Harlan’s mission called for a long, high-speed, low-level approach through heavy enemy defenses to a well-defended target deep in enemy territory where the anti-aircraft fire was most intense.  He was pilot of the last aircraft of a major strike group of 32 strike aircraft on target.  Harlan maneuvered his aircraft through intense and lethal anti-aircraft fire, dived on the target, and delivered his bombs on the bridge.  Witnesses observed Harlan’s aircraft pulling off target and exploding in the air after direct hits from the lethal enemy fire.  He was then observed descending in his parachute, apparently unhurt, into a densely populated and heavily defended area adjacent to Hai Duong.[2]

Now 84 years old, Harlan remembers that day as if it happened yesterday.  Sitting in his living room nearly 54 years later, he recounted his memories of the day he was shot down, “I felt a thud and a few seconds after that I lost all control of the aircraft.  The plane was spinning out of control and the G’s were so great that I couldn’t raise my arms up to reach the ejection handles.  At that point, I was sure I was going to die.  I don’t know if I got knocked out or if I passed out, but the next memory I have is floating in the air under my parachute.  There is another ejection handle under the seat and maybe I pulled that one, but I don’t have any recollection of how I ejected.”  Harlan continued, “On the way down, I could feel my shoulder was dislocated.  I could hear bullets whizzing past me—they shot at me all the way down.  Eventually, I landed in a rice patty and stuck in the mud.  I was in it up to my knees.” 

I asked Harlan if he had any chance of getting away.  He said, “No, there were VC all around.”  I asked how close they were.  He laughed, “Well, they helped me out of the mud.”  This is how Harlan’s seven years, three months, and seven days in captivity began. 

The VC stripped Harlan down to his underwear and put him in a jeep.  About an hour later, he arrived at Hỏa Lò Prison, known as the Hanoi Hilton,[3] as the 49^th American POW of the Vietnam War.  It was still light outside.

 Captivity

“It would be difficult, if not impossible, to relate the treatment of over seven years of captivity in the space allotted.  However, I can sum up my opinion of the treatment by saying it was basically cruel.  While in captivity, I was tortured many times, using ropes, cuffs, isolation, and beatings.”

– Harlan Chapman

At the Hanoi Hilton, the VC cuffed Harlan’s arms behind his back; put him in leg irons; and then placed him in a locked room alone.  With his dislocated shoulder and his arms in this position, the pain in Harlan’s shoulder became intense.  He was left alone for approximately an hour before his captors finally entered the room.  Harlan was sitting on the floor, his captors were sitting in chairs. 

Harlan’s interrogators demanded information about his mission.  He responded with his name, rank, and serial number as required by the Code of Conduct.  The questions continued, but Harlan’s answer remained the same.  He refused to give any information and this angered his interrogators.

In Harlan’s words, “I wasn’t giving them any information. They roughed me up pretty good, punching and slapping me. Then they had someone come in and tighten the cuffs on my arms and pull them up higher and higher. The pain was excruciating.   The interrogation went on for hours.  Every so often, they would make the cuffs on my arms a little tighter.  The physical beatings went on and off the entire time.  They knew I was a Marine, but they didn’t understand why I was with the Navy.  They asked me what the Navy’s mission was and I said, I don’t know, I’m a Marine.  Then they asked me what the Marines’ mission was and I said, I don’t know because I’m with the Navy right now.  I was ducking the questions as best I could.  They pointed a pistol to my head and threatened to shoot me.  When they finally decided I didn’t have any information on the mission, they demanded names of pilots in my squadron.  I gave them two names:  Captain Marvel and Dick Tracy.  This seemed to satisfy them for the moment.  They stopped the interrogation and put me in a cell.  I felt terrible.  I felt that I had failed my country because the enemy broke me.  Even though I gave them fake information, I still gave them information.  They broke me.”

 Another POW, Air Force pilot Lt. Lee Ellis, described this VC torture technique, “After the prisoner’s legs were tied together, his arms were laced tightly behind his back until the elbows touched and the shoulders were virtually pulled out of joint.  Then the torturer would push the bound arms up and over the head, while applying pressure with a knee to the victim.  During this torture, the circulation is cut off and the limbs go to sleep, but the joint pain continues to increase as the ligaments and muscles tear.  When the ropes are finally removed, circulation surges back into the ‘dead’ limbs, causing excruciating pain.”[5]

After this initial interrogation, the VC put Harlan in a temporary holding facility.  There were eight cellblocks with one POW in each block.  Prisoners were strictly prohibited from talking to each other, but could get away with some quiet talk during “rest hour” when the guards would take naps each day.  The POWs were fed small amounts of rice, bread, and soup.  Each prisoner had a water cup that he would have to hold out through an opening in his cell for the guards to fill.  Harlan recalled the first time he held his water cup out for refill, “I was holding my cup out and the guard dumped an entire pitcher of boiling water all over my hand and arm.  Needless to say, I didn’t make that mistake again.”  At this camp, the guards regularly beat the prisoners.    

