Until his release Feb. 12, 1973, he was a prisoner of war at the “Hanoi Hilton” prison compound. A common torture, he said, was an arm contortion known as the “rope trick,” in which his arms were forced behind his back and toward his head.

Firsthand Account of Congressman Sam Johnson, Vietnam War POW
Congressman Sam Johnson, first elected in 1991 to represent the Plano area, spent twenty-nine years in the United States Air Force, where he distinguished himself piloting missions in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars before retiring in 1979 as a colonel. His F-4 Phantom was shot down in 1966 while

