Vet Gets Helmet Returned After Being Shot Down 50 Years Ago
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - A Colorado veteran who was separated from his helmet while fighting in Vietnam has been reunited with it, 50 years later.
Col. James Randall was ejected from his F-105 fighter jet when it was shot down. He lost the helmet in the process and saw the enemy take it.
As CBS4 partner in Colorado Springs KKTV reports, a stranger recently called Randall saying he found it.
"I looked at it and it is my helmet and I couldn't believe it," Randall said.
It turns out a man from France found the helmet in a flea market in Cambodia. He and an American man spent the next 25 years trying to find Randall, even putting a notice in a military paper in Cambodia.
Another veteran who served with Randall got in touch with them and located Randall in Colorado Springs.