Alan J. Kroboth
Class of 1969
Hometown: Linden, NJ
- Kroboth was a bombardier-navigator of an A6A Intruder from VMA 533, Marine Air Group 15, when it was shot down by enemy ground fire on July 7, 1972, on a mission near the city of Khe Sanh, Republic of Vietnam, south of the DMZ.
- Kroboth was able to eject, but suffered a broken back and broken neck upon ejection. He was captured and held for 3 months in the jungle with little food. Kroboth was forced to march barefooted at night, amidst heavy U.S. bombing raids, up the Ho Chi Minh Trail about 350 miles to Hanoi, where he was kept as a prisoner of war in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison. With intense pain, provided only rice balls for food and suffering from skin rashes and boils over his entire body, Kroboth survived the ordeal while fiercely resisting his North Vietnamese captors. He was released as a POW in March of 1973.