[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2204-2206]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE 42ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF AMERICAN POWS FROM 
                                VIETNAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Dold) is recognized 
for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend from Texas for 
his remarks talking about Sam Johnson, one of the great American heroes 
that we have the honor here of serving with. That tap code that you 
just heard was really the lifeline, the lifeline for so many of the 
almost 600 POWs, the vast majority in the Hoa Lo Prison. So while you 
heard those taps, those taps were actually the communication system 
that allowed those POWs to have some sort of contact with another 
human, and, I would argue, probably saved many lives.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield to my good friend from 
Kentucky.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Dold), my friend, for his leadership on this issue and for leading this 
special hour. I also want to thank my friend from Texas for honoring 
our colleague Sam Johnson, a true American hero who, through his 
service and sacrifice, his time in the Hanoi Hilton, his time as a 
prisoner of war in Vietnam, really showcased what it means to be a 
great patriot and an American hero willing to sacrifice for his fellow 
countrymen and for the freedom that we all enjoy.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of central and eastern Kentucky, 
I, too, rise today to recognize the 42nd anniversary of the release of 
American prisoners of war from Vietnam. I would like to honor the brave 
men and women who courageously wore our Nation's cloth and made great 
sacrifices in the name of freedom.
  As I walk into my congressional office, I am reminded every day of 
all the American servicemembers that never returned home from past wars 
by the POW flag that I proudly display outside of my office.
  Since the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Kentuckians have 
continued to answer our Nation's call to service. In fact, over 125,000 
Kentuckians courageously and unselfishly served during the Vietnam era, 
and the people of Kentucky honor those who fought and died in Vietnam 
by commissioning the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which 
overlooks Kentucky's beautiful State capitol building in Frankfort. I 
would also like to recognize the organizations that keep the memories 
of those who have sacrificed much for our country alive, organizations 
such as Task Force Omega of Kentucky, Rolling Thunder, and the Kentucky 
Patriot Guard, who constantly remind us to never forget the 
servicemembers who have perished and have not yet returned home from 
Vietnam and other wars fought on foreign soil.
  While being held captive, American POWs found strength in each other, 
and as Congressman Dold and Congressman Olson pointed out, those taps 
were the way that those men in that prison kept each other's spirits 
alive. Through their struggle, they found resilience; through their 
faith, they found comfort; and through their patriotism, they found 
hope. We are so grateful to have these servicemembers home. As we know 
all too well from recent events in the Middle East, not all prisoners 
of war make it back to their family members alive, but we owe all of 
them a debt of gratitude.
  Unlike the veterans of World War II, Iraq, the Persian Gulf war or 
Afghanistan, those who served in Vietnam had a very different and 
unfortunate experience, many of them, when they returned home. Some 
were advised to change into civilian clothes and avoid contact with 
protestors, and it really hurt. They didn't deserve it. They deserve 
better. So for all of those veterans of the Vietnam war, including 
those who were POWs, we welcome them home because they deserve our 
respect, and they deserve to be welcomed home to a grateful nation.
  American servicemembers found hope in the fact that a grateful nation 
would not leave them behind and would

[[Page 2205]]

