Vietnam POW Exhibit

On August 5, 1964, Lieutenant (junior grade) Everett Alvarez, Jr., became the first American aviator shot down and made a prisoner of war (POW) in North Vietnam.  More followed him into captivity during the intensive air campaigns of the Vietnam War, the captivity in the foreboding prisons like Hoa Lo, which the POWs called the “Hanoi Hilton,” marked by torture, solitary confinement and horrific living conditions.  The museum’s exhibit tells the story of this experience from captivity to joyous homecomings in 1973.