Download or read book A POW s Story written by Larry Guarino and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 1997-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Captive Warriors written by Sam Johnson and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former fighter pilot recounts his experiences as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
Download or read book Tap Code written by Carlyle S. Harris and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover never-before-told details of POW underground operations during the Vietnam War told through one airman's inspiring story of true love, honor, and courage. Air Force pilot Captain Carlyle "Smitty" Harris was shot down over Vietnam on April 4, 1965 and taken to the infamous Hoa Lo prison--nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton." For the next eight years, Smitty and hundreds of other American POWs--including John McCain and George "Bud" Day--suffered torture, solitary confinement, and unimaginable abuse. It was there that Smitty covertly taught many other POWs the Tap Code--an old, long-unused method of communication from World War II. Using the code, they could softly tap messages of encouragement to lonely neighbors and pass along resistance policies from their leaders. The code quickly became a lifeline during their internment. It helped the prisoners boost morale, stay unified, communicate the chain of command, and prevail over a brutal enemy. Meanwhile, back home in the United States, Harris's wife, Louise, raised their three children alone, unsure of her husband's fate for seven long years. One of the first POW wives of the Vietnam War, she became a role model for other military wives by advocating for herself and her children in her husband's absence. Told through both Smitty's and Louise's voices, Tap Code shares the riveting true story of: Ingenuity under pressure Strength and dignity in the face of a frightening enemy The hope, faith, and resolve necessary to endure even the darkest circumstances Praise for Tap Code: "Tap Code is an incredible story about two American heroes. Col. "Smitty" Harris and his wife, Louise, epitomize the definition of commitment--to God, to country, and to family. This tale of extreme perseverance will restore your faith in the human spirit." --Brigadier General John Nichols, USAF "The incomprehensibly long ordeal of the Harris family is agonizing. Their love, faith, loyalty, and courage epitomize all that is good about America." --Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, USMC (ret.), POW, Hanoi, 11/11/1966 to 3/4/1973
Download or read book Taken Captive written by Ooka Shohei and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 1996-04-17 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The harsh conditions, the daily routines that occupy a prisoner's time, and above all, the psychological struggles and behavioral quirks of captives forced to live in close confinement are conveyed with devastating simplicity and candor. Throughout, the author constantly probes his own conscience, questioning motivations and decisions. What emerges is a multileveled portrait of an individual determined to retain his humanity in an uncivilized environment.
Download or read book Dissenting POWs written by Tom Wilber and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh look at the how US troops played a part in the resistance of US troops to the American war in Vietnam Even if you don't know much about the war in Vietnam, you've probably heard of "The Hanoi Hilton," or Hoa Lo Prison, where captured U.S. soldiers were held. What they did there and whether they were treated well or badly by the Vietnamese became lasting controversies. As military personnel returned from captivity in 1973, Americans became riveted by POW coming-home stories. What had gone on behind these prison walls? Along with legends of lionized heroes who endured torture rather than reveal sensitive military information, there were news leaks suggesting that others had denounced the war in return for favorable treatment. What wasn't acknowledged, however, is that U.S. troop opposition to the war was vast and reached well into Hoa Loa Prison. Half a century after the fact, Dissenting POWs emerges to recover this history, and to discover what drove the factionalism in Hoa Lo. Looking into the underlying factional divide between pro-war “hardliners” and anti-war “dissidents” among the POWs, authors Wilber and Lembcke delve into the postwar American culture that created the myths of the Hero-POW and the dissidents blamed for the loss of the war. What they found was surprising: It wasn’t simply that some POWs were for the war and others against it, nor was it an officers-versus-enlisted-men standoff. Rather, it was the class backgrounds of the captives and their pre-captive experience that drew the lines. After the war, the hardcore hero-holdouts—like John McCain—moved on to careers in politics and business, while the dissidents faded from view as the antiwar movement, that might otherwise have championed them, disbanded. Today, Dissenting POWs is a necessary myth-buster, disabusing us of the revisionism that has replaced actual GI resistance with images of suffering POWs—ennobled victims that serve to suppress the fundamental questions of America’s drift to endless war.
