In August 1964, an American pilot was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese. In the following years of the Vietnam Conflict, hundreds of American prisoners of war were interrogated, starved and tortured in Communist prisons. Prisoners of Hope presents the experiences of ten of these individuals who were denied that most valuable and precious possession — freedom. Their stories are filled with suffering and survival, death and deliverance. But above all, they are testimonies of courage, faith, and a sustaining hope that refused to die. This is a moving program that will change the way you understand freedom and life.
The Incredible Stoicism of Admiral James Stockdale
On September 9, 1965, Admiral James Stockdale’s A-4 Skyhawk jet was shot down in Vietnam. He was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese and spent the next seven years being tortured and subjected to unimaginable loneliness and terror. Fortunately, three years earlier, he was recommended a book. That book, he says, saved his life. After twenty years in the navy, Stockdale decided to go back to school. He enrolled in a two-year graduate program at