, 59, turned over command during a spare, 20-minute ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. He will retire May 1 after 35 years in the service.

``I've had a great time in the Navy, seen so many places, done so many things, lived such a rich and exciting life,'' Mobley told the 400 invited guests.

He made no mention of his five years as a POW and refused all interview requests. Cmdr. Roxie Merritt, a Navy spokeswoman, said he is the last Vietnam POW on active duty in any branch of the U.S. military.

Mobley was on his first tour of duty when his A-6 Intruder was shot down over North Vietnam. He was captured and held in Hanoi from 1968 to 1973.

``I guess you could say it's the end of an era. He was a man of very hard times that came back and did hard jobs and did them well,'' said George Coker, 57, of Virginia Beach, a POW in Vietnam for six years at the same time as Mobley.

Mobley's many decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, Bronze Star Medal and two Purple Hearts.

Mobley was born in Indianapolis and grew up in Manhattan Beach, Calif. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1966.

As head of the Atlantic Fleet's Naval Air Force, he commanded more than 40,000 men and women who maintain and operate six aircraft carriers, 70 aircraft squadrons and 1,400 aircraft."