Ron Storz was born on October 21, 1933, in New York City, New York. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force on June 12, 1952, entering the Aviation Cadet Program for Navigator/Aviation Observer training on March 27, 1954. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force on August 9, 1955.[1]
In 1965, then-Captain Storz was serving as a Forward Air Controller flying a O-1 Bird Dog aircraft with the 33rd Air Base Squadron at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam.[2] On April 28, 1965, he was shot down near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone separating North Vietnam and South Vietnam and captured.[3] During his captivity, Storz was one of 52 Americans forced to participate in the Hanoi March, a propaganda event held in July 1966 in which U.S. prisoners of war were marched through the streets of Hanoi and brutally beaten by North Vietnamese civilians.
Storz was a member of the Alcatraz Gang, a group of eleven American prisoners held separately from other POWs because of their particular resistance to their captors.[4] These prisoners were held in solitary confinement from October 1967 to December 1969 at a special facility (dubbed “Alcatraz” by ranking POW James Stockdale) in a courtyard behind the North Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, about a mile away from Hỏa Lò Prison (nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton” by U.S. POWs).[5]
Debilitated from sickness and untreated injuries, Storz lapsed into a coma and died In April 1970. His remains were repatriated to the United States on March 6, 1974.[6] For his conduct as a prisoner of war, Storz received the Air Force Cross, the United States Air Force's highest decoration for extraordinary heroism. Additional awards included the Legion of Merit and the Prisoner of War Medal.