IN THE MILITARY

25th Infantry unit’s
trailers out of service

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The 25th Infantry Division's aviation unit has two of the 6,700 high-mobility trailers that congressional investigators say cannot be used until they are modified.

The General Accounting Office -- the auditing and investigative arm of Congress -- said this week that the Army found the trailers could break, causing a safety problem. The trailers also could damage the trucks that pull them.

Division spokesman Capt. Clay Degiancinto said the trailers are parked at Schofield Barracks and have never been used.

Degiancinto said the trailers were sent to Schofield two years ago as part of a component that carried mobile air traffic control towers.

However, because Army officials already knew there were problems with the trailers, the towers were transferred to older trailers and the new ones were never used.

Seven hundred and sixty-six servicemen were held as prisoners of the Vietnam War.

Now, a new documentary from Academy Award-winners Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders looks back at the years 1964 to 1973 through the eyes of 20 aviators who were shot down over North Vietnam and held as prisoners in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."

"Return With Honor," which received accolades this year at the Sundance Film Festival, will open Nov. 5 at Restaurant Row.

The 102-minute film was completed last year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the release and homecoming of the POWs. It contains footage the producers found in North Vietnam archives, and uses first-person accounts from more than two dozen fighter pilots.

Those filmed include Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.); U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson (R, Texas); Pete Peterson, current ambassador to Vietnam; former U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton; and retired Adm. James Stockdale.