4
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at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’
Four former students recall captivity
By Daniel A. La Bry
Section Co-Editor
F or several years the “Hanoi Hilton” provided
room and board to four former students of
Texas A&M — but it was no vacation.
The Aggies were prisoners of war in North Viet
nam. The “Hanoi Hilton” was a nickname for North
Vietnam’s main penitentiary, Hoa Lo prison, located
in the middle of Hanoi.
Robert Norlan Daughtrey, who left A&M his ju
nior year in 1955 to enter aviation cadet training, was
captured Aug. 2, 1965, minutes after he ejected from
his crippled F-105 during his 16th mission. Daugh
trey suffered two broken arms during the ejection.
“I was being thrown around in the cockpit quite a
bit,” Daughtrey said. “When 1 ejected, my right arm
hit the canopy rail on the way out. My left arm hit the
seat due to the wind blast.”
Daughtrey, held captive for 7Vs years, said he was
captured almost immediately after reaching the
ground.
“I was wondering whether 1 was going to live or
die,” he said. “Then they (the North Vietnamese)
gave me a little medical aid, and I figured they
planned to keep me for a little while.”
James Edwin Ray, Class of’63, was captured May 8,
1966 after he ejected from his burning F-105. Ray’s
aircraft was shot down on Mother’s Day.
The Americans discovered Ray, held captive for six
years and nine months, was a prisoner two months af
ter he was shot down when Radio Hanoi broadcasted
the alleged “confessions” of his crimes against the
North Vietnamese people.
Ray wore his Aggie ring and a Memorial Student
Center leadership watch into combat. In the July
1973 issue of the Texas Aggie, Ray said he thought he
was invincible at the time and wouldn’t be shot down.
The North Vietnamese took the pieces of jewelry,
and Ray hasn’t seen them since.
John Charles Blevins, Class of ’61, was captured
Sept. 9, 1966 after his F-105 was hit by anti-aircraft
fire. Search missions failed to spot Blevins. He was a
POW for nearly 3V2 years before his family learned of
his status.
“On my 90th mission, I was shot down about 40
miles north of Hanoi over a railroad bridge, which
was a target at the time,” Blevins said. “I was captured
within about two hours after I was shot down.
“I was hoping it was going to be a short war.”
Blevins, held captive for 6V2 years, said he wasn’t
expecting any rescue efforts since he was shot down
so far inland.
“I had to decide whether or not I would have a
shoot-out with my captors,” he said. “I decided I
didn’t have anything to gain by doing that since it
wouldn’t have much of an effect on the enemy.”
Alton Benno Meyer, Class of ’60, was captured
April 26, 1967 after his F-105 was hit by a missile.
Meyer suffered a broken right leg.
“I was shot down about 60 miles northwest of Ha
noi,” Meyer said.
Meyer, held captive for almost six years, said his sit
uation was rather bleak at the time and there wasn’t
much he could do.
All four Aggies were officers in the U.S. Air Force
and were pilots of F-105 aircraft.
About 75 percent of the air strikes against North
Vietnam were carried out by F-105 aircraft, which
flew some of the toughest missions during the war.
Daughtrey, Ray, Blevins and Meyer all were sta
tioned in Thailand immediately before they were cap
tured.
T he four spent the majority of their captivity in
Hoa Lo prison.
American prisoners routinely were circu
lated to other prison camps in North Vietnam. The
North Vietnamese tried to destroy a prisoner’s resis
tance and break down his morale by isolating him and
making him feel as if he had been forgotten.
American POWs were held in several different
camps in North Vietnam.
The “Hanoi Hilton,” “Alcatraz,” the “Zoo” and the
“Plantation” were in Hanoi. Six more prison camps
were within 50 miles of Hanoi and one, “Dogpatch,”
was in the northern mountains, five miles from the
China border.
Meyer said, “They (the facilities in Hoa Lo) were
fairly crude. It was sort of like a dungeon.
“The cells had concrete bunks with stocks at the
feet and little peep-holes where the guards passed the
food through and looked in. They were quite filthy.”
At one point and time, all four Aggies were located
in the same camp. Because of the North Vietnamese’s
strict communication rules, information on other
prisoners was not easy to come by.
Meyer said, “The Vietnamese took a lot of pains to
keep us from seeing each other and talking to each
other.
“I had a cellmate who had been cellmates with Ble
vins and he told me that Blevins was from A&M.”
Next to word-of-mouth, the most efficient method
of communication for the prisoners was a special code
of the alphabet that was used in all the camps.
