Porter Halyburton was born in 1941 in Miami, Florida, but was raised in Davidson, North Carolina. He graduated from Davidson College in 1963 and entered the U.S. Navy PreFlight program on October 10, 1963, receiving his commission in February 1964.

Halyburton was trained as an F4B Phantom II Radar Intercept Officer, and then joined VF84 at NAS Oceana, Virginia, in April 1965. He began flying combat missions in Southeast Asia with VF84 flying off the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVA62) in May 1965, and was forced to eject over North Vietnam while flying his 75th combat mission on October 17, 1965. He was listed as Killed in Action.

In fact Halyburton had survived the ejection and was quickly captured on the ground. He would spend the next 2,675 days in captivity in various Vietnamese prison camps including the infamous "Hanoi Hilton". LCDR Porter Halyburton would finally be released during Operation Homecoming on February 12, 1973.

Interview recorded on November 3, 2023



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