Harlan spent approximately four to six weeks in the temporary holding facility and during this time, he was able to learn the prisoner tap code.  He also made contact with his Wing Commander from ORISKANY, CDR James Stockdale.  Stockdale had been shot down a little less than a month before.  Sometime later, Stockdale would be permitted to write letters home and was able get Harlan’s POW status back to the US Government.  This was the first proof of life for Harlan’s wife and son.  From this facility, Harlan was transferred to the camp known as “The Zoo.”

 The Zoo

The Zoo was located in Hanoi about 2.5 miles SW of the Hanoi Hilton. There were 8 buildings that housed prisoners.  Harlan could remember the names the prisoners gave to 6 of the buildings: the Pool Hall, the Pig Sty, the Office, the Barn, the Garage, and the Auditorium.”  There was a building in the camp with a kitchen and VC admin offices. 

Conditions at the Zoo were notoriously bad, even by North Vietnamese prison standards.  There were loudspeakers throughout the camp that blared anti-American and anti-war propaganda throughout the day and night. 

When Harlan arrived at the Zoo, the VC immediately placed him in solitary confinement.  His cell had four walls, a door with no window, a light, and a bucket for a toilet.  The prisoners slept on the floor in solitary.  The guards kept the lights on 24 hours a day inside each of the solitary cells and the only sounds Harlan could hear were the loudspeakers around the camp blaring propaganda in the morning and then again in the evening for about a half hour each time.  During this time, CDR Jeremiah Denton[6] was placed in the cell next to Harlan’s.  CDR Denton had been a prisoner for more than six months and knew how to communicate using the prisoner tap code.[7]  He taught Harlan the code and a method for Harlan to teach other prisoners once out of solitary.

After learning the code, while still in solitary, Harlan took great personal risk to teach each new POW that wound up in either of the cells adjacent to his.  If a prisoner was caught communicating with another prisoner, in any way, the consequences were stark.

On October 17, 1965, just 19 days before Harlan was shot down, LTJG Rod Knutson, a Naval Flight Officer and former enlisted Marine, was flying his 76^th combat mission over Vietnam from the USS INDPENDENCE.  His F-4B Phantom, flown by ENS Ralph Gaither, was hit and the two were forced to eject. 

Rod Knutson and ENS Gaither were both captured by the VC.  Rod recalled the events leading to his capture, “Due to my low altitude ejection at over 500 knots, I suffered a fractured neck and back. During my capture I was fired upon by enemy soldiers and to protect myself I killed two of them before I was knocked unconscious by the muzzle blast of a rifle being fired at point blank range. I had a laceration over my right eye and an abrasion down my face along my nose, powder burns on my face, and a swollen knee.” [8]

As with Harlan, Rod spent time 4-6 weeks at the Hanoi Hilton before he was eventually moved to the Zoo.  Upon his arrival, Rod was immediately placed in solitary confinement.

In May of 1966, after six to seven months in solitary confinement, Harlan and Rod, who were still complete strangers to each other at the time, were moved out of solitary and placed together in a regular cell in the building known as the Office. They spent about a month together at the Zoo before being moved together to the camp known as the Briarpatch.  Harlan described this new location as “rural.”  He made it a point to mention the camp had no electricity.  I asked what the significance of this fact was and he replied, “I didn’t have to listen to loudspeakers blaring propaganda anymore!” 

At Briarpatch, Harlan and Rod shared a cell in three different buildings from June of 1966 until late January, 1967.  At the Briarpatch, Harlan and Rod immediately began establishing the groundwork to get the prisoner tap code they had learned at Hỏa Lò out to as many prisoners as he could.  They worked tirelessly to create a network that would ensure the code propagated throughout the entire camp.  Harlan and Rod not only taught other POWs the code, but also gave them a non-verbal method for teaching others.  Soon, new POWs were being taught the code within days of their arrival at the camp.  Harlan recognized the vital importance of maintaining open lines of communication between prisoners and disregarded his own well-being to ensure the welfare of his fellow POW’s

Harlan’s dedication to his fellow POWs, and his disregard for his own well-being, eventually caught up with him.  In July of 1966, the guards caught Harlan communicating with a fellow POW in another room.  They immediately took Harlan from his cell to another location in the camp where they beat and tortured him for two days.  At the end of the second day, the guards bound Harlan’s wrists and arms behind his back with cuffs and rope and left him this way in solitary confinement for five days.   

On this fifth day, the guards brought Harlan back to his cell, still in bindings.  During this time, Rod fed Harlan; brushed Harlan’s teeth; washed Harlan; and helped Harlan with his toiletries when he had to go to the bathroom.  After being bound continuously for 10 days, the guards finally removed Harlan’s bindings.

