50 years later, Vietnam veterans deserve their homecoming

It was Dec. 20, 1965, just four days into his first deployment, when U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bob Jeffrey climbed into an F-4 Phantom and took off over North Vietnam. His mission was to provide air-to-air protection for a strike on a railroad bridge near the Chinese border. Then, in a matter of seconds, everything changed. Anti-aircraft fire tore into his F-4. A loud thump. Warning lights flashed. And then, as Jeffrey would later recall, “the aircraft blew up and disintegrated in a fireball.” Moments later, Jeffrey’s parachute opened just 400 feet above the ground. As he fell, rifle fire rose towards him from below. He hit the ground hard, breaking his back and suffering other injuries. Armed farmers quickly surrounded him. His hands were bound behind his back. He was interrogated, subjected to a mock execution, hogtied and thrown into the back of a truck bound for Hanoi.

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