do everything possible to bring them home. We, as Americans, still 
stand behind that promise today.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois for the opportunity 
to honor the 42nd anniversary of the release of American POWs from 
Vietnam.
  Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for coming 
and joining us in honoring these really incredible servicemen, each 
with an incredible story, and really as we talk about it, actually, Mr. 
Speaker, I came to the floor yesterday. Yesterday I came to this very 
spot to talk about my uncle. My uncle is one of the Alcatraz 11, lives 
not far from the Capitol here in Washington. He was flying off the USS 
Coral Sea in an F-8 Crusader and was shot down on a low-level mission, 
flying about a thousand feet above the ground.
  Now, for those, Mr. Speaker, that don't know what an F-8 Crusader is, 
it is a jet that can fly at Mach 1.72, nearly twice the speed of sound. 
When it filled up with smoke after he was hit, he had very little time 
to eject. He ejected. His parachute opened about 35 feet above the 
ground, and he broke his back on impact.
  Now, this is an incredible story. Yesterday marked the 50th 
anniversary of being shot down. That was one of the darkest days, I 
would argue, certainly in our family; but for American servicemen, and 
certainly aviators, that is certainly a very dark day.
  Today, February 12, marks a very different day, a day for us to 
rejoice because it was the day that marks Operation Homecoming, the day 
that over 600 American POWs would eventually be released, and February 
12 was the day that those first POWs would be released from the Hoa Lo 
Prison.
  The Hoa Lo Prison, Mr. Speaker, was a prison that was built by the 
French, and unspeakable things happened at this prison. What is 
incredible to me is not the darkness of what happened at the Hoa Lo 
Prison, a prison that we know today as the Hanoi Hilton. What is 
remarkable to me is the fact that these servicemen relied upon faith 
and honor to get them through, and largely each other.
  So I just want those that may be tuning in to put themselves in the 
place of an American aviator, jumping on board a jet. Put yourself, 
perhaps, in the cockpit of that F-8 Crusader.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I am not revealing any news when we talk about 
American servicemen and -women being a little bit cocky if they are out 
there flying. I think some might think they are invincible. Well, the 
world changed certainly for my uncle and for many on the day of their 
captivity. They no longer had their aircraft. They no longer had their 
sidearm. They no longer had their uniform. All was stripped from them. 
They were issued, in essence, a pair of pajamas and a pair of sandals.
  Little did my uncle or Sam Johnson or Nels Tanner or Jim Stockdale or 
Jeremiah Denton or John McCain or many of the other POWs realize how 
long this conflict would continue. What they did know was that each and 
every one of them, as an American fighting man, was going to return 
home with honor.
  Many of you may know, Mr. Speaker, the story of John McCain. His 
father was very high up in the United States Navy. The Vietnamese knew 
that they had a prize when they had John McCain, and he was offered 
early release. They were going to give him a free pass home and comfort 
to be back here in the United States. The devastation that would have 
done to the POWs, the morale would have been devastating, and so he 
turned them down. The Vietnamese said it was going to be very bad for 
you now, Mr. McCain, and indeed it was. He, as well as the other 
Americans in captivity, would endure years of torture.

