250918-F-IA158-1011

CDR Bradley E. Smith, U.S. Navy retired and former Vietnam POW, shares his story with MacDill service members during the POW/MIA Recognition Day Opening Ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, Sept. 18, 2025. At the time, Lieutenant Smith was an A4C pilot assigned to Attack Squadron VA-76 onboard the USS Enterprise. On March 25, 1966, he and two other pilots launched their A4C aircraft during an armed reconnaissance mission on the Quang Khe Highway Ferry in Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. A radio Hanoi broadcast later reported that North Vietnamese forces shot down one U.S. aircraft on March 25th over Quang Binh City, and that the pilot had been captured. Lieutenant Smith’s status was changed from missing in action to captured on July 20, 1966. In the Spring of 1973, Bradley E. Smith was among 591 Americans who were released from communist prisoner of war camps in Vietnam. During his years of captivity, he was promoted to the rank of commander. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Zacahry Foster)