American Airman Bill Robinson being guarded by an NVA soldier following his capture on September 20, 1965




Left side:
American Airman Bill Robinson being guarded by an NVA soldier following his capture on September 20, 1965; his helicopter was shot down and the crew was taken to the Hanoi Hilton.

 He became the longest-held POW in American history after spending more than seven years in captivity - he was released from the Hanoi Hilton in February of 1973. While serving as a crew chief aboard a U.S. Air Force Rescue helicopter, Airman First Class William A. Robinson was shot down and captured in Ha Tinh Province, North Vietnam, on September 20, 1965.

 After a brief stint at the "Hanoi Hilton," Robinson endured 2,703 days in multiple North Vietnamese prison camps, including the notorious Briarpatch and various compounds at Cu Loc, known by the inmates as the Zoo. No enlisted man in American military history has been held as a prisoner of war longer than Robinson. For seven and a half years, he faced daily privations and endured the full range of North Vietnam's torture program.

Here we have the uniform that he was wearing when taken POW.




Right side:
 Oct 5,1967 this Pilot was captured in North Vietnam.
In this Vietnam War photo, US Air Force 1st Lieutenant Gerald Santo Venanzi is held captive by a very young North Vietnamese girl soldier. When the Paris Peace Accords were agreed in 1973, the North Vietnamese returned 591 American POWs. 

However, another 1,350 POWs were never returned, and about 1,200 Americans were reported killed in action but their bodies were never recovered.


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