|
Everett Alvarez, Jr.
Everett Alvarez Jr. (born December 23, 1937) is a retired United States Navy officer who endured one of the longest periods as a prisoner of war (POW) in U.S. military history. Alvarez was the first U.S. pilot to be shot down and detained during the Vietnam War and spent over eight years in captivity, making him the second longest-held U.S. POW, after U.S. Army Colonel Floyd James Thompson. Early life and captivity Alvarez was born in 1937 in Salinas, California. He is the grandson of immigrants from Mexico. He went to Santa Clara University on an academic scholarship. He joined the United States Navy in 1960 and was selected for pilot training. On August 5, 1964, during Operation Pierce Arrow, LTJG. Alvarez's Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was shot down in the immediate aftermath of what is known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Alvarez endured eight years and seven months of brutal captivity by the North Vietnamese at the Hỏa Lò Prison (sarcastically known as the "Hanoi Hilton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salinas, California
Salinas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Salt pan (geology), Salt Flats") is a city in the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Monterey County, California, Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area located along the eastern limits of the Monterey Bay Area, lying just south of the San Francisco Bay Area and southeast of the mouth of the Salinas River (California), Salinas River. The city is located at the mouth of the Salinas Valley, about from the Pacific Ocean, and it has a climate more influenced by the ocean than the interior. Salinas serves as the main business, governmental, and industrial center of the region. The marine climate is ideal for the floral industry, grape vineyards, and vegetable growers. Salinas is known as the "Salad Bowl of the World" for its large, vibrant agriculture industry. It was the hometown of writer and Nobel Prize in Literature, No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís which traces its founding to 1777. The campus mirrors the Mission's architectural style and contains Mission Revival architecture and other Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, Spanish Colonial Revival styles. The university is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified as a "Doctoral/Professional" university. The university offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and Doctorate, doctoral degrees through its six colleges, the Santa Clara University College of Arts & Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Santa Clara University School of Education, Counseling Psychology, and Pastoral Ministries, School of Education and Counseling Psychology, SCU ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Air Systems Command
The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides materiel support for aeronaval aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. It is one of the Echelon II Navy systems commands (SYSCOM), and was established in 1966 as the successor to the Navy's Bureau of Naval Weapons. NAVAIR is headquartered in Naval Air Station Patuxent River in St. Mary's County, Maryland, with military and civilian personnel stationed at eight locations across the continental United States and one site overseas. The current commander as of September 2021 is Vice Admiral Carl P. Chebi, USN. The vice commander is Captain Todd M. Evans, USN. The deputy commander is Mr. Theodore J. Short Jr., SES. The Command Master Chief is CMDCM Todd A. Anselm, USN. NAVAIR's mission is to provide full life-cycle support of naval aviation aircraft, weapons and systems operated by Sailors and Marines. This support includes research, design, development and systems engineering, acquisition, test and evaluat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Postgraduate School
Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a Naval command with a graduate university mission, operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California. The NPS mission is to provide "defense-focused graduate education, including classified studies and interdisciplinary research, to advance the operational effectiveness, technological leadership and warfighting advantage of the Naval service." It offers master's and doctoral degrees in more than 70 fields of study to the U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense civilians and international partners. Established in 1909, the school also offers research fellowship opportunities at the postdoctoral level through the National Academies' National Research Council research associateship program. History On 9 June 1909, Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer signed General Order No. 27, establishing a school of marine engineering at Annapolis, Maryland. On 31 October 1912, Meyer signed Navy General Order No. 233, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NAS Kingsville
Naval Air Station Kingsville or NAS Kingsville (NASK) is a United States Navy Naval Air Station located approximately 3 miles east of Kingsville, Texas in Kleberg County. NAS Kingsville is under the jurisdiction of Navy Region Southeast and is the headquarters of Training Air Wing Two. The station also operates a nearby satellite airfield, NALF Orange Grove. History Commissioned on 4 July 1942 as Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) Kingsville, it served nearby Naval Air Station Corpus Christi as an auxiliary field, aiding in training many of the U.S Navy's pilots for World War II. At the start of the Korean War in 1951, it was re-commissioned as an auxiliary field for NAS Corpus Christi, and as a permanent component of the Naval Aeronautical shore establishment. In this year, the first jet training class begun on July 15. Some of the Kingsville Naval Auxiliary Fields were assigned to NAAS Kingsville. In 1968, the airfield was redesignated as Naval Air Station Kingsville, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VT-21
