On October 26, 1967, when McCain was a US Navy lieutenant commander, his Skyhawk dive bomber was shot down over Hanoi. Because they thought Hegdahl so developmentally challenged, the Hỏa Lò Prison guards essentially gave him free reign to do a lot of the cleaning and sweeping around the prison yard. By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Business Insider These were the means by which other POWs verified the information given. Subscriber The US Navy apprentice soon realized the he would be better off if he played the “fool” card so . McCain, a military hawk, forever remained a staunch supporter of the Vietnam War, during which 58,000 Americans and nearly 3 million Vietnamese were killed. He stayed afloat South China Sea for about 12 hours until some Cambodian fishermen spotted him and fished him out of the water. But the prisoners back in Hanoi didn't have to wait long for treatment to change. And how right his fellow POWs were in making Doug Hegdahl an exception to the pact they made about early releases! Over the course of his captivity, he managed to disable five NVA prison trucks this way. For the next several years, the high-profile POW was subjected to prolonged brutal treatment and spent two years in solitary confinement in a windowless 10-by-10-foot cell. In the end, Doug Hegdahl fought the Vietnam War but not with bullets. It took a few days of slapping before he convinced his captors he was nothing but an illiterate, foolish US Navy apprentice who had little value to them. "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. Horst Faas/AP He didn't want to, but someone needed to tell the U.S. about the torture they were receiving there. See more ideas about Vietnam, Pow, Vietnam war. They believed he could neither read nor write and could barely even see. Certain he could be tortured for information, the Communists tried to get Hegdahl to write anti-American and anti-war propaganda. Doug Hegdahl memorized many names of servicemen that the government did not have. To top that, he was able to memorize the names, personal information as well as the capture dates and methods of capture of another 256 POWs in the camp. Furthermore, he was a firsthand witness of the brutalities that occurred inside the prison camps where the POWs were interred. Hegdahl was a South Dakota native who was blown off the deck of the USS Canberra as the ship's five-inch guns fired on nearby targets of opportunity. To top that, he was able to memorize the names, personal information as well as the capture dates and methods of capture of another 256 POWs in the camp. He decided the best thing he could do was play dumb. Douglas Hegdahl walked freely around the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison camp, one of many American prisoners of war held there in 1967. When he was released, not only did Hegdahl recite the names of the 256 men who were shot down or captured in North Vietnam, he could say their dog's name, kids' names, and/or social security numbers. And McCain's survival through years of nearly fatal torture and hardship in the Hanoi prison known as the "Hanoi Hilton" was made more impressive by his refusal to be repatriated before the release of all the American POWs captured before him. Learn how very convincing Vietnam War POW Doug Hegdahl was at acting his “stupidly stupid” character while at the hands of his Vietnamese captors leading them to give him an almost free run of the POW camp he was in. "Try to imagine that moment between getting offered early release and turning it down," Wallace wrote of McCain's decision to remain in Vietnamese captivity. McCain's courage during his brutal captivity bolstered his political bona fides. On the other hand, fellow POWs – who initially made a pact not to accept early releases – saw a great advantage if Doug Hegdahl was indeed released earlier. Sen. John McCain, a giant of American politics who died on Saturday at 81, was perhaps most profoundly shaped by his military service and more than five years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He was sweeping the courtyards during the prison guards' afternoon "siesta." After that, Hegdahl was imprisoned with Dick Stratton, who was the ranking officer for a time. A few months after joining, Doug found himself on the gun line of USS Canberra off North Vietnam. McCain is escorted by Lt. Cmdr. Once Hegdahl described the treatment of POWs in public and to the media, the ones he left behind saw their treatment improve, receiving better rations and less brutality in their daily life. After failing at that, they decided to write a confession for him to sign, which he did: "Seaman Apprentice Douglas Brent Hegdahl III United States Navy Reserve, Commanding Officer, USS Canberra.". Once overboard, he floated in the South China Sea for 12 hours before being picked up by fishermen, who turned him over to the North Vietnamese. Seeing him as someone they could manipulate for their own interest, the Vietnamese militiamen assigned someone to teach him how to read. The fishermen who found him treated him kindly but when he was turned over to Vietnamese militiamen, they clubbed him repeatedly with their rifles before taking him to the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison camp. The information Doug had etched in his memory with the help of a nursery rhyme proved to be very valuable that Ross Perot sent him to Paris to confront the North Vietnamese Peace Talk Delegation about the fate of those servicemen who went missing in action.

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