Customer Reviews

Survivors/american

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I read this book as part of a search for POW's from the 196th Light Infantry Brigade and it's supporting units. I found it to be an excellent look into the POW experience which answered many questions on the trials that my brothers endured.

This book describes the POW experiences of 9 Americans (2 pilots and 7 soldiers) held in Vietnamese jungle prison camps and, later, the Hanoi Hilton. The first third of the book covers time spent by the grunts as they were captured and held in the jungle. Initially, I was disappointed not to read about the Hanoi Hilton, but the author slowly leads us up to that point. He describes, after several years in prison jungles, how the soldiers are moved out north, toward Hanoi, and later kept in the Hilton with other prisoners. The stories are told in first person narratives and are interwoven with stories from the other camp mates. This book is not about prisoners in various camps around Viet Nam, but about one specific camp. Nevertheless, it is an excellent book about their experiences in the jungle prison and the torture and boredom they lived through day end and day out. I recommend this book along with Grant's "Over the Beach" (about jet pilots flying off of the Oriskany on bombing missions over North Viet Nam).