Training Squadron 21 (VT-21), known as the ''Redhawks'', is a U.S. Navy strike jet training squadron stationed aboard Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas flying the McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawk, T-45C Goshawk. The Redhawks are one of four United States Naval Aviator#Strike syllabus, strike jet training squadrons in operation today, and are under the command of Training Air Wing Two. History Training squadron VT-21 was originally established as advanced training unit two-zero-two (ATU-202) in April 1951, the squadron was re-designated as Flight Training Squadron-Two One on 21 May 1960. The first Navy and Marine Corps students were trained in the Grumman F6F Hellcat, F-6F Hellcat. In May 1954, the squadron transitioned to its first jet aircraft, the Grumman F9F Panther, F-9F Panther with the squadron later operating the Grumman F-9 Cougar, F-9F8 Cougar from January 1958. In 1968, the squadron was awarded the Admiral John H. Towers Flight Safety award for superior performance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Homecoming
Operation Homecoming was the return of 591 American prisoners of war (POWs) held by North Vietnam following the Paris Peace Accords that ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Operation On 27 January 1973, Henry Kissinger (then assistant to President Richard Nixon for national security affairs) agreed to a ceasefire with representatives of North Vietnam that provided for the withdrawal of American military forces from South Vietnam. The agreement also called for the release of nearly 600 American prisoners of war (POWs) held by North Vietnam and its allies within 60 days of the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The deal would come to be known as Operation Homecoming and was divided into three phases. The first phase required the initial reception of prisoners at three release sites: POWs held by the Viet Cong (VC) were to be flown by helicopter to Saigon, POWs held by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) were released in Hanoi and the three POWs held in China were to be freed in Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Department Of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the United States Army, Army, United States Navy, Navy, United States Marine Corps, Marines, United States Air Force, Air Force, United States Space Force, Space Force, the United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard for some purposes, and related functions and agencies. As of November 2022, the department has over 1.4 million active-duty uniformed personnel in the six armed services. It also supervises over 778,000 National Guard (United States), National Guard and reservist personnel, and over 747,000 civilians, bringing the total to over 2.91 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the Department of Defense's stated mission is "to provid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hỏa Lò Prison
Hỏa Lò Prison (, Nhà tù Hỏa Lò; ) was a prison in Hanoi originally used by the French colonists in Indochina for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. During this later period, it was known to American POWs as the "Hanoi Hilton". Following Operation Homecoming, the prison was used to incarcerate Vietnamese dissidents and other political prisoners, including the poet Nguyễn Chí Thiện. The prison was demolished during the 1990s, although its gatehouse remains a museum. French era The name Hỏa Lò, commonly translated as "fiery furnace" or even "Hell's hole", pp. 67–68. also means "stove". The name originated from the street name phố Hỏa Lò, due to the concentration of stores selling wood stoves and coal-fire stoves along the street in pre-colonial times. The prison was built in Hanoi by the French, in dates ranging from 1886 to 1889 to 1898 p. 52. to 1901, when Vietnam was still part of Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it opposed the French-supported State of Vietnam and later the Western-allied South Vietnam, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The DRV Fall of Saigon, invaded Saigon in 1975 and ceased to exist the following year when it Reunification Day, merged with Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, the south to become the current Vietnam, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During the August Revolution following French Indochina in World War II, World War II, Vietnamese communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, Hồ Chí Minh, leader of the Viet Minh, Việt Minh Front, Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, declared independence on 2 September 1945 and proclaimed the creation of the Democratic Repu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company, and later, McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D under the United States Navy's pre-1962 designation system. The Skyhawk was developed during the early 1950s on behalf of the Navy and United States Marine Corps as a replacement for the propeller-driven Douglas A-1 (AD) Skyraider. The A-4 is a compact, straightforward, and lightweight aircraft for the era; its maximum takeoff weight of was roughly half of the Navy's weight specification. The Skyhawk has a short-span delta wing configuration, a tricycle undercarriage, and is powered by a single turbojet engine. The U.S. Navy issued a contract for the aircraft on 12 June 1952. On 22 June 1954, the XA4D-1 prototype performed its maiden flight; it went on to set a world speed record of 695.163 mph on 15 October 1955. On 1 October 1956, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
