Home, brew and Jesus helped Vietnam POW escape

By Michelle Charter
SA Reporter

With Jesus watching over him, and some potent alcohol, Vietnam prisoner of war Gilbert Chance of Salitpa, is alive today to tel1 of his imprisonment and escape from Hanoi almost 34 years ago.

On July 16, 1966, Chance then a Chief Sergeant in the United States Air force Intelligence Division, was shot down over North Vietnam while flying an undercover surveillance operation to determine troop movement. He explained they were working under the guise of weathermen and their
jumpsuits even had weather service badges.

Chance, who was camera operator for the mission, and the two other men with him, Capt. Morgan and Capt. Murphy, were captured by the North Vietnamese near Laos and taken to China....

Salitpa Man's name is added to list of 'phony' Vietnam vets

By Michelle Charter
SA Reporter

According to government records there is no evidence to support the claim that Gilbert Chance of Salitpa was a Vietnam prisoner of war or Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

"No one by the name of Gilbert Chance was ever a Vietnam prisoner of war," according to Chief of Public Affairs Larry Greer of the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office (DPMO).

The Salitpa man's name is also not included in a list of CMOH winners from the government or Congressional Medal of Honor Society....

Taking someone's word is not always the best thing to do

Yankee Doodlings

By Michelle Charter
SA Reporter

Jackson resident and Vietnam Veteran Bill Werther came into the office two weeks ago.

'Gilbert Chance was not a Vietnam prisoner of war and he did not receive the Medal of Honor," he said.

I don't think at that time I understood the significance of those words, nor did I realize the grave error I committed in writing a story I truly believed was a tribute to a man I thought was a hero....

Vet's claims unsubstantiated ...What can we say?
We made a mistake and we regret having made it.

It was an interesting story about a local man who claims to have served in covert operations in the far East during the Vietnam War and who claims to have been a prisoner of war after being shot down in Laos. He also claims to have been awarded this nation's highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. It appears all of it was a hoax.

If this newspaper had verified the man's claim as a Vietnam POW and as a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, the story would never have been published. According to military records the man in question never was a POW and never received the medal.

If we had taken the time to check that out, flags would have gone up and the story, intriguing or not, would have been placed in file 13.....

-MMB

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