eBook - ePub
The Unlikely War Hero
A Vietnam War POW's Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton
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eBook - ePub
The Unlikely War Hero
A Vietnam War POW's Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton
About this book
“What a strange, fascinating, and ultimately powerful account of one man's endurance of life as a POW during the American war in Vietnam. . . . This book, I believe, will stand the test of time as one of the finest nonfiction narratives to emerge from the Vietnam War.” —Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried
On April 6, 1967, twenty-year-old U.S. Navy Seaman Apprentice Doug Hegdahl fell off his ship, a guided-missile cruiser, in the Gulf of Tonkin. Close to exhaustion after nearly four hours in the water, he was picked up by a small fishing boat and soon found himself in Hỏa Lò Prison, the notorious North Vietnamese POW camp the prisoners called the Hanoi Hilton. Under intense interrogation, Hegdahl pretended to be a country bumpkin who could barely read or write. His captors fell for the ruse, calling him “The Incredibly Stupid One.”
But Doug Hegdahl was far from stupid. Possessing a razor-sharp memory, during the next two years he memorized the names of 254 fellow prisoners and senior officers ordered him to accept an early release. After coming home in August 1969, Hegdahl shocked his debriefers by rattling off the names of the men. Hanoi had admitted holding only a few dozen, although the U.S. military had reliable intel on scores of others. With Hegdahl’s names, 63 missing servicemen were reclassified to Prisoners of War.
But that’s not all. In addition to divulging the names, Doug Hegdahl told the Pentagon about the systematic torturing of the American POWs in Hanoi and reported many other hitherto unknown details about life inside the Hanoi POW camps. The new information became an important factor in North Vietnam’s fall 1969 decision to make life immeasurably easier for the 500-plus POWs held in Hanoi and assuaged the doubts and fears of dozens of POW families.
In a vividly written book based on archival research, personal interviews, and his experiences in the Vietnam War, Marc Leepson, for the first time, tells the incredible tale of the youngest and lowest-ranking American POW captured in North Vietnam. Doug Hegdahl has never been properly recognized for his extraordinary efforts, and his story has never been fully told. It’s a story of survival—has own and scores of POWs.
As a U.S. Navy historian put it: the North Vietnamese “made a bad mistake when they released Seaman Doug Hegdahl.”
On April 6, 1967, twenty-year-old U.S. Navy Seaman Apprentice Doug Hegdahl fell off his ship, a guided-missile cruiser, in the Gulf of Tonkin. Close to exhaustion after nearly four hours in the water, he was picked up by a small fishing boat and soon found himself in Hỏa Lò Prison, the notorious North Vietnamese POW camp the prisoners called the Hanoi Hilton. Under intense interrogation, Hegdahl pretended to be a country bumpkin who could barely read or write. His captors fell for the ruse, calling him “The Incredibly Stupid One.”
But Doug Hegdahl was far from stupid. Possessing a razor-sharp memory, during the next two years he memorized the names of 254 fellow prisoners and senior officers ordered him to accept an early release. After coming home in August 1969, Hegdahl shocked his debriefers by rattling off the names of the men. Hanoi had admitted holding only a few dozen, although the U.S. military had reliable intel on scores of others. With Hegdahl’s names, 63 missing servicemen were reclassified to Prisoners of War.
But that’s not all. In addition to divulging the names, Doug Hegdahl told the Pentagon about the systematic torturing of the American POWs in Hanoi and reported many other hitherto unknown details about life inside the Hanoi POW camps. The new information became an important factor in North Vietnam’s fall 1969 decision to make life immeasurably easier for the 500-plus POWs held in Hanoi and assuaged the doubts and fears of dozens of POW families.
In a vividly written book based on archival research, personal interviews, and his experiences in the Vietnam War, Marc Leepson, for the first time, tells the incredible tale of the youngest and lowest-ranking American POW captured in North Vietnam. Doug Hegdahl has never been properly recognized for his extraordinary efforts, and his story has never been fully told. It’s a story of survival—has own and scores of POWs.
As a U.S. Navy historian put it: the North Vietnamese “made a bad mistake when they released Seaman Doug Hegdahl.”
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Yes, you can access The Unlikely War Hero by Marc Leepson in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Vietnam War. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue: The Lowest-Altitude Bailout
- Chapter 1: Growing Up in Mayberry
- Chapter 2: The Canberra
- Chapter 3: Strange and Unexplainable
- Chapter 4: The Devil’s Island of the Far East
- Chapter 5: Pilots in Pajamas
- Chapter 6: Doug and Beak
- Chapter 7: A Gold Mine
- Chapter 8: A Reluctant Hero
- Chapter 9: The MOB
- Chapter 10: Your Government Has Forgotten You
- Chapter 11: Get Out of Jail Free Card
- Chapter 12: Independence Day
- Chapter 13: On American Soil
- Chapter 14: The Primary Issue of the War
- Chapter 15: Going Public
- Chapter 16: Going Private
- Appendix 1: The Code of Conduct
- Appendix 2: The Youngest and Lowest-Ranking Vietnam War POW s
- Bibliographical Note
- Notes