Ryan speaks with Navy Captain David Carey about his incredible experiences serving in Vietnam as a fighter pilot and being shot down and captured by North Vietnamese forces, how 2,022 days in captivity led to him embracing the teachings of Epictetus, why the community that he and his fellow POWs formed in prison saved them from depression, how he has been using his experiences to help others ever since, and more. David Carey is a retired Navy Captain who served in the Vietnam War, as well as an author, motivational speaker, consultant, and trainer. After being deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany in 1966, he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and taken as a Prisoner of War. After serving 2,022 days in the camp, David was released during Operation Homecoming in 1973 and was awarded the Legion of Merit with Valor. Since his retirement from the Navy in 1986, David has dedicated his work to sharing his experiences in the hopes of helping others through his speaking and training engagements and his book The Ways We Choose, Lessons for Life from a POW’s Experience. David’s work can be found at davecarey.com.
What Really Happened To MIA Soldiers In Vietnam?
Vietnam is often called “the war that won’t go away”, largely because of the continuing controversy of the POW/MIA (Prisoners Of War / Missing In Action) issue. Families of those who were POW/MIA in Vietnam organized an activist movement which went on to pursue a question which still haunts America nearly decades later: were soldiers left behind in captivity after the Vietnam War? Once the exclusive domain of a select fraternity of soldiers’ wives, the
