VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — This year marks the 50th anniversary of the "Paris Peace Accords" which officially ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Retired Naval aviator and Commander George Coker spent more than six and half years in captivity as a prisoner of war. He and the other POWs returned to America in 1973 as part of "Operation Homecoming," a half-century ago.
Operation Homecoming involved 591 POWs: 325 Air Force personnel, 77 Army, 138 Navy, 26 Marines, and 25 civilians who were released in various groups in February and March, with the longest-held generally returning first.
Coker is now 79 years old and of the original Vietnam prisoners of war, he's one of the last men standing.
In 1966, he was Lieutenant George Coker, a Bombardier/Navigator flying in an A-6 Intruder, when he and his pilot were shot down over North Vietnam. He spent the next 2,382 days in captivity as a prisoner of war; 2.5 years of that in solitary confinement.
Coker was part of a group of 11 POWs in Hanoi who gained a reputation for being defiant toward their captors; they were called "The Alcatraz Gang."
Once Coker and another prisoner escaped, but they got caught. Finally, on March 4, 1973, Coker was released
"We have a tremendous bond. I would say it's built on patriotic willingness not only to get shot or die but to suffer," said Coker. "It was worth it to me. And if I had to do it again, I'd do it again. Because that's what my duty called me to do."
Coker earned a Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Legion of Merit, and Purple Heart. In 2005, He was honored by the Boy Scouts of America with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.
An official celebration of the 50th anniversary of the POW's repatriation will take place later this month at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California.