Free Republic

A former Navy captain and prisoner of war in Vietnam was one of three who died Friday when a small two-engine plane crashed in California's Central Valley. Cole Black of Escondido was aboard the twin-engine plane that crashed in an orange grove in a rural area near Delano, his wife, Karen Black, told The Associated Press. Black, a Navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam and was jailed in a prison nicknamed "Hanoi Hilton" for nearly seven years, was heading home after speaking to students in Oregon about his experience as a POW. In 1993 article, Black told...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Jessica Lynch will begin on-campus classes this fall at West Virginia University, the school said Monday. The former prisoner of war announced in March that she was beginning online courses at WVU and that she hoped to become an elementary school teacher. "WVU is very pleased to be able to assist her in that pursuit," school spokeswoman Becky Lofstead said Monday, "and proud to call Jessica Lynch a Mountaineer." Lynch, a native of Palestine, W.Va., is enrolled in the College of Human Resources and Education. Former Gov. Bob Wise promised Lynch that the state would pay for...

<p>EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Shoshana Johnson, who spent 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq after being shot during an ambush, was discharged from the Army on Friday.</p> <p>"Although I am now leaving the Army, I in no way regret my time in the military," Johnson said in a statement.</p>