RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
The bald eagle symbolizes the rights and freedom that Americans enjoy, so it was only fitting that the stately bird was displayed at the opening of an event that featured the riveting stories of a group of men who know more than anyone else what freedom really means.
John Karger, whose organization Last Chance Forever rehabilitates and releases injured birds of prey, introduced a real bald eagle as the Freedom Flyer Reunion's POW/MIA Symposium began in the Randolph High School gymnasium last week.
The symposium is perhaps the defining event of the annual reunion, which brings together the band of former Air Force combat pilots who survived the horrors of North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camps in the late 1960s and early 1970s and were later requalified as pilots and given their own "fini flights" - renamed "freedom flights" for them - by Randolph's 560th Flying Training Squadron following the Vietnam War.
The stories of these remarkable heroes, told to the new generation of Airmen, leave little doubt that, although they were captured and subjected to unimaginable cruelty and deprivation, they were never defeated.
Retired Col. Jerry Driscoll, one of eight speakers at the symposium, discussed the infamous "Hanoi March," which took place two days after Independence Day in 1966. Dozens of American prisoners were herded through the streets of Hanoi, taunted, punched and kicked by an unruly mob incited by people yelling through megaphones.
"Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam's leader) was calling us war criminals," he said. "He was going to put us on trial for war crimes."
Colonel Driscoll, who had been shot down just months earlier, said the event deteriorated so badly that the soldiers who were pointing guns at the prisoners as they marched through the streets had to turn their weapons toward the crowd to protect themselves.
Later, as the prisoners marched toward a soccer stadium, they found their only entrance blocked by people who were trying to harm them. Chaos ensued, and the people fell over each other in a pile four to five feet high. Colonel Driscoll said he managed to walk over the pile.
"That evening I felt like I was closer to dying than when I was shot down," he said.
The Hanoi March was a media event, planned to be a precursor to the war crimes trial, which never materialized.
"It turned out to be a media disaster," Colonel Driscoll said. "It got so much bad world press. We found out how much they valued world opinion."
Retired Col. Carlyle "Smitty" Harris, whose F-105 was shot down by antiaircraft fire in April 1965, exemplified the resourcefulness and camaraderie of the American POWs when he introduced the "tap code" to his comrades, a nonverbal form of communication developed in World War II and based on letters of the alphabet.
He said the Viet Cong "went to insane efforts to stop communication," but the Americans kept adapting, using a "mute code" and even talking through thick walls with the aid of tin cups.
"Every time they tried to shut down one form of communication, we came up with another that was more secure," Colonel Harris said. "The purpose of communication could not be overstated."
He said the Viet Cong's use of torture did not have its intended effect; it only strengthened the resolve of POWs.
"They absolutely failed," he said. "They got useless information and temporary satisfaction. It was a big mistake."
Colonel Harris said the Americans "had great pride in each other." Whenever one prisoner would become depressed, he "always had someone who would back him up and start the recovery process."
"We created an effective organization to thwart the enemy's efforts to extract information from us," he said. "That allowed us to come home with honor."
Another speaker, retired Lt. Col. Laurie Lengyel, who relayed the story of a failed escape attempt that brought "untold pain and suffering to hundreds of others," may have best summed up the POW experience.
"Until you've lost your freedom ... you don't know what freedom means," he said.