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Ceremonies honor POW/MIAs, celebrate Air Force birthday

By Dominick Cardonita
AIA/PA
Kelly AFB, Texas

Air Force, Army and Navy prisoners of war from Vietnam, who combined spent more than 20 years in captivity, and MIAs were honored Sept. 17 as the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center and Air Intelligence Agency held a special POW/MIA remembrance ceremony.

Hosted by Maj. Gen. John Baker, JC2WC and AIA commander, the former POWs were recognized for their “selfless sacrifices” to the nation as they endured “unspeakable acts of torture” during their captivity.

Lt. Col. Lawrence Barbay, who flew EB-66s, survived seven years as a POW, was the guest speaker and enjoined the audience “not to forget those still missing in action.”

Barbay said he had just received a letter from a woman who wore his POW bracelet during the course of his captivity. She had just learned through the Internet that he was still alive. “That letter really made me feel good,” he said. In addition to the colonel’s wife, Agatha, also in attendance was his daughter, Lauren Dill, who was born while he was in Vietnam and whom he didn’t see until she was 7 years old.

Also recognized were: retired Air Force Col. Thomas Madison, who flew F-105 Thunderchiefs and spent nearly 6 years in captivity; retired U.S. Navy Capt. Wendell Rivers, who flew A-4E aircraft and who spent more than seven years in captivity; retired Air Force Capt. Tom Klomann, a B-52 navigator who was shot down during “Linebacker” and who spent 55 days as a prisoner; and retired U.S. Army MSgt. Robert Lewis III, who was captured during the “Tet Offensive” in 1968 and who spent more than five years in captivity in both South and North Vietnam.

A 21-gun salute and the laying of wreaths representing POW/MIAs from each service, and the playing of TAPS concluded the ceremony. Immediately following, everyone assembled in the AIA auditorium to celebrate the Air Force’s 52nd birthday.

Retired Maj. Gen. Louis Coira, who commanded AIA’s predecessor, the U.S. Air Force Security Service, in the mid-‘60s, was the guest speaker and recalled that he was serving in the Pentagon when the Air Force was created in 1947.

“It was a very interesting time,” Coira explained as the decision to create a separate Air Force was not very popular among other service chiefs. “But, the idea was good, the concept sound and our short history has proven that we have the greatest Air Force in the world.”

A traditional cake-cutting featuring AIA’s oldest and youngest active duty people, Col. Frank Goldstein and Amn. Nicholas Biller, culminated the ceremony.