One of the most honored occasions that I’ve ever experienced was meeting a Vietnam War Veteran and P.O.W., who was held at the infamous Hanoi Hilton in North Vietnam for seven-and-a-half-years. I had just concluded a meeting with a major supplier (ALCOA) at the Hattiesburg Country Club in south Mississippi, when I met U.S. Air Force Pilot, Colonel George Robert Hall who was shot down over North Vietnam on September 27, 1965. He was at the country club raising money for the Veterans’ Association, when I had an opportunity to sat down with Colonel Hall for a interview. Hattiesburg is about 80 miles south of Madison, MS, on U.S. Hwy 49 South where I live.
The reason that I recognized Colonel Hall was from a book that I read about a golfer that used his love of golf to sustain himself through horrendous conditions as a P.O.W. Colonel Hall, with other P.O.W’s., was able to used fields of science, math, language, and in this case sports to survive. Colonel Hall particularly used golf to not only keep his sanity under adverse treacherous conditions but to maintain his single-digit handicap of four. The title of that book that I read was by Colonel Edward Hubbard entitled, “Escape From the Box.”
Having an opportunity to have an interview with Colonel Hall would be ultimate pinnacle of any sports psychologist career to gather and develop techniques to use in teaching and training their athletes in how to deal with opportunities and obstacles in their performance. The term Yukan means strong, resourceful, and vigorous warrior. These POW’s are the definition of a warrior in what they had to deal with and survive.
