Vietnam War Pilot Who Endured Long Captivity Dies

Retired Col. George Robert Hall, who spent seven and a half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, died in a state veterans home in Collins, Miss., at the age of 83, reported WDAM TV of Hattiesburg, Miss. Hall succumbed on Feb. 16 to his 20-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease, reported the Hattiesburg American. “He was just a great American. He was just a strong, strong individual,” said his brother Sam Hall. “You couldn’t survive seven and one-half years as a prisoner of war and 20 years with that disease and not be a strong person,” he told the newspaper. Hall’s burial is scheduled for Friday in Hattiesburg. His aircraft was shot down over Hanoi in 1965. The North Vietnamese held him captive until 1973. He endured torture and solitary confinement during his captivity, according to the newspaper. In 2005, Hall and his wife Pat penned “Commitment to Honor,” a memoir of his time as a POW.