U.S. Veteran Describes Being Prisoner of War in Vietnam

major Harold Johnson of Blake's burg Iowa was among the first to take up the fight by 1966 he was flying missions from takla Air Force Base in Thailand as an electronic warfare officer in the backseat of an f-105 wild weasel every day you were shot at very severely you know and I'd have a lot of the electronics there and hopefully do the job that I'm supposed to do to protect the rest of the flights wild weasel crews who flew in the specialized to top-secret jet had only a 50% survival rate by April of 67 Johnson had beaten the odds flying 92 missions with Major Leo Thorson but on their 93rd mission just seven shy of the 100 flights it would have allowed them to go home their luck ran out just like somebody slammed a big door behind me infrared missile went right up the tailpipe and exploded and we had the smokin fire whatever Leo said get out Harry and so I did both men ejecting safely but were later captured before being taken to a prisoner of war camp Johnson was paraded through a nearby village and they were screaming and hollering throwing rocks and someone whose sharp bamboo so they were stabbing and I still got scars on the legs the kids were the worst they could slip through the guards get at you I had a lot of holes in me when I got to the camp seeking information on the US air campaign his captors tortured him virtually every day at the end about eight days when I started having so many hallucinations and quite now targets here and a target there whatever I had no idea but it looked like a good target to me a year into his captivity Johnson's value as an intelligence source was exhausted but the torture continued they asked these questions and expected you to answer if they had a need to use you as a propaganda voice they'd take us out put us into individual cells and then bring us in for interrogation until he could work somebody to see a delegation or or us you know right you must write something and then they finally get somebody to the point where he'd what you'd do it and then I put you back yourself for the most part Johnson was isolated in a small cell but over time he learned to secretly communicate with other prisoners he had appealed of via communication system it usually had tapping if you can picture a box with five units that you put your letters and one would be the first line and then you go ABCDE the guards couldn't speak English most of them but they new keep shut up I'm alive and well and being treated very fairly after being shot down Johnson was listed as missing in action his wife Linda had no idea if he was dead or alive I had such faith that he was still alive and had three little children that depended on me so I just stayed positive the military chaplain came about two hours after they had told me and he said we've got to plan a memorial service and I said my husband isn't dead and uh I said get out of here and I don't want to ever see you again Furman the belief her husband was still alive she carried on for nearly three years without any official confirmation of his faith well when I actually sign was on TV and oh I I just turned off watching all the news because I I didn't want the children to be exposed to it and they were watching cartoons and I heard this announcement that they had some Japanese some Japanese photographers had gone into North Vietnam and they had some film so of course I tuned in and and that's the first thing I saw him right there in the Bill of the screen and I was just amazed after enduring nearly six years in captivity Harold Johnson was repatriated to the United States well it finally happened a lot of times when you're being interrogated that was the thing that gave us strength was you're gonna have to stay here on these days I'm going out of here anyway finally happened out of the airplane and always people so I get down say a few words you know and then I go to they say go to this red carpet there's a red carpet there you can see that much and this shadow comes flying to the air Chris Linda

Channel: Iowa PBS

Views: 1,650,945

Keywords: Vietnam War (Military Conflict)

Id: VTZ-B9mmAy0

Length: 5min 43sec (343 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2015