Throngs of happy Vietnamese Americans welcomed Ly Tong home from prison in Thailand after serving seven years for renting a plane in Thailand and flying to Vietnam to drop anticommunist leaflets over Saigon. 

At issue was whether Thailand would extradite him to Vietnam at the end of his sentence on May 17, 2006.  The Thai attorney general had approved extradition on the grounds of violating VN airspace, but  world opposition, petitions, visits from  legislators (including  Vietnamese American  Assemblyman Van Tran) persuaded the appeals court to set him free on April 4, 2007.   Ly Tong is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

At age nineteen Ly Tong had been an Air Force Black Eagle pilot for the Republic of Vietnam. In April 1975 during a combat mission his plane was hit by a Soviet anti-aircraft rocket and he had to eject out of his bomber into North Vietnam.  Sentenced to prison in a reeducation camp, he  escaped through the jungles into Cambodia, to Thailand, and then made his way to Singapore.  He then petitioned the United States Embassy for political asylum.

Earlier (1992), Ly Tong had hijacked a Vietnam Airlines plane and demanded the pilot fly low over Saigon so he could drop leaflets. No one was hurt.  He was sentenced to  20 years in prison but was released in 1998 in an amnesty exchange.  In 2000, Ly Tong had won the hearts of Cuban Americans by flying over Havana with anticommunist leaflets.  He carried a letter of commendation from President Ronald Reagan and many people in Congress.  He was awarded a certificate of recognition by the U.S. Senate. 

As the photo shows, Pilot Ly Tong is as mesmerizing as ever.  The crowd of hundreds greeted him with flags and banners.  You can find more photos of the event and my friends by VietAm Review editor Jean Libby on www.vietamreview.net/Pilot_Ly_Tong.html.  Among them are Bryan Do, recent candidate for City Council for San Jose.  He cut short his spring vacation in Oregon to come greet Ly Tong because he met him as a child of seven in a refugee camp in Indonesia.  He was a hero then, too.