RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
Every year a group of Airmen united by a shared experience of survival against all odds returns to Randolph in the early spring, and every year the base community marvels at the triumph of the human spirit that these warriors personify.
They're known as the Freedom Flyers, Air Force aviators who endured years of physical and mental torture in the prime of their lives in infamous prisoner-of-war camps like the "Hanoi Hilton." But they soared again, requalified as pilots by the "Chargin' Cheetahs," Randolph's own 560th Flying Training Squadron, following the Vietnam War.
The Freedom Flyers came home again last week to mark the 35th anniversary of the start of the requalification program that provided them with a fitting champagne flight and set an example for subsequent generations of Airmen to follow.
Dozens of the latest generation of Airmen filed into the base theater the morning of March 28 to listen to the Freedom Flyers relate their experiences, from using an ingenious "tap code" to communicate with fellow POWs to walking in the heinous "Hanoi March" that subjected prisoners to the jeers and physical attacks of an unruly crowd. The decade-old symposium is a highlight of the annual reunion.
At the symposium, retired Col. Carlyle "Smitty" Harris, who was shot down on April 4, 1965, and spent eight years as a POW, said he was isolated from other prisoners the first few weeks after being captured, enduring physical abuse and intimidation.
"After three weeks, I saw three other pilots," he said. "That was almost heaven - to be able to converse and support each other."
Much of the conversation was nonverbal, through a system used in World War II called "the tap code." Colonel Harris introduced the code, which was based on the letters of the alphabet, to other prisoners.
"We were communicating back and forth very successfully," he said. "There were so many ways we used the tap code. It spread like a chain reaction."
Colonel Harris recalled "talking" to another POW on a Thanksgiving morning, describing a wishful feast "in great detail" and inviting his fellow pilot to the imaginary meal.
"He told me, 'I would, but I'm all tied up,'" he said.
The North Vietnamese eventually stopped the tap code, and POWs paid the price through torture, but Colonel Harris said the prisoners came up with other ways to communicate, including a mute code, passing notes in common areas and talking through thick masonry walls using a tin cup.
"Every time they tried to shut us down, we found more secure ways," he said. "I cannot overstress the importance of communication. It created a unity and esprit."
Retired Col. Jerry Driscoll told Airmen and civilians gathered at the symposium about the Hanoi March on July 6, 1966, when POWs, handcuffed to each other, were paraded through the streets of Hanoi while people with megaphones whipped spectators into a frenzy. They struck some of the POWs with rocks and sticks. The public display, while humiliating and menacing to prisoners, served another purpose.
"This was the first indication some of us were still alive," he said. "It turned out to be quite a media event."
Colonel Driscoll said the North Vietnamese had considered trying their prisoners as war criminals.
"The Hanoi March was a media disaster for North Vietnam," he said. "The war crimes trials never transpired. They were very aware of world opinion."
"The Cuban Program" was another notorious chapter in the Vietnam War. Retired Col. Ed Hubbard said the North Vietnamese employed Caucasian men who spoke with a Spanish accent to interrogate and beat selected prisoners several times a day if they didn't sign statements denouncing their president or offering their unconditional surrender. The POWs believed the interrogators were from Cuba.
"We left behind brutality the likes of which we had never seen," Colonel Hubbard said.
The prisoners weren't the only ones who suffered. Their loved ones lived with uncertainty each day. But Colonel Harris' wife, Louise, and their children - two girls and a boy - had to soldier on.
"We lived day to day and talked about the things daddy liked to do," Ms. Harris said at the symposium. "We conducted our lives like all was well for us."
Ms. Harris said she received 14 letters from her husband in the eight years he was imprisoned.
"Something would come along to let us know he was alive," she said. "We always believed he was alive. We had many ups and downs over the years, but Smitty had prepared us well."
Mrs. Harris' determination served her well in her husband's absence.
"The Air Force learned to adapt, and I learned to adapt over the years," she said. "When I needed help, I called for help and got the help. We never wanted for anything."
Her advice to Airmen summed up the indefatigable spirit of the Freedom Flyers.
"You have the ability to withstand anything that comes at you," she said.
The Freedom Flyers' reunion began March 26 when the San Antonio Spurs honored the pilots prior to their game against the Los Angeles Clippers. It continued March 28 with the symposium, a wreath-laying ceremony at the Missing Man Monument, an evening aerial review and a dining-in mess and wives' dinner featuring former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot. The reunion concluded with a golf tournament and banquet March 29.
"It was another outstanding year," said Maj. Douglas Hamlin, 560th FTS project officer for the reunion. "The guys that came back for the reunion were one of those tight-knit groups. It was great to see their brotherhood."