In Loving Memory ... Col. Norman Schmidt.
*** Apple Valley - Kiwanis Club has a memorial plaque for him.
The last time the other Desert Inn prisoners saw Norm Schmidt was on 31 August 1967, the date considered being when he died in captivity.
*** on 22 April 1974, they were positively identified as belonging to Norm Schmidt through dental comparison. Shortly thereafter they were returned to his family for burial. For the family of Norm Schmidt they have peace of mind in knowing where their loved one is now buried.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in your family and those who knew you and loved you. You will live on because we remember you!
NORMAN SCHMIDT - Air Force - COL - O6
Age: 41
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Jul 7, 1926
Born: Alhambra, California
From: BEN LOMOND, CA
Religion: EPISCOPAL, ANGLICAN
Marital Status: Married - Marie A. Schmidt. Son, Hellmuth Paul Schmidt, Born June 24, 1958 and Died Dec. 2, 1998 - FAG #103944073. Daughters, Kathryn A., Karen L., Janet M., Johanna Shmidt, all of Apple Valley, CA.
***** I transferred the memorial to you so you could merge the two memorials and add the pictures to your site. There are pictures on his memorial that were not mine. .
Frank W.
****** September 1, 1966, aircraft was hit by AAA as it pulled up from attacking a truck park near Troc. The aircraft flew for a further 10 miles before Major Norman Schmidt was forced to eject. Despite an intense rescue effort, Major Schmidt was captured and held in captivity in the Hanoi Hilton.
In August of 1967 Major Schmidt was taken from his cell to the interrogation room and never returned. Some of his fellow POWs heard sounds coming from the interrogation room and believe that Major Schmidt was beaten to death by his guards. In March of 1974 Major Schmidt's remains were returned to the USA, presumably having been buried in the prison grounds since 1967.
***** SCHMIDT, NORMAN (POW-KIA)Citation: The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Air Force Cross (Posthumously) to Norman Schmidt (567283380), Colonel, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 1 September 1966 to 28 August 1967. Through his extraordinary heroism and willpower, in the face of the enemy, Colonel Schmidt reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Born: July 7, 1926 at Alhambra, California
Home Town: Ben Lomond, California
Personal Awards:Air Force Cross (Vietnam), 2@ Distinguished Flying Crosses, 5@ Air Medals, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal
COL - O6 - Air Force - Regular
His tour began on Jul 22, 1966
Casualty was on Aug 31, 1967
In , NORTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died captured, FIXED WING - PILOT
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Body was recovered
Panel 10E - Line 60
Other Personnel in Incident: Hubert C. Nichols, Jr.(missing)
Major Hubert C. Nichols, Jr. was an A1 pilot on a temporary duty assignment to the 602nd Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Nakhon Phanom Airbase, Thailand.
At 1235 hours on September 1, 1966, Nichols departed the base as the pilot of the lead aircraft in a flight of two A1Es (Sandy 31 and Sandy 32) on a search mission 13 miles northwest of Dong Hoi, Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam.
The mission was to locate Major Norman Schmidt, whose F104 aircraft had been shot down by hostile ground fire.
Nichols and his wingman, Capt. Alvie L. Minnick, were told by Crown Control to pick up and orbit with two helicopters some 10 miles off shore and to proceed to the area and relieve two Navy A1s who had been covering Schmidt's position.
Nichols and Minnick proceeded to Schmidt's location and spotted the flare parachute from his aircraft at once. They continued their search, flying in an east and south direction. At about 1510, still flying a search pattern
over Schmidt's general location, Minnick, observed heavy 37mm ground fire to the right of their line of flight and radioed Nichols to make a fast turn to the left. Minnick saw Nichols enter his turn, and his own aircraft was then
struck by ground fire and he lost sight of Nichols' aircraft. Being fully occupied with maneuvering his damaged aircraft back to friendly territory, the wingman made no further observation of the lead aircraft and no radio
transmissions were received from Maj. Nichols.
Major Norman Schmidt was never rescued. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and taken to Hanoi where he was held with other Americans in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," the Hoa Lo prison complex.
It was commonplace for American prisoners to be taken at regular intervals for "interrogation" or "quiz" which sometimes amounted to brutal torture, sometimes psychological, but more often physical in nature.
