
The Code
Profile of retired Col. Carlyle Harris, a former POW in Vietnam who is credited with introducing the tap code, which the prisoners used to communicate
US Air Force Fighter Pilot Colonel Elmo Baker

Profile of retired Col. Carlyle Harris, a former POW in Vietnam who is credited with introducing the tap code, which the prisoners used to communicate

Robert Harper Shumaker is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy who went on to serve as rear admiral and naval aviator in the U.S. Navy. Shumaker is best known for his resilience as a prisoner during the Vietnam War, and for coining the phrase ‘Hanoi Hilton,’ in reference to the notorious North Vietnamese prison. During his captivity, Shumaker was instrumental in the implementation of the ‘tap code’ that the prisoners used to communicate

May 24, 1973: John Wayne thanks the President for his services to his country and warmly welcomes America’s POWs home at a historic White House dinner.

Shot card: ROLL: R36F-439 -HANOI -FIRST FLIGHT-14 MARCH 1973 Reel 8 1) CUs of Vietnamese people watching release ceremony. 2) Sequence showing returnees debarking bus, lining up, and stepping forward as their names are called: Lt Col H. C. Copeland, USAF; Lt Charles Zuhoski, USN; Capt Wallace Newcomb, USAF; Capt Carl Chambers, USAF; Maj Glenn Wilson, USAF; Capt Lauren Lengyel, USAF; Maj Glenn Myers, USAF; Maj Thomas Norris, USAF; Maj Thomas Parrott, USAF; Comdr Leo

Although the Vietnam conflict lasted for 20 years – from 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in 1975 – the United States government never officially declared war. Over 3 million people perished in the conflict, and hundreds of American and Vietnamese citizens were held in prison camps as unofficial POWs. The North Vietnamese captured American troops and the South Vietnamese held hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers. These POWs were treated in different but perhaps equally