American soldier Douglas Hegdahl was captured by North Vietnamese forces in 1967
and sent to the infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison camp.
On a day like any other, Hegdahl walked to the main entrance and messily swept the floor. The
prison guards paid no attention to the young man, as they believed he was intellectually disabled.
But instead of cleaning, the soldier was memorizing all the activities
taking place at the front gate to later recount them to American authorities.
That is because Hegdahl, known around the camp as "The Incredibly Stupid One," was only pretending,
as he was just a regular man with a great memory, a distaste for communism, and a flair for acting.
Man Overboard
Douglas Hegdahl was born in South Dakota in 1946.
At only 19 years old, he followed the advice of an Army recruit and joined the US Navy.
Hegdahl began his service in 1965 when he was sent to boot camp in San Diego.
He was then assigned to USS Canberra, a missile cruiser in the Gulf of Tonkin
just three miles off the Vietnamese coast.
On April 6, 1967, Hegdahl reported for duty at 4:00am. Despite the rough weather conditions,
he violated protocol and went out to the top deck to take some air.
Suddenly, a blast from a 5-inch gun mount knocked the sailor overboard.
Douglas's shipmates did not report him as missing for over two days.
Since he did not carry an identification card or a life preserver, the crew believed they
lost him and held a memorial service in his honor.
In reality, Hegdahl was a remarkable swimmer and had immediately followed Navy survival protocol.
He took off his boots, bound them to his neck,
and then turned his pants into a makeshift life jacket. Douglas floated in the South
China Sea for over 12 hours before he was picked up by a group of fishermen.
However, as soon as the boat touched land,
the American was handed to the North Vietnamese authorities, who then transferred him to the
most famous prisoner-of-war camp of the Vietnam War: the Hỏa Lò prison.
A Plan
The Hỏa Lò prison was located in Hanoi's French District
and received great notoriety during the Vietnam War. American prisoners endured
miserable conditions there, and the complex was sarcastically known as Hanoi Hilton.
Although the North Vietnamese government had previously signed the Third Geneva
Convention of 1949, which forbade inhumane treatment of prisoners of war, many of the
inmates endured violent interrogations that included vile acts of torture.
When Douglas arrived at the prison,
the enemies did not believe his story and insisted that he was a CIA agent.
The Communist officers even tried to get Douglas to write anti-American and anti-war
propaganda to torment him, showing him similar documents that other higher-ranking captives
had allegedly signed. Hegdahl thought about it for a moment and then agreed to do it.
The North Vietnamese were utterly surprised, as no other soldier had done so voluntarily.
However, Hegdahl had a plan.
When he was presented with ink and paper, the young sailor began acting as a disabled
person and like he couldn’t read or write. The officers were convinced,
and Douglas was constantly beaten during the next few days before his bumpkin demeanor and
youthful appearance convinced his captors that he was not a threat.
The North Vietnamese then tried to teach the sailor how to read and write.
After failing miserably, they wrote a confession for him and forced him to sign it.
He did so by writing the only words he pretended to know: [QUOTE] "Seaman Apprentice
Douglas Brent Hegdahl III United States Navy Reserve, Commanding Officer, USS Canberra."
The Incredibly Stupid One
Soon after his arrival, Douglas Hegdahl became known around
Hỏa Lò as "The Incredibly Stupid One." The young sailor was then assigned to
sweeping duty and given free rein to roam around the entire camp, including the front gates.
Douglas then took advantage of this and thought of ways to thwart the North Vietnamese efforts
in the war. He claimed to be interested in communism and requested a pair of glasses.
Once he could see clearly, he would walk around the prison and memorize every turn,
alley, and room, taking mental notes of the camp's layout and
linking inmates to cell blocks as he nonchalantly swept the floors.
Hegdahl would also try to help his fellow prisoners, often passing around notes so
inmates could communicate with each other. The sailor event went as far as filling the
gas tanks of five army trucks with dirt when no one was looking, rendering the vehicles useless.
However, that was only the beginning.
Old McDonald Had a Farm
Not only was Douglas Hegdahl a convincing actor,
but the sailor also had a phenomenal memory that allowed him to remember small
facts about the camp. And it didn't take long for his fellow prisoners to notice.
As one of the youngest prisoners in the camp, Hegdahl initially felt out of place
among the other higher-ranking captives, mostly senior aviators.
But when he was assigned to the plantation sleep quarters, the sailor met Joseph Crecca,
an Air Force pilot. Crecca was a master of mnemonic aids,
a memory technique that helps retain information. He then taught Hegdahl to
memorize 256 names and specific data to the tune of ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm.’
Hegdahl was then able to recite from memory the names of the prisoners,
their capture and arrival dates, and other personal information.
By the summer of 1969, the North Vietnamese authorities decided to
release three prisoners of war as part of a propaganda move.
However, after his stay with Crecca, Hegdahl had been locked with fellow
Navy member Dick Stratton and told about the POW pledge, in which the captured American
soldiers had vowed to return to the United States together or stay in prison forever.
Nonetheless, Stratton and other senior leaders urged Douglas to leave,
but the young man feared that he would dishonor his comrades by going home early and refused.
Stratton then tried to convince Douglas by telling him that: [QUOTE] "You are the most junior.
You have the names. You know first hand the torture stories behind many of the
propaganda pictures and news releases. You know the locations of many of the prisons."
He wasn't only the youngest and lowest-ranked inmate; Douglas was precisely what the United
States government needed to expedite the release of all the other prisoners of war.
Ultimately it wasn't Hegdahl's decision to leave but an order from his superior,
and on August 5, 1969, he was released along with two other prisoners.
The Truth
Back in the United States, Douglas Hegdahl was flown to the Paris Peace Talks in 1970
by American billionaire and philanthropist H. Ross Perot. Once there, Hegdahl shocked the world by
confronting the North Vietnamese, accusing them of torture and mistreatment of prisoners of war.
Douglas then recited the names of 256 men who were either attacked or captured in North Vietnam.
Singing to the tune of the nursery rhyme, Hegdahl also mentioned the names of the
men's dogs and children, and some of their social security numbers.
The prisoners back in Hanoi didn't have to wait long for treatment to change.
By exposing the North Vietnamese's abuse of power
to the world, the prisoners back in Hỏa Lò started to receive better treatment,
including better food rations, until the United States pulled out from the war in 1973.
Hegdahl would then use his life experience as an instructor in the Navy's Survival,
Evasion, Resistance and Escape school at NAS North Island in San Diego.
And he eventually left the US Navy as a Petty Officer Second Class.
Thanks to his courageous testimony, Douglas helped
hundreds of grieving families know the whereabouts of their beloved.
As Lieutenant Colonel Stratton wrote of Hegdahl: [QUOTE] "Thanks to Doug, despite the scars on my
body, the Communists had to produce me alive at the end of the war. "The Incredibly Stupid
One," my personal hero, is the archetype of the innovative, resourceful and courageous American
Sailor. (...) As long as we have the Dougs of this world, our country will retain its freedoms."
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