One day in August 1967, when Norm Schmidt was living in the area of Hoa Lo called Little Vegas, he was taken to quiz and never returned. The quiz room was fairly close to the cell-block area, and returning POWs reported that they
heard a scuffle, and when Schmidt did not return, they believed that the Vietnamese had beaten him to death.
Norm Schmidt's remains were returned to U.S. control in March, 1974, one year after his fellow POWs were released from Hanoi.
No further information was ever received about Major Nichols. During regular "negotiation" sessions between the U.S. and Vietnam, information was given to the Vietnamese in 1973, 1974 and 1975 on Major Nichols in the hopes that the Vietnamese would provide further information on him.
The Vietnamese have denied any knowledge of the fate of Major Nichols.
Norman Schmidt was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the period he was a prisoner of war.
****************************************
Painful Echoes Of My Father's Ordeal
By Janet Schmidt Zupan
Sunday, March 20, 2005; Page B07
I recently found a letter written by my mother just after my dad left for his final tour in Vietnam. "It's been hectic," she began. "Norm's afraid he won't get things done. He tried to fix up the whole house and the corral
before he left. I wanted him to forget it but he had to keep working. . . .
He's had a severe headache which has him worried. . . . It broke my heart to see him climb into that airplane."
I remember that summer -- July, Mojave Desert, my sisters and I complaining as we shoveled horse manure into a creaky wheelbarrow, my dad tamping creosote posts plumb in an afternoon wind. I remember touching his shoulder where he knelt to set a tile in his beautiful floor, trowel in hand, the musty odor of concrete and Spanish brick in the air. I recall us all sitting around the table, Dad blowing out the candles of his 40th birthday cake, and the deep silence beyond the tear of wrapping paper and clipped ribbons. I was 11. On the tarmac of George Air Force Base, I breathed in the smell of his flight suit when he hugged me for the last time.
On Sept. 1, 1966, his F-104 was hit by flak during a mission, and the plane went down. My dad bailed out, drifting toward his last 364 living days, days that separated him so utterly from his life as a son, husband, father and career test pilot.
In his final months he was deemed a "war criminal,"
beyond our desperate love and worry, beyond the protection of the country he served, and excluded from the regard for human safety, dignity and life inherent in the articles of the Geneva Convention.
In an audiotape in 1974, Cmdr. Robert Shumaker shared recollections of my dad. They were in a nine-foot-square cell with two other POWs in the Little Vegas section of the Hanoi Hilton in the summer of 1967. It was a harrowing
period for the prisoners, in the wake of a communications purge.
Shumaker described an incident on Aug. 21: "After Norm had finished washing he was peeking out [a] crack and trying to get a look at some of the other prisoners. Wouldn't you know it, a guard caught him." For this offense, my dad's legs were locked in stocks attached to his bed. Ten days passed before guards released him from this confinement and took him away for interrogation.
He was never seen again. Shumaker concluded that "[Norm] was
subjected to torture and succumbed in the process." Other prisoners, in cells down the hall from the interrogation room, reported hearing the "sounds of torture . . . a loud scuffle and then silence."
My father's remains were disinterred from the Ba Huyen Cemetery in Hanoi in 1974 and returned to us.
The writer is a college instructor in Montana.
*****************************************
.
*** Apple Valley - Kiwanis Club has a memorial plaque for him.
The last time the other Desert Inn prisoners saw Norm Schmidt was on 31 August 1967, the date considered being when he died in captivity.
*** on 22 April 1974, they were positively identified as belonging to Norm Schmidt through dental comparison. Shortly thereafter they were returned to his family for burial. For the family of Norm Schmidt they have peace of mind in knowing where their loved one is now buried.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in your family and those who knew you and loved you. You will live on because we remember you!
NORMAN SCHMIDT - Air Force - COL - O6
Age: 41
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Jul 7, 1926
Born: Alhambra, California
From: BEN LOMOND, CA
Religion: EPISCOPAL, ANGLICAN
Marital Status: Married - Marie A. Schmidt. Son, Hellmuth Paul Schmidt, Born June 24, 1958 and Died Dec. 2, 1998 - FAG #103944073. Daughters, Kathryn A., Karen L., Janet M., Johanna Shmidt, all of Apple Valley, CA.
