Hoa Lo relic site receives items of US war veteran

The items of this time include a pilot helmet, mug, two pilot uniforms that Wilber wore during his detention in Hoa Lo prison, the letter he wrote in the prison to his family in 1970 and a matchbox given to him by the Government of Vietnam when he returned to the US in February 1973, as well as some documentary photos of him before and after coming back to his country.

 

Thomas Eugene Wilber, the veteran’s son, said that in Hoa Lo prison, his father was treated kindly with health care and food. The remembrances were used by the veteran until the last day of his life.

On the occasion, the Management Board of the Hoa Lo Prison relic site held an exchange event with the participation of Colonel Tran Trong Duyet, former head of Hoa Lo prison in 1968-1973, and journalist and photographer and war veteran reporter of the Vietnam News Agency Chu Chi Thanh.

In August 2016, as many as 19 documents and items of Walter Eugene Wilber were presented to the Management Board of Hoa Lo prison relic site under his last aspiration.

Wilber’s plane was shot down in the central province of Nghe An on June 16, 1968 and he was arrested and detained in Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi for five years. On February 12, 1973, he was handed over to the US Government in line with the Paris Agreement.-