Open Doors Vietnam POWs | San Diego Review

Located at 1100 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA 92118 Coronado Historical Association
A handful of blocks northwest of the Hotel del Coronado is the Coronado Historical Association.
The entrance says Museum of History and Art and the banner hanging above says "Open Doors" at the top.
The Vietnam War was fought between North and South Vietnam from 1955 to 1975.
Communist powers of China and the Soviet Union supported the North,
while the United States and other allies fought alongside the South.
It was a long, brutal, and controversial war with hundreds of American POWs ending up in North Vietnamese prisons,
thousands that were listed as missing in action, and over 58,000 that gave their lives.
The exhibit is called Open Doors Vietnam POWs and features a drawing by Captain Mike McGrath. He says, "If I were to have one open door in my prison experience,
it would be the door for my cell." The focus is on the struggle and hardships of the prisoners as well as the lives they lived after the Vietnam War. We will share a few of their stories and have a look into the details of their captivity.
These accounts were recorded for the 30th anniversary of their release, 20 years ago. Some of them have passed on, but their stories and narratives remain.
At the front of the exhibit are the uniforms worn by the POWs imprisoned across North Vietnam. The prisons were given nicknames by
the American service members like Briarpatch, Alcatraz, Dirty Bird, Zoo, and the Hanoi Hilton.
These sandals are made from tires and were standard issue. Like all clothing for the POWs, they were one size fits all.
A Mefisto razor blade in its packaging shows how the POWs were required to shave once per week. One blade and handle were shared by all and taken away after.
This painting shows two F-4E Phantom II's flying high in the clouds.
There's also a model of an A-4 Skyhawk
and another model F-4 Phantom II. Both planes were flown in the Vietnam War.
If you'd like to hear more about these planes and others, search for and watch the San Diego Review on the Air & Space Museum after this one.
Here are Vietnamese currency and product labels. On the right are bars of soap which were issued to each POW when the Vietnam War ended.
Upon initial interrogation each prisoner was logged in as a smoker or non-smoker.
Those who did must have had access to them, as these empty Vietnamese cigarettes packs came from POWs in Cu Loc prison.
This poster grabs people's attention with the title "Ignore him." and a POW sitting in a cell.
Its intention was to have the American public write letters of appeal to North Vietnam to follow the Geneva Conventions of humanitarian treatment of POWs in captivity.
Colonel Ben M. Pollard suffered a broken back and severe internal bleeding from his waist to his knees when he was shot down in Vietnam. He spent six years in captivity. When the pain became too much and he couldn't get himself off the floor, another POW Captain Mel Moore simply said to him, "Listen, you walk or you die." With Moore's help and six months of physical therapy, he did walk.
After being freed from his prison and returned to the United States, Colonel Ben Pollard flew planes again.
He was medically grounded from flying jets, but became a pilot and instructor of glider aircraft. He prefers the quiet solitude of soaring in the sky and appreciates climbing higher without an engine. Pollard says, "Birds do the same thing we do. So if you see a hawk or an eagle soaring in a circle, hey, you go right over there and sure enough you'll find out that there's lift. One day when I was flying, I looked up and saw this eagle and I went up and got on the lift he was in. We were going up right with him!"
The majority of POWs were pilots trained to fly jet-powered machines like this Phantom II. Let's take a minute to imagine what flying may be like, at least from the perspective of a glider.
Unlike a bird, a glider cannot flap its wings to fly higher; they must be on the lookout for heated air rising upwards, otherwise known as thermals. Where do these thermals form and how are they created?
A cumulus cloud that has a flat base with a well-defined, sharp form usually means there is a good chance of finding a thermal underneath.
A dissipating cumulus means that the thermal is past its prime. The air around is cooling and along with it, the thermal.
A circling bird or glint from another glider's wing within a thermal gives a pilot a physical signal that a thermal is present.
Sun-facing slopes that are higher and drier on a hill or mountainside have a better chance of heating up and transferring that heat upwards as a thermal.
Areas on the ground with lush, green vegetation and shadows from trees will use the sun's rays to evaporate moisture.
A better location to encounter a thermal would be over a dry, yellowish field that is exposed to the sun.
After being launched, a glider can use thermals to remain aloft for several hours and travel hundreds of miles without having to land.

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Great American soldiers stories, greetings from Caracas, Venezuela.

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I found the section from 07:55 - 11:00, talking about lifespan and organizing one's life and routines, to be especially enlightening. I also found the story of Douglas Hegdahl to be very engaging! Once again a great video!