A Vietnam prisoner of war who spent years in captivity in the prison camp they dubbed the Hanoi Hilton and whose story was closely followed by the American public is set to be honored by Congress.
For his grit under interrogation, and for his unbending commitment to survive the prison ordeal and “return with honor,” retired Navy Cmdr. Everett Alvarez is slated for the highest award lawmakers can bestow — the Congressional Gold Medal.
By unanimous consent Wednesday, the Senate passed the bill to award the medal to the 86-year-old Alvarez, following on a unanimous vote in the House last week.
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The bill to add Alvarez’ name to the list of those who have received the Congressional Gold Medal — ranging from George Washington and Winston Churchill to Frank Sinatra and the Wright Brothers — now goes to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature.
Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., who sponsored the Gold Medal bill in the House, said in a statement that in tough times the nation can “look to the service and sacrifice of those like Cmdr. Everett Alvarez Jr. to remind and inspire us as to what it takes for our nation to endure.”
Panetta had a special interest in passage of the bill. His father, former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta, was a member of the class of 1960 with Alvarez at Santa Clara University.
“Cmdr. Alvarez is an American hero who served as an inspiring source of hope for other prisoners of war during his time in Vietnam,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., who sponsored the bill in the Senate.
Alvarez was captured on Aug. 5, 1964, while flying a mission over North Vietnam in his A-4 Skyhawk as part of Operation Pierce Arrow. In interviews over the years with Military.com and other outlets, he detailed how he was shot down when “the sky turned black with flak” after he had strafed North Vietnamese patrol boats over majestic Ha Long Bay, now one of Vietnam’s major tourist attractions.
Then, “a sudden burst jarred my plane. A sickening feeling crept over me as I tried to control my aircraft. Smoke filled the cockpit, and every warning light lit up.”
He keyed his mic: “I’m on fire! I’m out of control!”
Alvarez fought to regain control to allow him to eject, but before punching out, he keyed the mic again: “I’m getting out! I’ll see you guys later!”
His first thought after hitting the water was to swim to one of the outcroppings in the bay and possibly hide under the brush, but shots fired from a patrol boat kicked up the water around him and a bullet grazed his elbow. He was quickly hauled aboard the patrol boat, where his captors immediately began trying to interrogate him.
Alvarez, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, instinctively resisted. He replied in Spanish — “No entiendo [I don’t understand].” He would later tell Military.com, “I don’t know why I did that — seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Alvarez was the first U.S. aviator to be captured and would spend eight and a half years as a prisoner — the first 13 months of it in solitary confinement in a 7-by-7-foot cell. He was the second-longest held POW in U.S. military history after Army Capt. Floyd Thompson, who was held for almost nine years after the aircraft he was riding in was shot down in March 1964.
After 3,113 days of captivity, Alvarez was released on Feb. 12, 1973, as part of the Operation Homecoming wherein all U.S. prisoners, including then-Lt. Cmdr. John McCain, who also flew the A-4 Skyhawk and was shot down in October 1967, were sent home.
In 2016, McCain, who became a Republican senator from Arizona and unsuccessfully ran for president twice, spoke to the example Alvarez set for other POWs in presenting him with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Whenever I’d start feeling sorry for myself, I’d think about Ev and how long he had been there and all that he had been through, and I would feel a lot less sorry,” McCain said at the event. “He had a record of steadfast resistance and strength, and we not only admired him, we revered him.”
After his release, Alvarez completed 20 years in the Navy, earned a law degree, formed a technology company, and also served as deputy director of both the Peace Corps and what was then the Veterans Administration.
On Nov. 13, 1982, Alvarez represented the Reagan administration at the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorials, which at the time listed the names of more than 57,900 U.S. service members who were killed in that divisive conflict.
In 2022 on the 40th anniversary of the memorial’s dedication, Alvarez reflected on his initial doubts about the design of the shiny black concrete wall listing the names and how the public would react.
“Oh yeah, I had concerns. It was a tumultuous time,” Alvarez told Military.com, but “I changed my view” on the memorial as he “realized how it affected the public,” and what it would mean to future generations.
He watched as veterans came forward to touch the names of those they knew and “what struck me was the tremendous outpouring of the people, the veterans that came for the dedication and their families,” he said. “That was heartwarming. It is, I would have to say, very therapeutic in a way for a lot of people.”
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