***** I transferred the memorial to you so you could merge the two memorials and add the pictures to your site. There are pictures on his memorial that were not mine. .
Frank W.
****** September 1, 1966, aircraft was hit by AAA as it pulled up from attacking a truck park near Troc. The aircraft flew for a further 10 miles before Major Norman Schmidt was forced to eject. Despite an intense rescue effort, Major Schmidt was captured and held in captivity in the Hanoi Hilton.
In August of 1967 Major Schmidt was taken from his cell to the interrogation room and never returned. Some of his fellow POWs heard sounds coming from the interrogation room and believe that Major Schmidt was beaten to death by his guards. In March of 1974 Major Schmidt's remains were returned to the USA, presumably having been buried in the prison grounds since 1967.
***** SCHMIDT, NORMAN (POW-KIA)Citation: The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Air Force Cross (Posthumously) to Norman Schmidt (567283380), Colonel, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 1 September 1966 to 28 August 1967. Through his extraordinary heroism and willpower, in the face of the enemy, Colonel Schmidt reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Born: July 7, 1926 at Alhambra, California
Home Town: Ben Lomond, California
Personal Awards:Air Force Cross (Vietnam), 2@ Distinguished Flying Crosses, 5@ Air Medals, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal
COL - O6 - Air Force - Regular
His tour began on Jul 22, 1966
Casualty was on Aug 31, 1967
In , NORTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died captured, FIXED WING - PILOT
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Body was recovered
Panel 10E - Line 60
Other Personnel in Incident: Hubert C. Nichols, Jr.(missing)
Major Hubert C. Nichols, Jr. was an A1 pilot on a temporary duty assignment to the 602nd Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Nakhon Phanom Airbase, Thailand.
At 1235 hours on September 1, 1966, Nichols departed the base as the pilot of the lead aircraft in a flight of two A1Es (Sandy 31 and Sandy 32) on a search mission 13 miles northwest of Dong Hoi, Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam.
The mission was to locate Major Norman Schmidt, whose F104 aircraft had been shot down by hostile ground fire.
Nichols and his wingman, Capt. Alvie L. Minnick, were told by Crown Control to pick up and orbit with two helicopters some 10 miles off shore and to proceed to the area and relieve two Navy A1s who had been covering Schmidt's position.
Nichols and Minnick proceeded to Schmidt's location and spotted the flare parachute from his aircraft at once. They continued their search, flying in an east and south direction. At about 1510, still flying a search pattern
over Schmidt's general location, Minnick, observed heavy 37mm ground fire to the right of their line of flight and radioed Nichols to make a fast turn to the left. Minnick saw Nichols enter his turn, and his own aircraft was then
struck by ground fire and he lost sight of Nichols' aircraft. Being fully occupied with maneuvering his damaged aircraft back to friendly territory, the wingman made no further observation of the lead aircraft and no radio
transmissions were received from Maj. Nichols.
Major Norman Schmidt was never rescued. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and taken to Hanoi where he was held with other Americans in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," the Hoa Lo prison complex.
It was commonplace for American prisoners to be taken at regular intervals for "interrogation" or "quiz" which sometimes amounted to brutal torture, sometimes psychological, but more often physical in nature.
One day in August 1967, when Norm Schmidt was living in the area of Hoa Lo called Little Vegas, he was taken to quiz and never returned. The quiz room was fairly close to the cell-block area, and returning POWs reported that they
heard a scuffle, and when Schmidt did not return, they believed that the Vietnamese had beaten him to death.
Norm Schmidt's remains were returned to U.S. control in March, 1974, one year after his fellow POWs were released from Hanoi.
No further information was ever received about Major Nichols. During regular "negotiation" sessions between the U.S. and Vietnam, information was given to the Vietnamese in 1973, 1974 and 1975 on Major Nichols in the hopes that the Vietnamese would provide further information on him.
The Vietnamese have denied any knowledge of the fate of Major Nichols.
Norman Schmidt was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the period he was a prisoner of war.
****************************************
Painful Echoes Of My Father's Ordeal
By Janet Schmidt Zupan
Sunday, March 20, 2005; Page B07
I recently found a letter written by my mother just after my dad left for his final tour in Vietnam. "It's been hectic," she began. "Norm's afraid he won't get things done. He tried to fix up the whole house and the corral
before he left. I wanted him to forget it but he had to keep working. . . .
