On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. James Bond Stockdale was flying his A-4 Skyhawk on a mission over North Vietnam, just days after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, when his plane took fire and hurtled down. Forced to eject with seconds to spare, he landed with severe injuries: his left leg bent sideways by 60 degrees and his kneecap smashed; his left shoulder dislocated, rendering his arm useless; his back, he thought, likely was broken.
Hayden James Lockhart, 8 Years as a Vietnam POW
PREFACE When people ask about being a POW, they want to know what the Hanoi Hilton was like. What happened in the Hilton was the same for all of us. But what happened before we got to the Hilton or some other site was quite different. Some pilots were shot
