page_title: John A. Dramesi
section_title: Post war
hierarchical_section_title: John A. Dramesi / Post war
caption_attribution_description: English: John Dramesi's USAF portrait taken in the early 1980s.
context_page_description: John Arthur Dramesi was a retired United States Air Force Colonel who was held as a prisoner of war from 2 April 1967 to 4 March 1973 in both Hoa Lo Prison, known as "The Hanoi Hilton", and Cu Loc Prison, "The Zoo", during the Vietnam War.
  Dramesi was the last living multiple recipient of the Air Force Cross and one of only four members of the USAF to be twice awarded the Air Force Cross. The first was for the mission on which he was shot down and captured, 2 April 1967, and the second for the six-month period following his second escape and recapture, from May to November 1969, when he was beaten and tortured. He also received an award of the Silver Star for gallantry during an escape on 10 May 1967 and the weeks following his recapture, when he also was beaten and tortured.
  While other prisoners of war were coerced into cooperating with the enemy, Dramesi steadfastly refused, declining to make propaganda recordings, write letters for the enemy or bow to his captors.
context_section_description: After the Vietnam War, Dramesi attended the Industrial College for the Armed Forces and then went back into Air Force active duty, piloting F-111 Aardvark fighter-bombers.
  Dramesi later served as the Director of Combat Operations with Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe, then the Chief of the Tactical Forces Division on the staff of Headquarters U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon, and later commanded the 509th Bomb Wing at Pease AFB, New Hampshire.  He retired as a Colonel in 1982, as one of the most highly decorated officers in the United States Air Force.
caption: John Dramesi's USAF portrait.
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