HOW TO ESCAPE FROM PRISON | Charlie Plumb | TEDxOaksChristianSchool

several years ago I found myself in a prison camp in a tiny prison cell in North Vietnam that cell was eight feet long and eight feet wide I remember distinctly the dimensions of that cell I could paste three steps in one direction before I ran into a wall then I had the opportunity of turning around and pacing three steps the other way inside my new little home I had nothing to do I had no books to read no window to look out no TV telephone blackberry Bluetooth I didn't have a pencil or a piece of paper for 2,100 in three days that equates to age 24 to age 30 in my life I spent six Christmases six birthdays in a tiny prison cell a long way from home and I think the most value I can be in the few minutes we're together is to invite you into my little prison cell you see there's a great deal to be learned here so for the next few moments I like for you to try your best to smell the stench at that two gallon bucket in the corner I call my toilet like you to try to feel the baking heat of a tropical summer and at 10:00 rough prison cell 10,000 miles away from the good life my feet are trying to taste the salt the annoying taste of salt and the corners of your mouth from the sweat and the tears and the blood not that you'll ever be prisoners of war god forbid but hope you'll understand that the same kinds of challenges in fact maybe the biggest challenges you face in your life are the same challenges that I faced in mine and more importantly your response to the if you're going to succeed has to be the same recipe of responses I used over there just to survive and thrive and one more thing if this is already too great a stretch for you if you aren't even trouble bridging this gap and time and geography between my life experience in your own the best I can offer you is an interesting war story but here's the connect here's the touch point you see there's not a person here who is not in the last few weeks or months felt lonely and alone your support group is gone if you're having trouble communicating even with those you love the most you feel defeated and put upon the mountain is just too high so step into my little prison cell and I'll try to explain to you the ways that you surprised that you survived those prisons because you see as the minutes were in the hours and the hours wore in the days and the day is worn to weeks and months in that little prison cell I found that you you learn to acclimate you learn how to breathe deeply and think about things far away sunny beaches warm breezes thoughts of home and you know what happens you get so comfortable in your little prison cell that the last place you want to go is outside their cell because it's dark and lonely out here at least you know the devil in the light what happens is you get a restriction built up and it's not the eight feet between the walls it's the eight inches between your ears you're in a mental box ever been in one of those mental boxes we all get there I'm convinced that that you can be in a mental box with something so insignificant have had one of your friends unfriend you or something as major as a loss of a child how do you survive those little 8-inch prisons in your mind I was one of 571 men who came out of the prison camps in Vietnam what would you expect what what would you think of guys who were held in prison the longest in American history five six seven eight and a half years of my buddy ev Alvarez would you expect this to be so now mentally deranged full of hate and bitterness unable to go on with a normal life well that's what the psychiatrist's thought and the psychologists they had our families briefed to institutionalize us the rest of our lives that's what they thought was coming home from the prison camps of Vietnam I'm happy to tell you that we are setting records we're surprising a lot of people in fact there was a study done just a few years ago that's that's represented in a book called lessons from the Hanoi Hilton a Taylor keeneland the book says that of all the prisoner of all the combatants of Vietnam 30.6% have post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD of the prisoners of war four percent of us have post-traumatic stress disorder in fact they've come up with a new term it's called ptg post-traumatic growth that we actually survived and thrived because of the challenge we faced how do you do that what's the secret what I think number one you have to keep your parachute packed number two you have to drop an anchor and number three you have to tug on a wire I explained that I sat down in a restaurant several years after I came home about two tables over I noticed the guy looking at me I didn't recognize him he stood up walked over to my table pointed at me he said your captain plum I said yes sir I'm captain plum you're that guy you flew jet fighters in Vietnam fighter pilot part of the Top Gun school shot down parachuted to in the enemy hands you spent six years as a prisoner of war somewhat dumbfounded I looked up with this guy that said how in the world did you know all that he finally broken his smile and he said because I packed your parachute tell you this I was dumbfounded best I could do was staggered to my feet reached out a very grateful hand of thanks he came up with just a proper words the guy grabbed my he pumped my arm and he said I guess it worked well we spent a lot of time that night talking this guy was very humble he said I'm not the only one that packed your parachute oh yes I did the physical job what about your mental parachute how about your psychological parachute how about your spiritual parachute somebody else packed those and it's very true early on my mother taught me a lot about forgiveness my father taught me a lot about discipline he said discipline would bring me freedom and I would use both of those wonderful people in my life that packed my parachute in surviving and thriving in that prison camp and if then