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I will admit Valin, that I often skim quickly over the list you provide each day of the POW-MIA soldiers, but today this caught my eye...and my heart....

1966 MULLIGAN JAMES A.---LAWRENCE MA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

So I did some digging...this is his story.

CAPT JAMES A. MULLIGAN, USN (RET.) Captain Mulligan had served in the Navy for 24 years when he was shot down over North Vietnam on 20 March 1966. Stationed aboard the USS ENTERPRISE as Executive Officer of VA-36, he was flying his A-4 Skyhawk just south of Vinh, when he was struck by a Surface to Air Missile (SAM), and was forced to eject. He was immediately captured by North Vietnamese regulars, and then transported to Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi, the infamous Hanoi Hilton. As one of the more senior Navy POWs, he endured torture, abuse, and miserable conditions for nearly seven years, until his release in February 1973. What prepared him to survive a captivity experience, which included 42 months of solitary confinement? In response to that question, Captain Mulligan cites the process of receiving a liberal education, i.e., undergoing the intellectual preparation necessary to find out who he was. He recalls that the first time he ever heard the Code of Conduct, he thought to himself, “Why do we need this? Why is this necessary? Isn’t this basic to who and what we are? Doesn’t everybody know this?” The answer, as he discovered during his years in the Navy was, no, not everybody does understand what integrity, commitment, and loyalty mean. For Captain Mulligan, imprisonment in North Vietnam was a supreme test of those values embodied in the Code of Conduct, values of right and wrong. Captivity was an experience in which a prisoner had to live off of whatever was in his head. When it was all over, Captain Mulligan was able to recall some of what he felt on the day of release, as described in his book, The Hanoi Commitment: This was the only good day I would ever have in North Vietnam, and it would only become good when I boarded that plane and flew out of this damn country. I had spent 2522 days here and I hated every damn one of them. They were firmly etched deep in my mind. I couldn’t forget them even if I wanted to. They were as much a part of me as an arm or a leg. In one way I had been a loser for all of those days, yet in another way I had much to be thankful about. For out of the miseries had come strength; out of the suffering, compassion; out of hate, love. If nothing else, I would come home a better man than when I entered there. Life would be more meaningful in every aspect from now on. Freedom, integrity, moral character had new and stronger meanings for me. I knew that I could face the future with faith and hope. I had learned firsthand that in life’s darkest hours in Hanoi, God’s grace had shone down upon me. In my heart I knew that during my captivity I had lost all the battles, but had won the war because I had done my best. I had paid the price. I had day by day put myself on the line for what I believed in. Alone and in solitary, when no one knew and no one cared, I and the others had fought the good fight. If nothing else, I cared, and they cared. There was no easy way. When the chips were down we did what we had to and we paid the price with physical and mental pain. Now that it was over, we could go home with heads held high. We would walk erect as free men taking our rightful place in a free world. The man who appreciates freedom the most is the free man who has become a slave. We were leaving Hanoi, slaves no more. Captain Mulligan recalls that the greatest challenge he faced during his imprisonment was the process of living out his convictions and beliefs about who he was in the face of the loss of self-respect. Prior to captivity, he had experienced and understood divine forgiveness; he also knew of human forgiveness; but he did not really know, nor had he fully experienced, personal forgiveness. Survival in the dehumanizing environment of Hoa Lo Prison was critically dependent on his ability to forgive himself, and then come back to fight another day. Indeed, it was self-forgiveness and inner fortitude that enabled the POWs, as a unit, to win a moral war in 1971, even though victory came at the expense of a hard won battle for group living. Following Christmas of 1970, the North Vietnamese began housing prisoners together in rooms of 45 to 50 each. For many of the prisoners, this move marked the first time they had ever met one another face to face. Nevertheless, they were willing to risk small cells and solitary confinement once again for the sake of the right to worship. As Captain Mulligan recounts what was later referred to as the “Church Riot,” the Vietnamese “became upset” when each room conducted Sunday worship services. Apparently, group worship posed such a threat, perhaps because of the evident spirit of unity that resulted, that all such services were subsequently forbidden. As the senior POWs met to discuss what action they should take, most favored the politically “smart” course: not making an issue of the worship services, lest the Vietnamese retaliate by moving everyone back into small or solitary cells. Captain Mulligan took the opposite position, that making a moral stand on the freedom of religion took precedence over political strategy. In the overall assessment of what would be lost and what would be gained, he concluded, “We don’t have a choice.” The agreement of the group was unanimous. Because he and the other prisoners were confronted daily with time slipping away, time which they were missing with their families, especially their children, Captain Mulligan and others developed their own special responses to the question, “If you had just five minutes to spend with your kids, what would you pass on to them?” His answer was: 1. Live a life of order, i.e., as to the priority of things. 2. Live a life of discipline, i.e., absolute self-discipline to do what is right, and not to do what is wrong. 3. Live a life of moderation, i.e., there is plenty to go around — share the wealth! As for himself, what are the lessons which 42 months in solitary confinement gave him the time to think through and assess? · With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:20). · Permissiveness is the corruption of Freedom. · Anarchy is the corruption of Democracy. · Immorality is the corruption of Morality. A free democratic moral society has the right as well as the obligation to resist the incursions of those perversions, which would lead to its destruction. A free society requires order, discipline, and moderation. Thus it follows that rights and freedoms demand corresponding duties and obligations from all citizens. Man is an imperfect creature living in an imperfect world but he should always strive to be better than he is. In this struggle he should never, never, never, give up!

Jim Mulligan May 1984

I'm sorry it's so long, but I wanted to share it with you all.