The officer interrogating me asked if I knew the significance of that day’s date in America. I said yes, it was Valentine’s Day. To my surprise, he informed me that in honor of that “great American holiday” he would allow me to write a letter to my wife or sweetheart.
I knew that the North Vietnamese often used American POWs for propaganda purposes, so I was very suspicious of the offer. We were trained to resist. We tried not to show weakness and to only give our name, rank, serial number and date of birth. You had to be on your toes not to be taken advantage of. Thinking quickly, I told the interviewer that I would like to send a letter. I said that my sweetheart went by her initials PN and her last name was Butter, but I like to call her Skippy.
As a New Jersey farm boy, I always had a jar of SKIPPY®, and I had memorized their company address, which was then in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
When I was given the card, I wrote:
In honor of Joe and his late wife, Air Force Flight Nurse Mary Ann Milligan who also served in Vietnam, Hormel Foods is making a $14,000 donation to the AirPower Foundation. AirPower provides support to veterans, and active duty, reserve and National Guard families.
