Project Homecoming - Part 3

The Hanoi Hilton

During the first several years of imprisonment, Alex Bowman (not his real name) and hundreds of other POWs were confined to solitary cells.  In the beginning, many did not even know if there were other POWs in their vicinity.  You can only imagine how difficult their conditions were.  They went from primitive cages in some cases to isolated storerooms to strong rooms that were evidently prepared to be prison cells... and always alone!  They were moved often and kept disoriented with blindfolds.  In those kind of circumstances, it's almost impossible to think of any kind of organized efforts between POWs.  But an amazing thing happened.  The first time Alex was thrown into a cell where there were other POWs in the same camp (though all were in solitary confinement), he was in handcuffs and pretty miserable.  Yet on the wall, he saw something that made his heart leap within him.  It was a carefully scrawled code system that told him how to communicate with others.  Basically, it was a matrix of five rows and five columns.  Since there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, it used 25 of them and omitted the "u", using the "v" for both letters.  While he was puzzling just how it could be used, he heard a light tapping on the wall from the adjacent cell.  Repeated over and over until he recognized how to use the code, were the letters, "W-E-L-C-O-M-E".  And the very first instruction afterward was very useful... exactly how to slip out of the handcuffs!

Incredibly, isolated POWs in separate cells and separate camps organized the 4th Allied POW Wing, with the senior POW (a Navy Captain) as Wing Commander.  Though this Navy senior officer was the focus of intensive interrogation and battering by the North Vietnamese and always kept isolated, he maintained control of a very well-organized unit of dedicated American POWs through communication with the tap code and other underground methods.  While communication was limited in the early days, something would happen that would markedly improve their overall existence.

From the first downing of American flyers, recovery and rescue attempts were very intensive.  The stories of actual rescues by Jolly Green helicopters in the very suburbs of Hanoi are legendary.  Many rescue crews and helicopters were lost trying to bring back downed Americans.  Many others came back so full of holes it seemed impossible they could still fly.  Nobody wanted to lose a man.  Emergency radio beacons were tracked by every aircraft in the air until it was obvious that the downed airmen were in enemy hands.  And even after it had been determined that they were in captivity, the effort to track them went on.

A massive effort to plot probable locations of POWs continued throughout the conflict.  This was for two reasons: One, you didn't want to be laying down deadly fire on top of comrades.  And second, there were serious efforts to plan a rescue of one or more entire POW camps.  The initial focus was upon a place called Son Tay.  Perhaps a dozen or two POWs had been collected in this camp, but all in solitary cells.  Reconnaissance pictures confirmed it as an active interment camp and each defensive position and troop barracks was carefully plotted. An entire duplicate of the camp was constructed someplace in the U.S. and rescue troops practiced every step of a planned rescue until they could do it blindfolded.

Twenty-four hours before the raid, a last-minute unmanned drone reconnaissance aircraft (like a large model plane with cameras) flew across the camp at treetop level to confirm that the camp was still occupied.  In every other way, they had carefully avoided the camp with all aircraft to avoid alerting the North Vietnamese of our interest in the area.  The next day at dawn, ten helicopters, armed to the teeth, swooped down on Son Tay.  With swift, smooth coordination, they blew away the defenses and the enemy barracks without opposition.  Rushing inside, they knocked down door after door until every cell had been searched... but the camp was completely deserted!  Unfortunately, that one lone drone flight across the camp had been enough to spook the North Vietnamese into moving out of the camp.  They had guessed, rightly, that the U.S. was about to go after every American POW they could find in those isolated camps.  It was heartbreaking for the rescuers to be so close and yet be so far from success.  But here is the very fortunate thing that came out of such disappointment.  ALL POWs were moved into one central camp in Hanoi... the fabled Hanoi Hilton!  (A name of "affection" given by American POWs to the very real prison in downtown Hanoi, North Vietnam.)

For the first time, POWs were pooled in rooms with 12-20 other POWs and the isolation was over.  This greatly facilitated the organization of the 4th Allied POW Wing.  Where it had been a very thin, almost imaginary organization, now it was a very distinct unit that worked in many ways to encourage and strengthen each man and his very individual resistance.  Though they still had years of imprisonment ahead of them, it was made much more bearable by the presence of each other.

* * * Next time... Life in the Hanoi Hilton. * * *

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