Download or read book I m No Hero written by Charlie Plumb and published by . This book was released on 1995-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I'm No Hero' is the story of Charlie Plumb, but it is also the story of all POWs who faced an isolated world of degradation, loneliness, tedium, hunger, and pain. It is no pretty story. It tells of the torture room with walls built to muffle human screams, of the 'rope trick' and 'fanbelt' techniques designed to make a man talk, of illness, of insanity. But it also tells of the ingenuity and creativity which allowed the men to outsmart their guards and to set up communication systems, classes, escape plans, and to maintain their chain of command. It is a revealing story. It pictures men who are reduced to the basics physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It shows how these situations can be survived with individual integrity and pride intact. It tells of growing relationships with God which came as a result of desperate need. It outlines a closed society's methods of developing rules which allow members to live together in harmony. It is a story of hope, for it suggests that the techniques used by POWs to survive their conditions can be used by others to overcome similar situations faced in day-to-day living.
Download or read book Guests Behind the Barbed Wire written by Ruth Beaumont Cook and published by . This book was released on 2012-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicling a lesser-known aspect of World War II, this glimpse into secret history re-creates the world of Aliceville, Alabama, during the war, when as many as 6,000 German prisoners-of-war (POWs) and 1,000 military police guards set up camp and stayed for almost three years. It discusses how the residents of Aliceville helped build, operate, and supply the camp, as well as become inextricably intertwined with camp life and the soldiers being held there. Uncovering what being treated well by the enemy meant in the lives of these POWs, this relevant and fascinating story investigates the nature of war and the principles of human dignity in the midst of America's seemingly unending war on terror, which has brought "Geneva Convention" back into common vocabulary along with questions about what is appropriate treatment of enemies and how future generations are affected by such treatment.
Download or read book Prisoners of the Empire written by Sarah Kovner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pathbreaking account of World War II POW camps, challenging the longstanding belief that the Japanese Empire systematically mistreated Allied prisoners. In only five months, from the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to the fall of Corregidor in May 1942, the Japanese Empire took prisoner more than 140,000 Allied servicemen and 130,000 civilians from a dozen different countries. From Manchuria to Java, Burma to New Guinea, the Japanese army hastily set up over seven hundred camps to imprison these unfortunates. In the chaos, 40 percent of American POWs did not survive. More Australians died in captivity than were killed in combat. Sarah Kovner offers the first portrait of detention in the Pacific theater that explains why so many suffered. She follows Allied servicemen in Singapore and the Philippines transported to Japan on “hellships” and singled out for hard labor, but also describes the experience of guards and camp commanders, who were completely unprepared for the task. Much of the worst treatment resulted from a lack of planning, poor training, and bureaucratic incoherence rather than an established policy of debasing and tormenting prisoners. The struggle of POWs tended to be greatest where Tokyo exercised the least control, and many were killed by Allied bombs and torpedoes rather than deliberate mistreatment. By going beyond the horrific accounts of captivity to actually explain why inmates were neglected and abused, Prisoners of the Empire contributes to ongoing debates over POW treatment across myriad war zones, even to the present day.
Download or read book Voices of the Vietnam POWs written by Craig Howes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-09-30 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unsure whether they would be greeted as traitors or heroes, POWs returning from Vietnam responded by holding tight to their chosen motto, "Return with Honor." "We're giving the American people what they want and badly need--heroes," said a Vietnam jungle POW. "I feel it's our responsibility, our duty to help them where possible shed the idea this war was a waste, useless, as unpopular as it may have been." In the first book to explore the entire range of memoirs, biographies, and group histories published since America's Vietnam POWs returned home, Craig Howes explores the development of a collective history. He describes how these captives drew upon their national heritage to compose a unified, common story while still in prison, and how individual POWs have responded to this Official Story. Examining what racial, cultural, and political assumptions support this shared Official Story, Howes places the POWs' experiences squarely in the center of American history, and within those larger clashes of opinion and belief which characterized the nation's response to the Vietnam War. The result is an engrossing study of what these captivity narratives can tell us about the POWs, their captors, and America's Vietnam legacy.