In captivity, the POWs kept track of time through the tap code; the VC change in routine on the weekends; and the propaganda broadcasts which would sometimes mention dates.  They exercised in their cells when they could.  The prisoners were not given books or anything else to read, although, Harlan remembers a couple of occasions where he was given English language North Korean propaganda magazines.  The magazines were dedicated to the glorification of North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung.  Harlan found humor in these magazines.  The prisoners were not permitted to send or receive mail or packages at the Briarpatch or the Zoo.  During Harlan and Rod’s first Christmas together in captivity, Harlan remembers, “We promised each other ‘if-we-ever-get-home’ Christmas gifts.  For our first Christmas after release, Rod sent me the Zippo lighter he had promised back in 1966 with the inscription, FUCK COMMUNISM.”  

In January of 1967, the VC moved Harlan and Rod back to the Zoo. They shared a cell in the Barn and continued to teach the tap code to as many of their fellow POWs as they could.  One such POW was Navy Seaman Apprentice Doug Higdahl.[9]  Doug had fallen off of his ship in the Gulf of Tonkin and was picked up by Vietnamese fisherman after 12 hours in the water.  The fisherman turned him over to the VC and he eventually ended up at the Zoo.  During his time as a POW, Doug managed to memorize the names and other personal data of 256 other prisoners.  He was later ordered by the senior officer in the camp to take an early parole offered by the VC and get all of the names he’d memorized back to the US Government for proof of life.  When Doug arrived back in the US, he was able to provide all 256 names.

In late January 1967, Harlan and Rod were severely tortured after refusing to bow to some guards that had entered their cell.  They were put in leg irons and their hands were cuffed to their bed boards.  The guards kept Harlan and Rod in these bindings 24 hours a day for nearly 30 days, “living in their own filth,” as Rod described it.

In May of 1967, after a little over a year of being cellmates, Harlan and Rod were split up.  They didn’t see each other again until almost six years later.   

Harlan stayed at the Zoo and the VC continued to interrogate him on a regular basis.  During these interrogations, they used severe torture methods, such as rope bindings, irons, beatings, and prolonged isolation.  The torture and severe maltreatment continued all the way through October of 1967 when Harlan was finally moved from the Zoo to another camp.  Through all these interrogations, Harlan adhered to the Code of Conduct, steadfastly refusing to provide the enemy with any important information – not even his own biographical information.  Each time he refused to provide information, he did so knowing he was inviting harsher treatment on himself.  Harlan credits his fellow POWs with giving him hope and inspiring him to continue on during those extremely difficult times while he interned at the Zoo.^[10]

When Harlan arrived at his new camp in October of 1967, he was put into a cell with Capt. Thomas Pyle, an Air Force navigator, and two Air Force pilots, Capt. Wilford “Will” Abbot and Capt. Douglas “Pete” Peterson.[11]  The four spent the next 3.5 years together in the same room, with no windows (except a pass through window for food and water), concrete slabs for beds, and one bare lightbulb.  Security remained tight at all the camps in Vietnam.  After over five years in captivity, Harlan had had open communications with only four other POWs – Tom, Will, Pete, and Rod.  

I asked Harlan if he or any of his fellow POWs ever attempted to escape.  He said there were not a lot of opportunities, but some tried, “Some POWs from another camp tried to escape.  They were eventually re-captured.  The VC response was to beat the escapees and, all the senior officers in the camp. The beatings were so severe that two of the POWs died from their injuries – one of the senior officer and one of the POWs that had tried to escape.  Word of the deaths got around to the other camps and after that, leadership in each camp passed word that no one would attempt to escape unless there was outside support.” 

 Things slowly began to get a little better for Harlan in late 1970.  For the first time, after five years of captivity, he was permitted to send and receive letters.  Harlan sent a letter to his wife and son – the first communication with his family since he was shot down.

In November of 1970, US Special Forces executed Operation Ivory Coast, a raid on the Son Tay prison camp located 23 miles west of Hanoi.  The purpose of the raid was to extract the 61 POWs being held at the camp.  The assault on the camp went as planned; however, after taking the camp, U.S. forces learned that the POWs had been moved previously for reasons unrelated to the raid.  After the raid, the VC worried more raids like Son Tay were coming and began conducting drills with the POWs to prepare.  Harlan described one of the drills, “It was nighttime.  They cuffed our arms behind our backs and took us out into the boonies, far away from the camp.  We were put in small, one-man holes that had been dug in the ground.  We weren’t allowed to move or make noise.  At some point, a huge ant crawled into my ear.  There was nothing I could do.  I kept trying to shake it out, but nothing worked.  We were in our holes for hours.  It was one of my worst nights as a POW.  I later got the ant out.  After the drill, they took us back to the camp and finally removed our arm cuffs.

