Doug Hegdahl said he “probably had the most embarrassing capture of the Vietnam War”. Despite the odd circumstances that led him to become a Prisoner of War, he would turn out to be a rather unusual hero.
Author Marc Leepson shares Hegdahl’s amazing story in his latest book “The Unlikely War Hero; A Vietnam War POW’s Story of Courage and Resistance in the Hanoi Hilton.”
Hegdahl grew up in a small South Dakota town and was described as very bright but poorly motivated. When the Army draft notice arrived, his mother convinced him to join the Navy because she thought it would be safer.
Sometime in the early morning of April 6, 1967, while serving aboard the USS Canberra, Hegdahl would fall off the ship. While Marc says it was never truly determined how this came about, it was most likely that the concussion of the large five-inch guns blew him overboard.
Hegdahl would drift for twelve hours before being picked up by Vietnamese fisherman who turned him over to North Vietnamese soldiers. At first Hegdahl was accused of being a spy or a commando because his interrogators could not believe he simply fell off his ship.
Arriving at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” Hegdahl developed a unique tactic; using his “aw shucks” country boy persona to convince his captors he was a complete idiot. Believing him harmless, the guards allowed “the incredibly stupid one” more latitude and freedom in the camp, which he used to his advantage.
Hegdahl began memorizing the name of every other POW he could, building a mental “database” of somewhere around 256 names.
Hegdahl was selected by the North Vietnamese for early release because they believed he held no value. Receiving early release was seen by the other POWs as dishonorable. At first Hegdahl refused but relented when he was ordered to accept the release by the senior ranking POW in camp so that he could share his list of names upon returning home.
At the time, the North Vietnamese only admitted to holding a few captured pilots. But when Hegdahl was debriefed and recited the names of 256 other prisoners and the conditions in which they were held, it was a huge revelation. Many families of those listed as Missing in Action at least had the relief of knowing their loved ones were still alive.