He's had a severe headache which has him worried. . . . It broke my heart to see him climb into that airplane."
I remember that summer -- July, Mojave Desert, my sisters and I complaining as we shoveled horse manure into a creaky wheelbarrow, my dad tamping creosote posts plumb in an afternoon wind. I remember touching his shoulder where he knelt to set a tile in his beautiful floor, trowel in hand, the musty odor of concrete and Spanish brick in the air. I recall us all sitting around the table, Dad blowing out the candles of his 40th birthday cake, and the deep silence beyond the tear of wrapping paper and clipped ribbons. I was 11. On the tarmac of George Air Force Base, I breathed in the smell of his flight suit when he hugged me for the last time.
On Sept. 1, 1966, his F-104 was hit by flak during a mission, and the plane went down. My dad bailed out, drifting toward his last 364 living days, days that separated him so utterly from his life as a son, husband, father and career test pilot.
In his final months he was deemed a "war criminal,"
beyond our desperate love and worry, beyond the protection of the country he served, and excluded from the regard for human safety, dignity and life inherent in the articles of the Geneva Convention.
In an audiotape in 1974, Cmdr. Robert Shumaker shared recollections of my dad. They were in a nine-foot-square cell with two other POWs in the Little Vegas section of the Hanoi Hilton in the summer of 1967. It was a harrowing
period for the prisoners, in the wake of a communications purge.
Shumaker described an incident on Aug. 21: "After Norm had finished washing he was peeking out [a] crack and trying to get a look at some of the other prisoners. Wouldn't you know it, a guard caught him." For this offense, my dad's legs were locked in stocks attached to his bed. Ten days passed before guards released him from this confinement and took him away for interrogation.
He was never seen again. Shumaker concluded that "[Norm] was
subjected to torture and succumbed in the process." Other prisoners, in cells down the hall from the interrogation room, reported hearing the "sounds of torture . . . a loud scuffle and then silence."
My father's remains were disinterred from the Ba Huyen Cemetery in Hanoi in 1974 and returned to us.
The writer is a college instructor in Montana.
*****************************************
.
In Loving Memory ... Col. Norman Schmidt.
*** Apple Valley - Kiwanis Club has a memorial plaque for him.
The last time the other Desert Inn prisoners saw Norm Schmidt was on 31 August 1967, the date considered being when he died in captivity.
*** on 22 April 1974, they were positively identified as belonging to Norm Schmidt through dental comparison. Shortly thereafter they were returned to his family for burial. For the family of Norm Schmidt they have peace of mind in knowing where their loved one is now buried.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in your family and those who knew you and loved you. You will live on because we remember you!
NORMAN SCHMIDT - Air Force - COL - O6
Age: 41
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Jul 7, 1926
Born: Alhambra, California
From: BEN LOMOND, CA
Religion: EPISCOPAL, ANGLICAN
Marital Status: Married - Marie A. Schmidt. Son, Hellmuth Paul Schmidt, Born June 24, 1958 and Died Dec. 2, 1998 - FAG #103944073. Daughters, Kathryn A., Karen L., Janet M., Johanna Shmidt, all of Apple Valley, CA.
***** I transferred the memorial to you so you could merge the two memorials and add the pictures to your site. There are pictures on his memorial that were not mine. .
Frank W.
****** September 1, 1966, aircraft was hit by AAA as it pulled up from attacking a truck park near Troc. The aircraft flew for a further 10 miles before Major Norman Schmidt was forced to eject. Despite an intense rescue effort, Major Schmidt was captured and held in captivity in the Hanoi Hilton.
In August of 1967 Major Schmidt was taken from his cell to the interrogation room and never returned. Some of his fellow POWs heard sounds coming from the interrogation room and believe that Major Schmidt was beaten to death by his guards. In March of 1974 Major Schmidt's remains were returned to the USA, presumably having been buried in the prison grounds since 1967.
