The cost of freedom â paid by both the living and the dead â was the focus at a Memorial Day gathering in Temple on Monday morning.
Veterans and their families gathered at the Temple Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 1820 to honor fallen veterans for Memorial Day, and listen to the story of a local prisoner of war.
The speaker for the event was Col. Thomas âJerryâ Curtis, who served in the Air Force before and during the Vietnam War.
Curtis, 88, was captured as a prisoner of war in 1965.
It happened when Curtis was in Thailand for a 120-day temporary duty during the war, doing search and rescue missions for downed airmen. He said he was rescuing a pilot who had been shot down when his own helicopter lost power â with the laminated wood blades destroyed as he tried to land it.