Download or read book Surviving Hell written by Leo Thorsness and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2011-04-19 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 19, 1967, Air Force Colonel Leo Thorsness was on a mission over North Vietnam when his wingman was shot down by an enemy MiG, which then lined up for a gunnery pass on the two American pilots who had bailed out. Although his F 105 was not designed for aerial combat, Thorsness engaged the MiG and destroyed it. Spotting four more MiGs, he fought his way through a barrage of North Vietnamese SAMs to engage them too, shooting down one and driving off the others. For this action, Thorsness was awarded the Medal of Honor. But he didn’t learn about it until years later—by a “tap code” coming through prison walls—because on April 30, Thorsness was shot down, captured, and transported to the Hanoi Hilton. Surviving Hell recounts a six-year captivity marked by hours of brutal torture and days of agonizing boredom. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Thorsness describes how he and other American POWs strove to keep their humanity. Thrown into solitary confinement for refusing to bow down to his captors, for instance, he disciplined his mind by memorizing long passages of poetry that other prisoners sent him by tap code. Filled with hope and humor, Surviving Hell is an eloquent story of resistance and survival. No other book about American POWs has described so well the strategies these remarkable men used in their daily effort to maintain their dignity. With resilience and resourcefulness, they waged war by other means in the darkest days of a long captivity.
Download or read book Two Souls Indivisible written by James S. Hirsch and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2004 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unforgettable true story, Two Souls Indivisible stirringly recounts the forging of a legendary, heroic bond between two soldiers. Fred Cherry and Porter Halyburton first met in their shared cell in a brutal POW camp in Vietnam. Cherry, an air force pilot, was badly injured after his plane crashed; he became the first black officer to be captured by the North Vietnamese. Halyburton, a young navy flier, was a naive white southerner thrown in as Cherry's cellmate. Their captors hoped close quarters would inflame American-bred racial tensions and break both men. Instead, American integrity and honor flourished, and as Cherry was nursed back to health, a friendship grew strong. The intense connection, powerfully reported by James S. Hirsch, would sustain both men through the war and throughout their lives. Inspiring, heartbreaking, remarkable, and never more timely, Two Souls Indivisible shows how good people can achieve greatness in the most hellish of circumstances.
Download or read book P O W written by Ralph Carlo Poness and published by Ralph J Poness. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this historical, political, analytical, and deeply personal story of a disgracefully blundering hierarchy, inadequate weaponry, lack of even rudimentary supplies, and official incompetence and miscalculation at every turn, Poness recounts the events that led up to being taken as a prisoner of the Japanese and of his harrowing years as a P.O.W.
Download or read book I Am Alive written by Charles R. Jackson and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed military historian Norton presents this long-forgotten memoir by a Marine captured in the spring of 1942 and interned for three devastating years by the Japanese. Jackson describes the fierce yet impossible battle for Corregidor and the lethal reality of the POW camps. Original.