                              {time}  1800

  The big four, Mr. Speaker, was name, rank, serial number, and date of 
birth. And these men would be tortured for additional information. 
Every person--at least everyone that I know--has their breaking point, 
and certainly American POWs are no different.
  They set up a system. They set up, in essence, a military operation, 
following rank. Jim Stockdale was the highest-ranking officer and, 
therefore, sent word out that if they were broken, to be able to 
stiffen their back up and give no additional information next time.
  That tap code system that you heard the gentleman from Texas talk 
about, the 5 by 5 matrix, A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J--they eliminated the K 
because they needed to have a 5 by 5 matrix. Rows and columns--first 
the row, then the column. So B is first row, second column. And really, 
the way they did it is, ``shave and a haircut, two bits'' is how you 
started this conversation. So most Americans know that if you give the 
rap, they are going to respond with two taps. And that is when you knew 
there was an American on the other side of the wall. If they got any 
sort of a different response, they knew that it was most likely not an 
American and, therefore, they were going to stop their communication.
  What was going on through those walls was literally like hundreds of 
woodpeckers going nonstop, day in and day out, letting people know that 
it was okay, that they had them. They knew when someone was coming. 
They could hear the keys rattling and they knew that their comrade was 
going to be taken out and tortured and beaten. So when they got back to 
their cell, that tap code would go, letting them know that there was 
somebody there for them. Incredible.
  Now out of the hundreds of POWs that went to North Vietnam and were 
captured, there was a crew of the 11 greatest threats to camp security, 
according to the North Vietnamese. They became known as the Alcatraz 
11. My uncle, Bob Shumaker, was one of the Alcatraz 11, along with 
Admiral Stockdale, who was shot down in 1965. He was the senior U.S. 
officer present during the camps. And he was considered to be a big 
troublemaker, no question.
  Also, George Coker, who was shot down in 1966. Jeremiah Denton, a 
United States Senator from the great State of Alabama, was shot down in 
1965. Harry Jenkins was shot down also in '65. Sam Johnson, whom we 
talked about, whom we have the honor of serving with here in the United 
States Congress, was shot down in 1966 on his 25th combat mission. 
George McKnight was shot down in 1965. James Mulligan was shot down in 
1966. Howard Rutledge was shot down in 1965. Ron Storz of the Alcatraz 
11 was the only one who did not make it home alive.
  Nels Tanner has a unique story. He was the last of the Alcatraz 11. 
Nels Tanner got his ticket to Alcatraz by making the Vietnamese look 
bad. When he was being tortured and they were trying to get information 
about who was his commanding officer, Nels Tanner told them it was 
``Ben Casey'' and ``Clark Kent.'' Well, here in America, everybody 
knows Ben Casey and Clark Kent are not real figures. And when word got 
back to the Vietnamese that they had been made a joke of, he got his 
ticket to Alcatraz.
  Mr. Speaker, I want people to understand Alcatraz for a minute. The 
reason why these 11 men went to Alcatraz is because they were the thorn 
in the side of the North Vietnamese. They were the ones that resisted 
the hardest. They were the ones that caused the problems.
  The American fighting men in the Hoa Lo Prison, the Hanoi Hilton, 
they also caused problems, but these 11 were singled out. And they went 
into a cell that was--at most generous--about 4 feet by 9. Just imagine 
that, 4 feet by 9. It is about yea big, at 9 feet in front of you. The 
Alcatraz 11 spent, on average, about 2\1/2\ years in this prison camp. 
They were able to get out of their cell for 15 minutes a day to be able 
to go empty their sanitation bucket. They ate in their cell. And they 
had a tremendous amount of time.
  What can you do? The most important muscle that they exercised was 
their brain, which is why the tap code was so important. But they used 
other methods. They could cough. They could sneeze. They could try to 
do different things along those lines. They waved their hands in front 
of the door so that shadows would be indicative of those letters and 
they were able to communicate.

[[Page 2206]]

