NEW STUFF: Bob Button returns with a Letter From Reading. Bob remembers the time he hijacked John Glenn's Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7.

Click here for: The News From Mars. Fantastic pictures direct from our newest agent on the Red Planet..including recent closeups of Mt. Sharp.

Between February and April of 1973, more than 500 American Prisoners of War were flown out of North Vietnam, returning to their homeland aboard the 54 flights of Operation Homecoming. Retired Colonel Paul McVickar remembers riding the final legs of that journey with 18 POWs and how their C-141 Starlifter kept its appointment at Travis AFB to the precise minute.

It was the thrill of a lifetime and Paul remembers it in Operation Homecoming, March 31, 1973.

After that, check our photo-retrospective on the American space program from Apollo through the recently-retired Space Shuttles. See: Retrospective, Space.

..there are some wonderful stories on these pages for those who love Aviation and Space. Try stories like "Forty Minutes to Pearl," the Anzac Clipper's ironic "near miss." Or how about John Taylor's Aces & Eagles: "The Miracle of Y-29." It's the story of a man who flew one of the most famous fighter battles of WW2 Europe. But that's only the beginning. Why not look through our Feature Index to see if there's a story of special interest to you?