
Gary Sigler recalls six years of captivity, torture in Hanoi Hilton
U.S. Air Force captain Gary Sigler recounted the story of his near-death and survival through captivity in the Hanoi Hilton.

U.S. Air Force captain Gary Sigler recounted the story of his near-death and survival through captivity in the Hanoi Hilton.

Col James L. Lamar flew over 200 combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. He was also a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Col Lamar was well received by cadets as he talked about both his missions and life as a prisoner of war.

On September 9, 1965, Admiral James Stockdale’s A-4 Skyhawk jet was shot down in Vietnam. He was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese and spent the next seven years being tortured and subjected to unimaginable loneliness and terror. Fortunately, three years earlier, he was recommended a book. That book, he says, saved his life. After twenty years in the navy, Stockdale decided to go back to school. He enrolled in a two-year graduate program at

American Veterans Center’s 2006 conference panel on Vietnam: The POW Experience, featuring Col. George “Bud” Day, Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier, Capt. Jack Fellowes, and Lt. Col. Anthony Marion Marshall.

Captured and at the mercy of an increasingly cruel enemy, German-born US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler was left with no choice but to attempt a daring escape from the Pathet Lao prison camp in which he was being held during the Vietnam War. The fateful decision was made only after he and six other POWs had overheard plans to get rid of them as soon as the guards ran out of food. Dieter would choose