William (Bill) Tschudy graduated from Highland High School in 1953. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1958 and attended basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. He then completed aircraft mechanic school at Jacksonville, FL, followed by service as an aircraft mechanic at Dallas, TX until he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1961. He went on active duty for Naval Flight Officer training in 1962 and received his commission as an Ensign and designation as a Naval Flight Officer in 1963. Ensign Tschudy then attended A-6 Intruder bombardier/navigator training in Virginia before serving as a bombardier/navigator deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence until he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War on July 18, 1965. After spending 2,767 days in captivity (7 ½ years), Lieutenant Commander Tschudy was released during Operation Homecoming on February 12, 1973. He was briefly hospitalized to recover from his injuries, and then received an assignment to complete his master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. His next assignment as Head of the Appropriations Committee’s Liaison Office in the Office of Budget and Reports in the Navy Comptroller and Fiscal Management Division at the Pentagon from January 1976 to June 1978, followed by service as Executive Assistant to the Deputy to the President and to the Dean of Academics at the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island, from August 1978 until his retirement from the Navy on August 1, 1981.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while interned as a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam, Bill received the Silver Star. In February 1966, his captors, completely ignoring international agreements, subjected him to extreme mental and physical cruelties in an attempt to obtain military information and false confessions for propaganda purposes. Through his resistance to those brutalities, he contributed significantly toward the eventual abandonment of harsh treatment by the North Vietnamese which was attracting international attention. By his determination, courage, resourcefulness, and devotion to duty, he reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Naval Service and the United States Armed Forces.

Commander Tschudy was the bombardier/navigator for pilot Commander Jeremiah Denton, Jr. on that fateful day in 1965. It was his 13th mission. Their A-6A Intruder jet was shot down over North Vietnam. Tschudy and Denton were captured together as they parachuted into the middle of an enemy-controlled village. They were the 13th and 14th American aviators to be taken captive by the North Vietnamese as POW’s. They were taken to the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where Senator John McCain was also held. Bill said he stayed alive by keeping his physical, mental and spiritual health in check as much as possible. He prayed and exercised. Food was bad and not much of it and torture was ever present. Bill’s face appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in December 1970, but his name didn’t appear in the cover story, which was a look back at a failed attempt to rescue prisoners of war. Bill’s wife Janie became one of the first of a group of spouses and families of the prisoners who became advocates for the missing men. The National League of POW/MIA Families formed in May 1970 due to their efforts.

Looking back all these years since his release, Bill says even through the loneliness of those years, even not knowing what was going to happen next, he always knew help would come. It was always just a matter of when. “The whole time I was there I never had a feeling that I would never get out. In fact, I hadn’t thought about death then as much as I do now.”