***** SCHMIDT, NORMAN (POW-KIA)Citation: The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Air Force Cross (Posthumously) to Norman Schmidt (567283380), Colonel, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 1 September 1966 to 28 August 1967. Through his extraordinary heroism and willpower, in the face of the enemy, Colonel Schmidt reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Born: July 7, 1926 at Alhambra, California
Home Town: Ben Lomond, California
Personal Awards:Air Force Cross (Vietnam), 2@ Distinguished Flying Crosses, 5@ Air Medals, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal
COL - O6 - Air Force - Regular
His tour began on Jul 22, 1966
Casualty was on Aug 31, 1967
In , NORTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died captured, FIXED WING - PILOT
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Body was recovered
Panel 10E - Line 60
Other Personnel in Incident: Hubert C. Nichols, Jr.(missing)
Major Hubert C. Nichols, Jr. was an A1 pilot on a temporary duty assignment to the 602nd Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Nakhon Phanom Airbase, Thailand.
At 1235 hours on September 1, 1966, Nichols departed the base as the pilot of the lead aircraft in a flight of two A1Es (Sandy 31 and Sandy 32) on a search mission 13 miles northwest of Dong Hoi, Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam.
The mission was to locate Major Norman Schmidt, whose F104 aircraft had been shot down by hostile ground fire.
Nichols and his wingman, Capt. Alvie L. Minnick, were told by Crown Control to pick up and orbit with two helicopters some 10 miles off shore and to proceed to the area and relieve two Navy A1s who had been covering Schmidt's position.
Nichols and Minnick proceeded to Schmidt's location and spotted the flare parachute from his aircraft at once. They continued their search, flying in an east and south direction. At about 1510, still flying a search pattern
over Schmidt's general location, Minnick, observed heavy 37mm ground fire to the right of their line of flight and radioed Nichols to make a fast turn to the left. Minnick saw Nichols enter his turn, and his own aircraft was then
struck by ground fire and he lost sight of Nichols' aircraft. Being fully occupied with maneuvering his damaged aircraft back to friendly territory, the wingman made no further observation of the lead aircraft and no radio
transmissions were received from Maj. Nichols.
Major Norman Schmidt was never rescued. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and taken to Hanoi where he was held with other Americans in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," the Hoa Lo prison complex.
It was commonplace for American prisoners to be taken at regular intervals for "interrogation" or "quiz" which sometimes amounted to brutal torture, sometimes psychological, but more often physical in nature.
One day in August 1967, when Norm Schmidt was living in the area of Hoa Lo called Little Vegas, he was taken to quiz and never returned. The quiz room was fairly close to the cell-block area, and returning POWs reported that they
heard a scuffle, and when Schmidt did not return, they believed that the Vietnamese had beaten him to death.
Norm Schmidt's remains were returned to U.S. control in March, 1974, one year after his fellow POWs were released from Hanoi.
No further information was ever received about Major Nichols. During regular "negotiation" sessions between the U.S. and Vietnam, information was given to the Vietnamese in 1973, 1974 and 1975 on Major Nichols in the hopes that the Vietnamese would provide further information on him.
The Vietnamese have denied any knowledge of the fate of Major Nichols.
Norman Schmidt was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the period he was a prisoner of war.
****************************************
Painful Echoes Of My Father's Ordeal
By Janet Schmidt Zupan
Sunday, March 20, 2005; Page B07
I recently found a letter written by my mother just after my dad left for his final tour in Vietnam. "It's been hectic," she began. "Norm's afraid he won't get things done. He tried to fix up the whole house and the corral
before he left. I wanted him to forget it but he had to keep working. . . .
He's had a severe headache which has him worried. . . . It broke my heart to see him climb into that airplane."
I remember that summer -- July, Mojave Desert, my sisters and I complaining as we shoveled horse manure into a creaky wheelbarrow, my dad tamping creosote posts plumb in an afternoon wind. I remember touching his shoulder where he knelt to set a tile in his beautiful floor, trowel in hand, the musty odor of concrete and Spanish brick in the air. I recall us all sitting around the table, Dad blowing out the candles of his 40th birthday cake, and the deep silence beyond the tear of wrapping paper and clipped ribbons. I was 11. On the tarmac of George Air Force Base, I breathed in the smell of his flight suit when he hugged me for the last time.
On Sept. 1, 1966, his F-104 was hit by flak during a mission, and the plane went down. My dad bailed out, drifting toward his last 364 living days, days that separated him so utterly from his life as a son, husband, father and career test pilot.
