Tag Archives: isaiah 6:8

USAFA Pulled Poster of Fallen Ace Robbie Risner’s Plane


General Mark Welsh, US Air Force Chief of Staff, announced that retired BGen James Robinson “Robbie” Risner passed away this week.

In a cruel twist of timing, the poster pulled down by USAFA last week (because it offensively said “so help me God”) was of BGen Risner’s F-100F, the “Spirit of St Louis II” — in which he crossed the Atlantic as Charles Lindbergh did, but in only 6 hours.  (The aircraft remains on static display in front of the USAFA Prep School.)

BGen Risner is probably most famous for his time as a POW in Vietnam’s infamous Hanoi Hilton — where he roomed with other well-known men like Col Bud Day and LtCdr John McCain.  BGen Risner, then a LtCol, was the ranking POW and the leader of the men in the prison — and it turns out he might have had an opinion on that “God and honor” thing going on at USAFA [emphasis added]:

When asked what kept him going throughout his imprisonment, Risner said in a 2004 interview on CNN Larry King Live that his survival was due to exercise and his “faith in God and Read more