JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
More than 30
former prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict will reunite for the 43rd
time March 4 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph during the annual Freedom Flyer
Reunion.
The reunion,
hosted by the "Chargin' Cheetahs" of the 560th Flying Training
Squadron, honors those who made it home from Southeast Asia while continuing to
remember those who did not.
One of the major
highlights of the reunion is a symposium, set to begin at 1 p.m. in the Fleenor
Auditorium, featuring former Freedom Flyers who will tell the stories of their
time in captivity.
The Freedom
Flyer program was born in 1973 when the 560th FTS began retraining former POWs
to fly again in the Air Force. Later,
the squadron provided POW pilots who had not been retrained to fly one last
time, ensuring that their last flight in an Air Force aircraft wouldn't be the
flight on which they were shot down and captured.
The first
flight with POWs was called a “Freedom Flight.” The repatriated POWs and pilots
were met with cheers and champagne as they celebrated their return to the “wild
blue yonder.”
Covering the
last 37 years, the “Chargin’ Cheetahs” have helped 195 former POWs return to
the skies on a Freedom Flight.
According to
Air Force records, there are still 511 Air Force service members missing and
unaccounted for from the conflict in Southeast Asia.
Events open
to JBSA members include:
10:15 a.m. –
Wreath-laying ceremony at the Missing Man Monument. The ceremony pays tribute to POWs and those
listed as missing in action who did not return home from war and will include a
fly-over.
1 to 4 p.m. –
Freedom Flyer Symposium, Fleenor Auditorium (building 100). Former POW’s tell their remarkable stories of
survival and hope while imprisoned in the infamous POW camps of North Vietnam.
Former
Freedom Flyers will also take part in a formal dining-in ceremony as part of
the reunion.