In his final months he was deemed a "war criminal,"
beyond our desperate love and worry, beyond the protection of the country he served, and excluded from the regard for human safety, dignity and life inherent in the articles of the Geneva Convention.
In an audiotape in 1974, Cmdr. Robert Shumaker shared recollections of my dad. They were in a nine-foot-square cell with two other POWs in the Little Vegas section of the Hanoi Hilton in the summer of 1967. It was a harrowing
period for the prisoners, in the wake of a communications purge.
Shumaker described an incident on Aug. 21: "After Norm had finished washing he was peeking out [a] crack and trying to get a look at some of the other prisoners. Wouldn't you know it, a guard caught him." For this offense, my dad's legs were locked in stocks attached to his bed. Ten days passed before guards released him from this confinement and took him away for interrogation.
He was never seen again. Shumaker concluded that "[Norm] was
subjected to torture and succumbed in the process." Other prisoners, in cells down the hall from the interrogation room, reported hearing the "sounds of torture . . . a loud scuffle and then silence."
My father's remains were disinterred from the Ba Huyen Cemetery in Hanoi in 1974 and returned to us.
The writer is a college instructor in Montana.
*****************************************
.
*** Apple Valley - Kiwanis Club has a memorial plaque for him.
The last time the other Desert Inn prisoners saw Norm Schmidt was on 31 August 1967, the date considered being when he died in captivity.
*** on 22 April 1974, they were positively identified as belonging to Norm Schmidt through dental comparison. Shortly thereafter they were returned to his family for burial. For the family of Norm Schmidt they have peace of mind in knowing where their loved one is now buried.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in your family and those who knew you and loved you. You will live on because we remember you!
NORMAN SCHMIDT - Air Force - COL - O6
Age: 41
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Jul 7, 1926
Born: Alhambra, California
From: BEN LOMOND, CA
Religion: EPISCOPAL, ANGLICAN
Marital Status: Married - Marie A. Schmidt. Son, Hellmuth Paul Schmidt, Born June 24, 1958 and Died Dec. 2, 1998 - FAG #103944073. Daughters, Kathryn A., Karen L., Janet M., Johanna Shmidt, all of Apple Valley, CA.
***** I transferred the memorial to you so you could merge the two memorials and add the pictures to your site. There are pictures on his memorial that were not mine. .
Frank W.
****** September 1, 1966, aircraft was hit by AAA as it pulled up from attacking a truck park near Troc. The aircraft flew for a further 10 miles before Major Norman Schmidt was forced to eject. Despite an intense rescue effort, Major Schmidt was captured and held in captivity in the Hanoi Hilton.
In August of 1967 Major Schmidt was taken from his cell to the interrogation room and never returned. Some of his fellow POWs heard sounds coming from the interrogation room and believe that Major Schmidt was beaten to death by his guards. In March of 1974 Major Schmidt's remains were returned to the USA, presumably having been buried in the prison grounds since 1967.
***** SCHMIDT, NORMAN (POW-KIA)Citation: The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Air Force Cross (Posthumously) to Norman Schmidt (567283380), Colonel, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 1 September 1966 to 28 August 1967. Through his extraordinary heroism and willpower, in the face of the enemy, Colonel Schmidt reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Born: July 7, 1926 at Alhambra, California
Home Town: Ben Lomond, California
Personal Awards:Air Force Cross (Vietnam), 2@ Distinguished Flying Crosses, 5@ Air Medals, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal
COL - O6 - Air Force - Regular
His tour began on Jul 22, 1966
Casualty was on Aug 31, 1967
In , NORTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died captured, FIXED WING - PILOT
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Body was recovered
Panel 10E - Line 60
Other Personnel in Incident: Hubert C. Nichols, Jr.(missing)
Major Hubert C. Nichols, Jr. was an A1 pilot on a temporary duty assignment to the 602nd Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Nakhon Phanom Airbase, Thailand.
At 1235 hours on September 1, 1966, Nichols departed the base as the pilot of the lead aircraft in a flight of two A1Es (Sandy 31 and Sandy 32) on a search mission 13 miles northwest of Dong Hoi, Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam.
The mission was to locate Major Norman Schmidt, whose F104 aircraft had been shot down by hostile ground fire.