Next, Harlan was moved to a camp named Dogpatch, near the Chinese border, where there were about 200 POWs.  He spent several months at this camp until the VC closed it down and sent him back to Hanoi.  

 Prisoner Release

It was now mid-1972 and things had changed a lot since Harlan was last in Hanoi.  He described his return to Hỏa Lò Prison, “We were all put into a big room.  There were about 50 of us.  There, they split us up and assigned us to four different rooms with about 15 POWs living in each.  We were allowed to talk to each other and there were whispers that we could be released in the near future.”  Harlan said there were signs the war may be winding down, “The constant bombing had pretty much stopped.  Generally, we were treated significantly better.  We were given new clothes and mats to sleep on with mosquito nets. The food was better.  The guards’ attitudes towards us got better.  POW’s were allowed to teach Spanish and math classes. We were free to walk around the camp.  Things like that.  We knew the peace talks were going on, but the VC kept extending the talks and things were moving slowly.  In late 1972, word from higher was passed around the camp that none of the POWs should ‘act up’ because release may be imminent.”  Harlan continued, “Then one day, a month or so later, the VC assembled all of us in the big room and read us the Paris Peace Accord.  This is when we really starting thinking it (release) was going to happen.” 

 The Paris Peace Accord was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1973.  The goal of the treaty was to end the war and establish peace in Vietnam.  The treaty called for the removal of essentially all remaining US Forces, including air and naval forces, in exchange for the return of Hanoi’s POWs.  It also ended direct U.S. military intervention in the conflict.  The war between North and South Vietnam would temporarily stop, but for less than a day.  Two years later, a massive North Vietnamese offensive conquered South Vietnam.^[12]

 The prisoners got word that release was now imminent.  When it happened, they would be released in three phases.  The POW code dictated the order in which the POWs would be released.  The first to go were the sick and wounded.  After that, those that had been POWs the longest (first in, first out) would fill the remaining numbers.  In this case, the first out were those POWs that had been in captivity for 6-8 years.  Harlan and Rod Knutson were both part of the first three groups to go.  On February 12, 1973, without notice, the VC marched Harlan and the rest of the first group of POWs to an airfield.  The group was put in formation and stood waiting.  Harlan recalled, “We weren’t sure what was happening.  Then, we saw a plane.  As it got closer, we realized it was a military aircraft – a Lockheed Martin C-141 Starlifter.  We were loaded on the plane and flown out of Vietnam.”  This was the second of three flights out that day in support of Operation Homecoming – Rod was on the first.  Over the next month and a half, Operation Homecoming brought the remaining 591 American POWs home from Vietnam.

 Homecoming

 After spending 2,657 days in captivity, and now 45 pounds lighter, Harlan was a free man.     

Harlan’s plane landed at Clark Air Force base in Angeles City, Republic of the Philippines.  There, he and the other POWs received brief medical examinations and each was assigned an escort officer to help him decompress. The escort officers had files with family letters and updated photographs, they answered questions about the past seven plus years and escorted the men through debriefings all the way back home.  The men were allowed time for a visit to the Base Exchange.  For his first act as a free man, Harlan bought ice cream.  The POWs were also given the opportunity to call home.  Harlan called his wife.  During this call, she told him that their relationship was over – she had left him, “I couldn’t blame her.  We had been married for 12 years and with my deployment to Japan, my time in captivity, etc., I had been gone about 9 of our 12 years of marriage.  That is a lot to ask of anyone.”  From there, they flew to Hawaii for a brief stopover.

The POWs received a warm reception in Hawaii.  All the Generals and Admirals on the island gathered on the airstrip to welcome the men home.  As the POWs went through the receiving line, Harlan recalled General Louis Wilson,[13] Commander, Fleet Marine Force Pacific, shook his hand and said, “Welcome back to the Marine Corps!” Harlan replied, “Thank you, General, but I never left.”  Harlan, a Captain when he was shot down, also learned that he had been promoted twice while he was in captivity and was now a Lieutenant Colonel. 

The group departed Hawaii and on February 14, 1973, landed at Travis Air Force Base about 50 miles outside of San Francisco, CA.  Because the release happened quickly, and with little notice, Harlan’s family was not able to get to California in time to meet him when his plane landed.  Later that day, he was taken to a hospital in Oakland for medical observation and debriefing. 

The next day, Harlan’s parents and siblings, along with his son, “Har,” came to the hospital to welcome him home.  Har, now 13 years old, was five the last time he had seen his father, “He didn’t know me.  We were basically strangers.  He and I exchanged awkward hellos with my other family members around.  Sometime after I finished all of my medical exams and debriefings, Har visited me in Ohio and we took off on a trip to Europe for a couple of months so we could get to know each other.  We went all over Western Europe and sailed the coast of Norway.  It was good for us.”