POW #75

The last time I saw my mother was fifteen years ago. It had been a long brutal fifteen years of torture and punishment. My name is Capt. John Gordon and I was a prisoner of war for fifteen years in Vietnam. I could not believe I was alive after this. It all started after I got an assignment to fly over Vietnam to a United States base to retrieve ammunition. This flight was cut short after my plane was shot down by a Vietnam soldier. The impact of the crash was unforgivable, I immediately lost consciousness. I woke up on what was seemed to be a bamboo stretcher in the middle of the jungle. I broke my back in the crash soI couldn't move at all. I was taken to a camp in southern Vietnam. I would sit in the wooden cage for days on end. I was barely fed, and when I was it was nothing you could ever imagine.

After five years had gone by I had completely healed and was able to move and walk around, but the place I was in was very unsanitary. I ended up getting malaria, it almost killed me but I fought through it. I spent my next nine years on different camps in Vietnam. One day I was sitting in my cell when I was transported to a base in northern Vietnam. I had no clue what was gonna happen, I then seen a United States helicopter. My heart dropped as soon as I seen the Helicopter land. I was walked up to the helicopter and thrown inside. Words couldn't describe how I felt at that moment. I was free, after fifteen years. When I got home It was very different, nothing was the same. The first thing I did was see my family. It was the most amazing feeling being able to see them again. After all that I went through, I am glad I fought through it and became a stronger individual.