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Eyewitness to Operation Homecoming - A Story Untold for 50 Years
Manage episode 416540169 series 3555827
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Penny Grossman served 21 years of active duty as an Air Force nurse. In 1973, She was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines during Operation Homecoming, when nearly 600 American Prisoners of War were freed. The first leg of their journey home took them from Hanoi to Clark Air Base, where Penny witnessed their first steps of freedom.
She has not spoken of these difficult memories in 50 years.
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Operation Homecoming image credit: whoa.org, Mr. Don Quigley, contributor
THE BACKSTORY
This Heritage Minute special presentation is guest-hosted by George Hayward, author of The Party Dolls: The True, Tragic Story of Two Americans’ Attempted Escape from a 1969 Hanoi POW Camp. He is a recognized authority on the history of Americans held captive during the Viet Nam war, and the horrors they faced.
Lt. Penny Grossman, USAF, Clark Air Base, 1972
George has known Penny for more than 20 years. He has known her husband Barry, also retired Air Force, for more than 30 years. But he'd never heard any of this until just a few months ago. Penny's stories moved him to tears, and, according to George, she shed many tears in the telling. A short time later, she recorded her memories on audio, which George has agreed share with you.
Mr. George Hayward, Author, The Party Dolls
ABOUT THE PARTY DOLLS
In May 1969, at the peak of the Vietnam War, two American prisoners of war escaped from a brutal North Vietnamese prison camp. Their story is one of incredible bravery against the longest of odds—and also one of bitter conflict. Air Force Captains John Dramesi and Ed Atterberry escaped with help from their fellow prisoners, but that help was not given freely. Their attempt killed one man and brought many others a lifetime of pain.THE PARTY DOLLS tells the true, tragic story of an escape code-named the “Party.” The story is told by the men who lived it, American POWs, via interviews conducted by the author some two decades ago, but never published until now.
The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation
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