Hoa Lo prison historical relic site receives U.S.veteran’s remembrances

The recollections 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 Viet Nam when he returned to the U.S. in February 1973, as well as some documentary photos of him before and after coming back to his country.

The veteran decided to present the memories, which he have collected and kept for decades, to the relic site to convey his father’s message of thanks to the Government of Viet Nam for its humanitarian policies towards US prisoners kept in Hoa Lo prison during the war.

The veteran’s son Thomas Eugene Wilber 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.

In August 2016, letters Mister Wilber also sent from Viet Nam to his wife and son, a cassette recording an interview of him, newspapers with stories about him, together with the wrapping papers from presents that his son sent to him were presented to the Management Board of Hoa Lo prison relic site under his last aspiration.

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

                                                                                                                                    By Vien Nhu