Download or read book P O W written by John G. Hubbell and published by Dissertation.com. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With the first page the book explodes...a story of fortitude and patriotism to inspire generations of Americans to come." —Philadelphia Evening Bulletin "It's to our experience as Blackstone is to the law." —Col. George E. "Bud" Day, USAF (Ret.), attorney, former POW and Medal of Honor winner
Download or read book Honor Bound written by Stuart I. Rochester and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of American prisoners of war in Southeast Asia has never been fully told despite numerous popular accounts, personal memoirs, and official reports that have appeared over the years since the prisoners' release in 1973. Now, twenty-five years after Operation Homecoming, comes the first attempt at a comprehensive, objective, documented history of their experience that seeks to separate fact from fiction and to portray the full scope of the captivity from the perspective of both captive and captor. Honor Bound, a collaborative effort researched and written over the course of more than a decade by historian Stuart Rochester and Air Force Academy professor and POW specialist Frederick Kiley, combines rigorous scholarly analysis with a moving narrative to record in unprecedented detail the triumphs and tragedies of the several hundred servicemen (and civilians) who fought their own special war in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1961 and 1973. The authors address a gamut of subjects from the physical ordeal of torture and deprivation that required clarification of the Code of Conduct to the sometimes more onerous psychological challenges of indoctrination, adjustments to new routines and relationships, and mere coping and passing time under the most monotonous, inhospitable conditions. The volume weaves a winding trail through scores of prison camps, from large concrete compounds in the North to isolated jungle stockades in the South to mountain caves in Laos, while tracing political developments in Hanoi and Washington and the evolution of the "psywar" that placed the prisoners at the center of the conflict even as they were removed from the battlefield. From courageous resistance and ingenious methods of organization and communication to failed escapes and questionable conduct---"warts and all"---Honor Bound examines in depth the longest and perhaps most remarkable prisoner-of-war captivity in U.S. history. Stuart I. Rochester holds a Ph.D, in history from the University of Virginia and taught at Loyola College in Baltimore before joining the Historical Office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he is presently Deputy Historian. He is the author of Takeoff at Mid-Century: Federal Civil Aviation Policy in the Eisenhower Years, 1953-1961 and American Liberal Disillusionment in the Wake of World War I. Frederick Kiley earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Denver. A retired Air Force colonel, he was a professor of English at the Air Force Academy prior to serving in Vietnam as an adviser to the Vietnam Air Force. He is a leading authority on prisoners of war and the author of Satire from Aesop to Buchwald and A Catch-22 Casebook. From 1984 to 1997 he was Director of the National Defense University Press and headed the NDU Research Fellows Program.
Download or read book Unexpected Prisoner written by Robert Wideman and published by Robert Wideman. This book was released on 2016-05-02 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Lieutenant Robert Wideman's plane crashed on a bombing run in the Vietnam War, he feared falling into enemy hands. Although he endured the kind of pain that makes people question humanity, physical torture was not his biggest problem. During six years as a prisoner of war, he saw the truth behind Jean-Paul Sartre's words: "Hell is other people." Unexpected Prisoner explores a POW's struggle with enemies and comrades, Vietnamese interrogators and American commanders, his lost dreams and ultimately himself.
Download or read book Captured Honor written by Bob Wodnik and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The time is November 1945, not long after Jack Elkins has returned from a prison camp in Japan to his hometown of Oakesdale, Washington. An autumn evening finds him before a gathering of townspeople clamoring to hear about his experiences. Jack is in turmoil. What they really want, he senses, is nice, neat stories of heroes who beat the odds. They want "blood without spatters" and death with dignity. What can he tell them? Burned forever in his mind are images of Japanese blood staining blue Manila Bay; of maggots assaulting the corpse of a buddy; of prisoner after prisoner relegated to small wooden boxes holding their cremated remains. Jack is unable to talk about what happened during his three years in Japanese prison camps. "There is no middle ground," in his estimation. "You either tell them all or tell them nothing." Standing up to the microphone, he whispers barely ten words to the audience, then sits down - and tries for the next half-century to forget." "It was fifty years before Jack could talk about his experiences as a prisoner of war; and he wasn't alone. In Captured Honor author Bob Wodnik presents the stories of several Pacific Northwest POWs. Yet this book is much more than a series of memoirs. Wodnik opens a variety of windows on World War II. Readers see prison-camp life in unrelenting detail. They glimpse the impact of firebombing on Japanese cities. They hear the difficulties of World War II veterans in adapting to life after the war. In an intriguing counterpoint. Wodnik anchors the entire work in the lobby of the Strand Hotel in downtown Everett, contrasting the horrors of a Japanese prison camp with the quiet life of a bibliophile desk clerk during World War II."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
