Captain Ben Ringsdorf was locked away for six and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton, the most notorious prison camp in the Vietnam War. After he and the rest of his captive soldiers were freed at war’s end, he was greeted with not only a hero’s welcome, but a “ready- made” family. However, even with all of the accolades and love he received, Ben faced physical, mental and emotional challenges just as daunting as his imprisonment, ones that threatened to tear his family apart. While things appear to look bright for the Ringsdorf family, their patriarch soon finds himself haunted by past memories and debilitated by alcoholism and a sense of paranoia, signs of the (at the time) not-yet-diagnosed PTSD. After the Music Stops is Gloria Gayden Corona’s memoir of her promising – yet whirlwind – relationship with the former POW, chronicling their blossoming romance, Ben’s repatriation and desire for a medical career, and his struggle with mental illness.
Scars and Stripes: The True Story of One Man’s Courage Facing Death as a POW in Vietnam
The word ‘hero’ is used far too often. So is the word ‘courage.’ In the case of Capt. Eugene McDaniel and his hellish experience during the Vietnam War, neither word accurately describes his struggle in enduring the horrors of being one of the most brutalized Prisoner of War (POW). When