in school a coach I'll never forget name Smith after a very losing season I'm wandering off of the locker room and then I felt this arm over my sweaty shoulder and I said I'm sorry coach I guess this team's just a bunch of losers and he squeezed my shoulder and he sunk his fingernails into the flesh and he said son what do you think you're a loser or whether you think you're a winner you're right and he was right life is a choice regardless of where you go and the challenges you face you can choose happiness or sadness you can choose profit or loss you can choose health or sickness you can choose life or death and you can choose to give away all those other choices at the Naval Academy I learned a lot there I got a degree in engineering from the Naval Academy learn how to drive ships around the Chesapeake Bay and those instructors taught me the value of an anchor an anchor stabilizes a ship in stormy weather and the chaplains there taught me the value of an anchor in life and those challenging times when you need when you need stabilization you need the focus you and he's a reason to be you need a purpose in life that anchor holds you steady and even in the prison camp the parachute Packer just came out of the shadows of my life on that prison camp I was pacing along there a couple hundred miles in there my experience I heard the far corner of the chirping noise of a cricket I walked over to check it out no cricket at all but a piece of wire about that long poked through a hole to the base of the cell wall and scratching on my concrete floor making this chirping noise like a cricket I knew the enemy was not sophisticated enough to try to trick me that meant on the other end of that wire had to be another fighter pilot like me boy what I'd like to talk to another fighter pilot could we tell some stories but I'll bet that guy's tougher than I am he's probably older more mature a better pilot he probably didn't cry when they tortured him like I did I'm losing interest now ever get that way you know when that when that mental box starts to come in on you the last thing you want to do is take a risk the last thing you want to do is tug on a wire and I thought to myself I'll just crawl over here in the corner of this prison cell and wait surely in a few years they'll break down the gates and I'll be set free and I'll never have to take another risk the rest of my life and the wire kept scratching and I kept sweating and I finally had to reach down and grab that wire and tug the wire tug back I tugged again and it disappeared right back through that rat hole but it came back about an hour later this time a note wrapped around the end of the wire the note had a code written on it where we could tug on the wire representing various letters of the alphabet or abbreviations and we could communicate which was a godsend just to have the validation of another human being knowing that I was alive and caring about me Bob shoemaker was on years within that wire fighter pilot extraordinaire astronaut candidate but better than that here's a parachute Packer he dove into that prison camp for two years when I showed up a total of over eight years for Bob shoemaker I said how in the world do you survive this he said well you will find that you've just joined the finest team you'll ever play on you will the best example of leadership in the world right here in this prison camp our leaders can't talk to us they can't fire us they can't hire us they can't give us a bonus and yet they've redefined our mission here they've given us an anchor we are still combatants here we are not on the defensive we are warriors and we will fight this war to turn our last dying breath I said okay but what does it take he said well you have to be a believer he said I'm not a preacher I'm not gonna try to convert you to our religion but you have to have faith you have to have faith in and your team the other prisoners of war in this camp you have to have faith in your flag in your country you have to have that that reason that purpose in life and our purpose here is to fight this war till our death the last dying breath well he's sure packed my parachute that day I don't think I'd be alive today if it hadn't been for Bob shoemaker the war ended we came home after many metres net prison camp they thought we'd be in baskets well we're setting records from 591 men we have produced 17 generals and seven admirals most of us retired as senior great military officers we went back to flying airplanes and commanding fleets around the world we have doctors and lawyers and preachers and teachers congressmen two United States senators two ambassadors from our number a vice presidential candidate a presidential candidate and they're telling us today we're healthier mentally and physically than if we hadn't been through that experience what does that mean to you you'll never be prisoners of war I hope and pray none of you ever face that 8-foot box but you will face the eight inches we all get there good bad ugly we're all there how do you escape how do you survive and even thrive through that experience well I'm convinced you have to keep your parachute packed you have to have that baseline foundation from your family from your coaches from your team from your community from your nation and you have to drop that anchor be sure that you have a purpose in life be sure that there's there's a focus to your very being erased on d'etre as the French say and you have to tug on wires even in the midst of that challenge you have to you you have to step into the the fray you have to embrace that challenge and if you can do those things you can escape every 8-inch prison in your life thank you very much thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 18,382

Rating: 4.96 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, America, Career, Communication, Connection, Military, Prison, Success, War

Id: Ar9vvP-2WnU

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 27 2018