Phyllis Galanti, wife of Paul Galanti, Commander, U.S. Navy (Retired), will be buried at 1:00 p.m. today at Arlington National Cemetery. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Galanti family as they lay their loved ones to rest. Below is my post about Mrs. Galanti when she passed away in April….
Richmonder Phyllis Galanti … quiet POW crusader passes away, leaves legacy
By Lynn R. Mitchell
“Lonely the days and nights, my love, that we have been apart. It seems almost forever since I held you to my heart. The moments are as restless as the waves that move the sea, but every second means a step nearer, my love, to thee.”
— POW Paul Galanti’s words to wife Phyllis after his release as a POW during Vietnam War, a poem he had shared with her before they married
Phyllis Galanti burst onto the world stage when her husband, Paul Galanti, a Navy fighter pilot shot down over Hanoi in 1966, became a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. She had never wanted to be in the spotlight, this quiet and unassuming lady, but in 1971, five years after her husband’s capture and imprisonment at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” she took her battle to have him released to the people of Virginia, America, and the world, and became a national celebrity.