Floyd James Thompson went to Vietnam in December 1963 and was captured on March 26,1964. He was released on March 16, 1973, 10 days short of 9 years.

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On March 26, 1964, the Air Force L19 observation plane flown by CAPT Richard L. Whitesides and U.S. Army Special Forces co-pilot CAPT Floyd J. Thompson was downed by small arms fire about 20 kilometers from Thompson's Special Forces Camp near Quang Tri, South Vietnam.

Thompson survived the crash, suffering burns, a bullet wound across the cheek and a broken back, and was quickly captured by the Viet Cong. The pilot of the aircraft was not found. Aerial search and ground patrols failed to find a trace of the aircraft. This was before the excellent search and rescue programs which would recover so many downed pilots had been implemented in Southeast Asia.

Thompson spent the next nine years as a prisoner of war, first in the hands of the Viet Cong and he later was moved to the Hanoi prison system. During his captivity, he was tortured and starved, and suffered the mental anguish of being nearly totally alone for years. He was released in mid-March, 1973 in Operation Homecoming. He is the longest held American POW from the Vietnam war.

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/t/t030.htm

 

Compiled by Thomas George
editor@BoycottLiberalism.com