xxiii, 229 pages : 24 cm

"In 1967, US Air Force fighter pilot James Shively was shot down over North Vietnam. After ejecting from his F-105 Thunderchief aircraft, he landed in a rice paddy and was captured by the North Vietnamese Army. For the next six years, Shively endured brutal treatment at the hands of the enemy in Hanoi prison camps. Back home, his beloved girlfriend Nancy eventually moved on and married another man. Bound in iron stocks at the Hanoi Hilton, unable to get home to his loved ones, Shively contemplated suicide. Yet somehow he found hope--and he became determined to help his fellow POWs survive. In a newspaper interview several years after his release, Shively said, "I had the opportunity to be captured, the opportunity to be interrogated, the opportunity to be tortured and the experience of answering questions under torture. It was an extremely humiliating experience. I felt sorry for myself. But I learned the hard way life isn't fair. Life is only what you make of it."Written by Shively's stepdaughter Amy Hawk--whose mother Nancy ultimately reunited with and married Shively in a triumphant love story--and based on extensive audio recordings and Shively's own journals, Six Years at the Hanoi Hilton is a haunting, riveting portrayal of life as an American prisoner of war trapped on the other side of the world."--Jacket flap

Includes bibliographical references and index

Prologue -- Baseball and BB guns -- "What did I get myself into?" -- What happens in Vegas... -- One hundred missions -- One more roll -- Shot down -- Heartbreak Hotel -- Don't let the bed bugs bite -- Mind games, exploitation, and propaganda -- "A little spark of hope" -- Hanoi Hannah, Gyro Gearloose, and ladies' underwear -- Escape and repercussions: new levels of hell -- Camp Faith -- Welcome to the jungle -- Operation Homecoming -- Return to freedom -- Life in the spotlight -- Don't sweat the small stuff -- Because you cannot hate and live -- The last battle -- Epilogue

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