Vietnam POW Escape | No Man Left Behind

I certainly remember the day I got shot down: the 6th of June, 1964. The ocean government had requested a show of support from the United States. We were tasked to go in and fly some missions over there as a kind of a show of force.

The last pass, the last mission, there was a big funk airplane. Township, everything started to fail; all the red lights started to come on. I forget how high I was when I ejected, but looking around at where I was gonna land, there was one tree in the middle of the clearing, and I hit it. My right hip and right knee were badly banged up.

I had dispatched a number of the Air America pilots under missions; they were dropping ammunition in rice noir outpost. One of the pilots came in, "There's a plane down." We all knew that we would be crossing the most dangerous area that you could cross. There wasn't much of a chance our little single-engine aircraft would make it over to kept him and then coming back.

As soon as they started to break into a hover, everything interrupted. I knew there was no chance of them being able to land and pick me up, so I didn't wave them off. There was a very courageous man there on the ground. What a brave act! Your gorilla, so to speak, that were under communist control were alarmed and started to lead me off toward their camp.

When you're kept in the prison, you are locked in a room. It was always, "I'm gonna get out of this when I get away from here somehow, someday." Nothing's going to happen unless I make it happen. It was going through that drill when I had the first encounter with another prisoner. His name was Boo, and he came over and sat down beside me. Through sign language, he said, "Walking," pointing.

Eventually, it was just, "When the right time comes, that's when we'll go." I went out and started pushing up the fence, and he came running down, and I was right behind him. I knew we were going away from the bad guys; that was the key point. But I didn't know for sure where Boo was headed. He hadn't given up hope and looked for the first opportunity to escape.

But thanks to his bravery and the things that he did, we were able to complete the mission. I don't think you can go through a life-and-death type of experience and come out the same way you went in. You realize that life’s pretty fragile, so I think I have a more positive outlook on life afterwards.