  Mr. Speaker, let me just say, my uncle built his home in Fairfax 
Station, Virginia, in his mind long before any brick was laid. Brick by 
brick, he knew exactly how many bricks it would take. He knew exactly 
how many feet of pipe it would take. He knew exactly how much lumber. 
These were the exercises. He built it, tour it down. He built it and 
tour it down. These were the exercises that these men would go through.
  At Alcatraz, Sam Johnson learned French through the walls. A product 
of Texas public schools, he might not have had the opportunity to learn 
a foreign language. So he used that opportunity in Alcatraz to learn 
French from Bob Shumaker. It is not the most ideal way to learn French, 
but the one thing they did have was time.
  The Vietnamese tried to strip everything from these men, but there is 
one thing that they couldn't strip. They couldn't strip their faith. 
They couldn't strip their honor. And each was determined that they 
would return to the United States with honor. That, I think, is just 
remarkable.
  One of the things, as we think about February 12, 1973, we cannot 
miss what was happening back here at home. Their spouses played a vital 
role and an active role not only with the government but also in the 
Paris Peace Accords, advocating for the release of the American POWs.
  Mr. Speaker, Vietnam was not a popular war, a war that went into 
living rooms. But the one thing that the American public was able to 
unite and rally around was our American POWs. Bracelets were worn 
identifying American POWs and the day that they were shot down.
  I have a bracelet, Mr. Speaker, in my office. It is sitting next to 
two pictures--one of the day Bob Shumaker was shot down, February 11, 
1965, and the other is this picture right here. This is the first time 
that he had an opportunity to see his wife and his son Grant, who was 
about 8 years and 3 months at the time, I think. When he had been shot 
down, his son Grant was only about 3 months old. This is the picture of 
them being reunited.
  I know it is not the best picture for people to be able to view. But 
in 1973, the styles were a little bit different. So after the release, 
Bob Shumaker called his wife, Lorraine, and wanted to make sure that 
she dressed in the fashion of 1965. You can't see the go-go boots, but 
you can see the miniskirt. And that was how he had remembered her, and 
that is how he wanted to see her when he got off that plane.
  Mr. Speaker, 8 years and a day for Bob Shumaker; 7 years plus for Sam 
Johnson; 5\1/2\ years for John McCain. Incredible stories. Torture.
  I can tell you that some of America's finest servicemen tried to take 
their own lives because they thought they let their country down when 
they gave information to the Vietnamese. But they were pulled up by 
their comrades, by the men who were next to them in these cells.
  There are a couple of others whom I think are particularly 
interesting, Mr. Speaker.
  Everett Alvarez actually was the first American POW. He was a U.S. 
Navy commander and was held in captivity for 8\1/2\ years.
  Douglas Hegdahl was really a unique case. Most of the POWs were 
aviators, whether they were flying for the United States Air Force or 
the United States Navy. Doug Hegdahl was a guy who was in the Navy but 
happened to be on a ship. He came up and happened to be standing on the 
deck. The ship zigged when he thought it would zag, and over the side 
he went. When he was picked up by the Vietnamese in civilian clothes, 
they thought he was a member of the Central Intelligence Agency. They 
put him in the Hoa Lo Prison, and he started to just get along.
  One of the things with that tap code that they tried to do each and 
every day was they would communicate who was newly in the prison. And 
when you think about trying to memorize the names of all the POWs--
because if, for some reason, somebody were to be released or to escape, 
they wanted to make sure that the United States had the opportunity to 
know exactly who was in captivity. It was absolutely critical for them, 
critical for their families to be able to know that they were still 
alive.
  Well, there were a couple of folks, Mr. Speaker, who were released 
early. I would say that was not necessarily the tack that many of the 
other POWs would have taken. Doug Hegdahl did not want to be released 
but was ordered to go because he had a photographic memory and knew 
every single POW, knew their hometown, their phone number. When he got 
back to the United States, he took his time to go to all of these 
places to visit the families of the POWs, to let them know that their 
son, that their husband, that their brother was still alive. He had 
memorized their addresses and phone numbers. He is really a remarkable 
man.
  Bud Day, Mr. Speaker, another pilot that was shot down, sustained 
significant injuries while flying his F-100F. John McCain credits him 
for really saving his life. While in captivity, he was in really tough 
shape. Bud Day was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, as was Jim 
Stockdale.
  Each and every one of these men--certainly the Alcatraz 11--were 
highly decorated for their efforts. But I think the thing that was most 
important to them was being able to return home with honor.
  We look at today, Mr. Speaker--February 12, 2015--as a celebration 
honoring the legacy that these American fighting men have given us all, 
an incredible faith and a dedication to make sure that each and every 
one of them was going to return with honor.
  There was a ceremony that happened on February 12 as they were 
discharged and marched out of the Hoa Lo Prison. They were determined 
to march in rank, as an American fighting force, and then were 
discharged one by one. The first one shot down would be the first one 
released. So that was Everett Alvarez. The second one was Bob Shumaker.
  They didn't believe that this day had finally come. They saw that C-
141 come into Hanoi and really didn't start the real celebration until 
the 141 had lifted off of that tarmac and the first group of American 
POWs were on their way home.
  Mr. Speaker, I am in awe every time I read stories of these men who 
did incredible things to endure and to overcome. It is an honor to be 
able to serve with one in this body, but it is also an honor to be able 
to stand here today on the day of Operation Homecoming and its 42nd 
anniversary and to say that America will never forget, America will 
always remember, that we stood by you then, and we look to stand by all 
of our men and women in uniform.

                              {time}  1815

  We are in the midst of a conflict right now in the midst of a war on 
terror. We must make sure that we give our men and women that we have 
asked to go out and defend us the tools necessary to protect our 
country and to do the job that we have asked them to do. I hope, Madam 
Speaker, that no one has to endure what these men endured in Hanoi.
  I want to thank my colleagues who join me here today, but I also 
wanted to take this opportunity for those that may be tuning in to let 
the POWs from the Vietnam conflict know how much they mean not only to 
me, but to our country. We thank you, and we love you.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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