Nichols and his wingman, Capt. Alvie L. Minnick, were told by Crown Control to pick up and orbit with two helicopters some 10 miles off shore and to proceed to the area and relieve two Navy A1s who had been covering Schmidt's position.
Nichols and Minnick proceeded to Schmidt's location and spotted the flare parachute from his aircraft at once. They continued their search, flying in an east and south direction. At about 1510, still flying a search pattern
over Schmidt's general location, Minnick, observed heavy 37mm ground fire to the right of their line of flight and radioed Nichols to make a fast turn to the left. Minnick saw Nichols enter his turn, and his own aircraft was then
struck by ground fire and he lost sight of Nichols' aircraft. Being fully occupied with maneuvering his damaged aircraft back to friendly territory, the wingman made no further observation of the lead aircraft and no radio
transmissions were received from Maj. Nichols.
Major Norman Schmidt was never rescued. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and taken to Hanoi where he was held with other Americans in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," the Hoa Lo prison complex.
It was commonplace for American prisoners to be taken at regular intervals for "interrogation" or "quiz" which sometimes amounted to brutal torture, sometimes psychological, but more often physical in nature.
One day in August 1967, when Norm Schmidt was living in the area of Hoa Lo called Little Vegas, he was taken to quiz and never returned. The quiz room was fairly close to the cell-block area, and returning POWs reported that they
heard a scuffle, and when Schmidt did not return, they believed that the Vietnamese had beaten him to death.
Norm Schmidt's remains were returned to U.S. control in March, 1974, one year after his fellow POWs were released from Hanoi.
No further information was ever received about Major Nichols. During regular "negotiation" sessions between the U.S. and Vietnam, information was given to the Vietnamese in 1973, 1974 and 1975 on Major Nichols in the hopes that the Vietnamese would provide further information on him.
The Vietnamese have denied any knowledge of the fate of Major Nichols.
Norman Schmidt was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the period he was a prisoner of war.
****************************************
Painful Echoes Of My Father's Ordeal
By Janet Schmidt Zupan
Sunday, March 20, 2005; Page B07
I recently found a letter written by my mother just after my dad left for his final tour in Vietnam. "It's been hectic," she began. "Norm's afraid he won't get things done. He tried to fix up the whole house and the corral
before he left. I wanted him to forget it but he had to keep working. . . .
He's had a severe headache which has him worried. . . . It broke my heart to see him climb into that airplane."
I remember that summer -- July, Mojave Desert, my sisters and I complaining as we shoveled horse manure into a creaky wheelbarrow, my dad tamping creosote posts plumb in an afternoon wind. I remember touching his shoulder where he knelt to set a tile in his beautiful floor, trowel in hand, the musty odor of concrete and Spanish brick in the air. I recall us all sitting around the table, Dad blowing out the candles of his 40th birthday cake, and the deep silence beyond the tear of wrapping paper and clipped ribbons. I was 11. On the tarmac of George Air Force Base, I breathed in the smell of his flight suit when he hugged me for the last time.
On Sept. 1, 1966, his F-104 was hit by flak during a mission, and the plane went down. My dad bailed out, drifting toward his last 364 living days, days that separated him so utterly from his life as a son, husband, father and career test pilot.
In his final months he was deemed a "war criminal,"
beyond our desperate love and worry, beyond the protection of the country he served, and excluded from the regard for human safety, dignity and life inherent in the articles of the Geneva Convention.
In an audiotape in 1974, Cmdr. Robert Shumaker shared recollections of my dad. They were in a nine-foot-square cell with two other POWs in the Little Vegas section of the Hanoi Hilton in the summer of 1967. It was a harrowing
period for the prisoners, in the wake of a communications purge.
Shumaker described an incident on Aug. 21: "After Norm had finished washing he was peeking out [a] crack and trying to get a look at some of the other prisoners. Wouldn't you know it, a guard caught him." For this offense, my dad's legs were locked in stocks attached to his bed. Ten days passed before guards released him from this confinement and took him away for interrogation.
He was never seen again. Shumaker concluded that "[Norm] was
subjected to torture and succumbed in the process." Other prisoners, in cells down the hall from the interrogation room, reported hearing the "sounds of torture . . . a loud scuffle and then silence."
My father's remains were disinterred from the Ba Huyen Cemetery in Hanoi in 1974 and returned to us.
The writer is a college instructor in Montana.
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