REVIEW: Reflections on Captivity: A Tapestry of Stories by a Vietnam War POW by Porter Alexander Halyburton
On October 17, 1965, Navy LTJG Porter Halyburton was shot down over North Vietnam on his 76th mission and listed as killed in action. One-and-a-half years later he was found to be alive and a prisoner of war. Halyburton was held captive for more than seven years. Reflections on Captivity, is a collection of fifty short stories about this young naval officer’s experiences as a POW in North Vietnam. This book recounts difficult times but focuses more on the positive aspects —the humor, creativity, friendships, courage, and leadership of an amazing group of Americans and how they helped each other survive and even thrive. These vignettes demonstrate how the human mind, body, and spirit can adapt and find meaning in life in the most challenging circumstances. There are powerful lessons learned from this complex experience that continue to guide the author’s life to this day.
Despite hardship, suffering, and long separation, Halyburton strongly believes one’s quality of life is determined more by choices made than by circumstances, and the most liberating choice we can make is to forgive. “Reflections on Captivity” furthers the reader’s understanding about the nature of captivity, race relations, human relations, aspects of the air war against North Vietnam, and highlights the importance of leadership, ethics, and devotion to duty in difficult times.
CW – illustrations of rope torture used on the prisoners
Review
These are the candid memories of a Navy fighter pilot shot down and held captive in various prisons in North Vietnam. Halyburton keeps most of these stories on a brighter side then others I have read or the “Return with Honor” documentary. He mentions his decision to decide how he reacted to the situation and to keep the North Vietnamese from gaining the control they wanted over his life.
In the aftermath of long captivity, suffering, and difficult times, I thought a lot about how we were able to survive—and not only to survive but to “Survive with Honor” and to “Return with Honor,” as had become our creed. I tried so hard always to stay active—mentally, physically, and spiritually—and I think this was a very important aspect of my survival. Along with the other POWs, I also made it my daily mission to deny the Vietnamese the control over our lives that they tried to establish through propaganda, indoctrination, degradation, intimidation, fear, deprivation, threats, isolation, boredom, pain, and lies.
He discusses the three stages of his time in captivity, based on what was going on, starting with his capture and months spent with Fred Cherry as his roommate – something he thinks the North Vietnamese did because they thought that putting a Southern White man in with one of the few Black POWs and having Halyburton take care of the badly wounded Cherry would be repugnant to Halyburton. Instead Halyburton describes how Cherry was a source of inspiration and leadership to him and that the two developed what turned out to be a lifelong friendship.
This was followed by a time in other prisons during which he and the others were tortured and interrogated including terrible treatment after two other POWs escaped only to be recaptured. But as he was together with eight other men in one room, they passed their time learning from each other, taking turns entertaining each other with “movie nights,” while Halyburton also sought out other music lovers and committed songs to his “juke box” memory. This was also when he discovered that, after years of thinking that he’d died in the plane crash, his family now knew that he’d survived.
After Ho Chi Minh died, their treatment improved with better living conditions, food, clothing, opportunities to openly teach each other, time to exercise, and more mail from home. But after years of having their hopes of being released raised only to be dashed, all the POWs remained controlled until the signs were unmistakable that the Peace Accords had been signed and they were finally going home.
Halyburton is a man of deep faith who said prayers helped to sustain him but he also credits his fellows with all working together to keep their spirits up over the years. In the time since then, he has obtained several post graduate degrees, taught, and in later years he and his wife have led trips back to Hanoi. But one of the best things he says he did was to leave behind the anger that had helped keep him going during his captivity instead of letting it poison his life from then on. B
~Jayne
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