Tapping was the most common method of trans
mission, but Daughtrey said prisoners would use ev
ery opportunity they had to communicate. He said
everything from dragging of sandals, to sweeping
with a broom, to tying knots in a string was used to
transmit the code.
Communicating with other prisoners was met with
severe punishment when prisoners were caught.
S ome of the notorious prison personnel who
participated in the punishments received in
teresting nicknames from the prisoners.
“Pigeye,” also known as “Straps and Bars” for his
favorite working tools, was believed to torture more
American prisoners than any other member of the
Hanoi prison system.
Other prominent personnel included “Soft Soap
Fairy,” “Spot,” the “Rat” and “Frenchy.”
The North Vietnamese viewed and treated the
American prisoners as criminals.
Blevins said, “They had a propaganda stance that
considered us as criminals, and they refused to give
us the Geneva Convention’s conditions agreed to by
all nations during wartime.
“They were continually pressuring people for
propaganda purposes.”
Meyer said, “I had a broken leg at the time, so they
just threw me on the floor of the cell and didn’t put
me on the bunk.”
The North Vietnamese put a cast on Meyer’s right
leg and performed some surgery, he said.
“Since I had a broken leg and wasn’t in too good of
shape, there was not much they could do to torture
me,” he said. “As soon as they would start to work on
me, I would pass out on them.
“It’s pretty hard to torture someone who is
unconscious.”
Ray, who is stationed in Rome and was unavailable
for comment, said in a 1979 Battalion article that he
and other prisoners were tortured to destroy their
morale and force them to give information and write
phony confessions.
Ray said he credits part of his survival to his train
ing in A&M’s Corps of Cadets. He said he remem
bered being harassed as a freshman and would tell
himself that his captors couldn’t do better than those
sophomores who harassed him at A&M.
In August 1967, the North Vietnamese moved Ray
and 13 other prisoners into the Hanoi Power Plant in
an attempt to prevent the United States from bomb
ing the plant.
Ray said the mental pressure of being at the plant
was strenuous and, although he sometimes feared for
his life, his spirit was lifted and encouraged when he
heard the bombs start to fall.
In November 1970, most of the prisons around
Hanoi were abandoned as a result of a U.S. attack on
a prison camp northwest of Hanoi.
A team of 70 U.S. Army Special Forces troops
raided the Son Tay prison camp in hopes of rescuing
American prisoners. To their dismay upon arrival,
the troops failed to find a single American prisoner.
The POWs located at Son Tav already had been
t '-- .
moved to another camp in one of the North Vietnam
ese’s routine rotations.
Fearful of another U.S. attempt to rescue any
POWs, the North Vietnamese moved most of the
American prisoners to Hoa Lo because of its high se
curity.
A series of three concrete walls, 15 to 20 feet high,
surrounded the inner buildings of Hoa Lo. Broken
glass was cemented into the surface of the walls, and
electrical wires covered the perimeter.
Hoa Lo contained four major areas, all named by
the American POWs: “Heartbreak Hotel,” “New Guy
Village,” “Las Vegas” and “Camp Unity.” Prisoners
were frequently circulated among the different areas
of Hoa Lo.
“Heartbreak Hotel” was a tomblike building with
eight individual cells, one which was used as a wash
ing area. Each cell contained two cement bunks with
barely enough room to walk between them.
The bunks were two feet wide. At the bottom of
each bunk, a set of iron stocks was embedded into the
cement. Prisoners’ feet were locked in the stocks and
their arms were handcuffed behind their backs for
punishment.
The “Heartbreak Area” contained the “knobby
room” where the walls were covered with knobs of
acoustical plaster to absorb the screams of men being
tortured.
“New Guy Village” was the smallest area in the
prison. It was mainly for interrogation and torture.
“Las Vegas” was an assortment of cells ranging
from four-man units, to two-man units, to cells that
were about 3 feet by 6 feet. These small cells con
tained a hardwood bed on one wall that left less than
a l-foot-by-6-foot area to walk and exercise in.
“Las Vegas” was used for long and brutal incarcer
ation.
“Camp Unity” was a cheerful place compared to
the other areas of the prison. It consisted of nine cell
blocks that housed about 40 prisoners each.
Regular church services were started in each cell by
the prisoners in “Camp Unity” after several con
frontations with prison guards.
C
after:
hurch services were one of several im
provements in the treatment of prisoners.
The improvements began in the late 1960s
• The death of North Vietnam President Ho Chi
Minh.
• Increased American bomb raids.
Daughtrey and Ray were among that first group of
prisoners released Feb. 12, and Blevins and Meyer
were released March 4.