N FORTIN's Home Page 21

POW-MIA

This page was last updated 20 March 2000.

Even though "Amazing Grace" brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it I felt this was an appropriate place to play it. I believe at least some of our POW-MIAs are still alive and being held in foreign lands against their will. I pray they will come home soon.

I have met many people along the way throughout my life. Some of them were Prisoners-of-War (POW) while others are family members of those men and women who are still listed as Missing-in-Action (MIA).

One of the people I have met is Theodore "Ted" Gostas. I'm surprised that more people don't know about him but he has kept a rather low-profile since returning on the Freedom Bird in January 1973 during Operation Homecoming. Ted was held in the Hanoi Hilton Prison and kept in solitary confinement almost the entire time he was there.

As I said I have met many family members of POW-MIAs. One such couple heads Task Force Omega. Colonel Earl and Patty Skelly Hopper lead the quest to have our POW-MIAs accounted for. While I have known about them for a number of years I didn't meet them until 1993 for the first time. Patty was not married to Earl during the war but came to know him through his efforts to find his son Lieutenant Colonel Earl Hopper Jr. I will soon be sharing their story about Earl Jr. with you.

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