Join us at the Lee Council House for our first Council Club Speaker Series featuring Bill Robinson.

While serving as a crew chief aboard a U.S. Air Force rescue helicopter, Airman First Class William A. Robinson was shot down and captured in Ha Tinh Province, North Vietnam.  He spent 2,703 days in multiple North Vietnamese prison camps, including the Hanoi Hilton, the notorious Briarpatch, and the Zoo.  No enlisted man in American military history has been held as a prisoner of war longer than Robinson.

Among the first three dozen captives taken by the North Vietnamese, Robinson has a unique story to tell.  He became an iconic figure of the war when a staged capture photo was circulated for propaganda purposes; his image appeared on Communist postage stamps and calendars.  Among his many ordeals was an appendectomy without the benefit of anesthesia.  The Air Force recognized Robinson’s exemplary service by awarding him the Air Force Cross, a combat award that ranks second only to the Medal of Honor.  

His time in captivity and his life in general is an object lesson in triumph over tragedy.