Historical Highlight for June 18, 2023
Historical Highlight for June 18, 2023 ��� here’s a short historical fact from the history of the Vietnam war and the POW experience shared in the new ‘Captured by Love’ book. In each of these nuggets of history are personal and professional lessons that can be applied today:
The Hanoi Hilton Prison System
The name ���Hanoi Hilton���1 was probably the first of many examples of sarcastic humor used to lighten the heavy load of captivity. POW number two, Navy LCDR Bob Shumaker, used a burnt match and toilet paper to make a note which he dropped at the latrine. New POW Capt. Ron Storz picked it up and read, ���Welcome to the Hanoi Hilton; if you get this note scratch your balls on the way back.��� The name seemed to stick, even though the real name for this prison was ���H���a L����� and the sign on the front entrance said, ���Maison Central.��� It was a bastille-type prison built in the 1890s by the French colonialists during their occupation. It covered an entire city block in downtown Hanoi. Its walls were about 15 feet high and three feet thick with embedded shards of broken wine bottles at the top plus high-tension electric wires. Armed guard towers were in each corner. No one ever escaped from the Hanoi Hilton.
Inside the Hilton walls were several buildings. At some point, most of us lived in the Little Vegas complex, but other areas were appropriately named: New Guy Village and Heartbreak Hotel, as they were used for isolation, interrogations, and torture.
The Hanoi Hilton operated as the hub for all the camps. The other two main Hanoi camps were the Zoo (Pigsty, Office, Stable, Garage, etc.) and the Plantation (Gunshed, Warehouse, and Corn Crib). Those are examples of how we named camps and buildings. But, we also gained a small victory over our captors by nicknaming them���for example, Greasy, Stoneface, Fidel, Groucho, Flea, Jawbone, Ichabod, Lump, Elf, Oddjob, Dummkopf, Rat, Fox, and Bug. Besides the humor of these names, they also greatly helped us communicate with clarity in covert communications.
Purchase your copy of Captured by Love
(Photo: Lee went back to visit the Hanoi Hilton Museum in Vietnam back in 2014.)
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