Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I write to honor Cdr. Al Carpenter (USN-ret.). Al celebrated his 40th year of freedom from a North Vietnamese prison on March 4, 2013. When I congratulated him at a recent luncheon at Richardson’s with Andy Maggard, he said he celebrated that day as a second birthday.

We celebrate it with you, my friend. Andy and Al are both retired naval officers and I served three years active duty and 31 years as a civilian working for the Navy. So we are old Navy guys with a great love of country. That is what drew us together to work in various patriot groups to preserve freedom in this country.

No living person I know has paid a greater price for that freedom than has Al Carpenter. He was a pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 72 aboard the carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA 42) on Yankee Station in 1966. On Nov. 1, 1966, he received orders for a combat mission over the Haiphong Harbor region. He led a flight of three against a missile site and supply route...