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Bill Freeman was with the 38th Infantry in Korea for only 12 days before he was captured on Feb. 12, 1951. Only 126 soldiers of his battalion survived the attack during which he was captured. Freeman was a POW 30 months and seven days.

After the first 14 days of Freeman's captivity, the Chinese decided to release 26 wounded soldiers to fend for themselves. Freeman and the other men attempted to take the Chinese up on their offer and made for freedom, but eventually were recaptured by another group of enemy soldiers.

He and other soldiers were marched to Bean Camp, some 23 days and 400 lives away. They hid during the day and marched at night, sucking rice paddy mud for water. A beating during the march left Freeman deaf and wondering if death was a better choice than the life he was barely living.

"I just kept thinking about my wife and kids," Freeman said about what got him through that time. Another incentive was to return to the conflict. "I wanted to get back and fight communism."

Freeman's drive to survive came from an unusual plan: to convince his captors he was crazy by acting odd.

"I started to act strangely, rolling my eyes, snapping my false teeth and complaining of strange noises: bells on top of the mountain, and whistles back near the camp," he said. What finished it, Freeman said, was refusing to eat for six days. His captors believed him, seeing him as the harmless old man of camp. He remained "crazy" until his camp's repatriation began on Sept. 8, 1953.