HUBBARD, EDWARD LEE
Name: Edward Lee Hubbard
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 41st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Takhli AB TH
Date of Birth: 18 May 1938
Home City of Record: Shawnee Mission KS
Date of Loss: 20 July 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 215058N 1051657E (WK292160)
Status (in 1973): Released POW
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: EB66C
Missions: 26
Other Personnel in Incident: Norman A. McDaniel; Lawrence Barbay; William H.
Means Jr.; Glendon W. Perkins (all released POWs); Craig R. Nobert (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 May 1990 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 2002.
REMARKS: 730304 RELSD BY DRV
SYNOPSIS: The Douglas EB66C Skywarrior was outfitted as an electronic
warfare aircraft which carried roughly 5 tons of electronic gear in addition
to its flight crew of three and technical personnel. The EB66C featured a
pressurized capsule installed in the bomb bay, that accommodated four
technicians whose responsibility was to operate electronic reconnaissance
gear.
On July 20, 1966, an EB66C was dispatched from the 41st Tactical
Reconnaissance Squadron at Takhli Airbase in Thailand on an electronic
countermeasure mission over North Vietnam. The crew and technicians that day
included Capt. Lawrence Barbay, Capt. Glendon W. Perkins, Capt. Norman A.
McDaniel, Capt. William H. Means Jr., 1Lt. Edward L. Hubbard, and 1Lt. Craig
R. Nobert. Nobert served as the electronics warfare officer on the flight.
The flight was normal to the target area near Tuyen Quang, Quang Bac Thai
Province, North Vietnam. At this point, the aircraft was orbited east/west.
During this maneuver, the aircraft was hit by hostile fire. Two parachutes
were seen to eject the aircraft, after which the aircraft descended and
disintegrated.
In the spring of 1973, 591 Americans were released from prison camps in
Vietnam, including most of the crew of the Skywarrior lost on July 20, 1966.
They had been held in various POW camps in and around Hanoi for nearly seven
years. Only Nobert remained Missing in Action.
For 24 years, the Vietnamese have denied knowledge of the fate of Craig R.
Nobert, even though the U.S. believes there is a good possibility he was
captured and died in captivity. On January 18, 1978, the Department of the
Air Force declared Craig Nobert dead, based on no specific information he
was still alive.
Disturbing testimony was given to Congress in 1980 that the Vietnamese
"stockpiled" the remains of Americans to return at politically advantageous
times. Could Nobert be waiting, in a casket, for just such a moment?
Even more disturbing are the nearly 10,000 reports received by the U.S.
relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia. Many authorities who have
examined this information (largely classified), have reluctantly come to the
conclusion that many Americans are still alive in Southeast Asia. Could
Nobert be among these?
Perhaps the most compelling questions when remains are returned are, "Is it
really who they say it is?", and "How -- and when -- did he die?" As long as
reports continue to be received which indicate Americans are still alive in
Indochina, we can only regard the return of remains as a politically
expedient way to show "progress" on accounting for American POW/MIAs. As
long as reports continue to be received, we must wonder how many are alive.
As long as even one American remains alive, held against his will, we must
do everything possible to bring him home -- alive.
During their captivity, Perkins, Barbay and McDaniel were promoted to the
rank of Major. Hubbard was promoted to the rank of Captain. Means was
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Craig R. Nobert was promoted to the rank of Major during the period he was
maintained missing.
Norman A. McDaniel resided in Camp Springs, Maryland in early 1990.
William H. Means, Jr. died in 1986 as a result of illness stemming from his
incarceraton in Vietnam.
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977 Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR
Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St.,
Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Text is reproduced as found in the original
publication (including date and spelling errors).
UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO
EDWARD LEE HUBBARD
Major - United States Air Force
Shot Down: July 20, 1966
Released: March 4, 1973
I am Edward Lee Hubbard, known to all my friends as Ed. l was born 18 May
1938 in Kansas City, Missouri and spent the first 24 years of my life in the
Kansas City area. In June 1955 I joined the USAF Reserve at Richards-Gebaur
AFB where I flew as a flight engineer in the C-119 for several years. I
graduated from Shawnee Mission High School in May 1956. From December 1957
til August 1961 I worked in the mens clothing business in Kansas City. In
August 1961 I went on active duty, going to the aviation cadet program at
James Connally AFB, Texas for Basic Navigation Training. I was commissioned
and received my wings on 6 July 1962. Then I went to Navigator-Bombadier
Training at Mather AFB, California. From there to survival school at Stead
AFB, Nevada, then photo recce school and RB-66 crew training at Shaw AFB,
South Carolina. Following that I departed for Europe on 1 October 1963,
first to Alconbury AB in England for about two years and then Chambley AB in
France for about a year. In May 1966 I left Chambley AB, going directly to
SEA with just a few days leave in Kansas City. I stopped for a few days at
Clark AB for jungle survival school and then on to Takhli AB, Thailand. On
20 July 1966, on my 26th mission over North Vietnam, we were shot down by
two SAMs. I spent 2420 days as a POW in North Vietnam, being released on 4
March 1973. When I returned to the USA, I had been gone for 9 1/2 years
except for the few days leave in May of 1966.
The greatest single thing I found that helped sustain me throughout our long
ordeal was the fantastic ability of Americans to always find something to
laugh about no matter how bad things got. So, to me, the biggest asset we
had was our sense of humor.
As to the future, I will attend Air Command and Staff College and then go to
Torrejon Air Base, Spain to fly F4s. My son, David, was born in Kansas City
on 2 October 1963, the day after I left for Europe.
I have written an open letter to be published in the local paper and to be
sent to all the people who have written me. I asked them to keep their
Bracelets in remembrance of the men who gave their lives in Southeast Asia,
and the men who returned but will forever carry the burden of the war
because of their injuries. I would like to see the enthusiasm, energy and
efforts used for our reception redirected to the Disabled veterans, the men
who gave more than the POWs, the men who are more deserving of the great
reception we received, the men whose lives will never return to normal as
mine has. Don't let those men be forgotten. Every American should do his or
her utmost to guarantee that these men are NEVER FORGOTTEN!
===========
Edward Hubbard retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He and
his wife Jennifer reside in Florida.
==============
VIETNAM VET TEACHES SURVIVAL FORMER POW SHOWS HOW TO COPE WITH EVERYDAY LIFE
By MELISSA M. SCALLAN
THE SUN HERALD
BILOXI --- Nothing that Col. Ed Hubbard learned in the Air Force prepared
him for the six years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
He said every day he spent in a cell taught him that survival is possible
even in the most dire circumstances. Hubbard has spent the last 18 years
giving motivational speeches to people throughout the country based on his
experiences, and he will visit South Mississippi on Thursday night.
"It's a little grueling," he said of the time he spent as a POW. "You
experiment. You keep experimenting until you get it right.
"Without a focus and a game plan to improve myself a little more each day, I
would never have survived in a North Vietnamese prison, much less life after
prison."
Hubbard said he learned how to prioritize his life, as well as how to deal
with adversity.
"Life is simple once you realize it's simple," he said. "I built a
philosophy that human potential is nothing more than a state of mind. Every
day I have more experiences that prove how correct my theory is."
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 didn't change the subject of Hubbard's
speech, but he finds that people are paying even more attention to his words
since that day.
"I still say the same things," he said. "It's the points I've been making
for the past 18 years, but audience reaction has been significantly better
since then."
Hubbard said he tries to make people realize that they limit themselves and
can do anything they set their minds to.
"One of the most difficult things to do is get American people to change the
way they do things," he said. "Change is uncomfortable."
---Melissa Scallan can be reached at 896-0541 or at mmscallan@sunherald.com.
========================
Rockford Register Star
Wednesday, May 8, 2002
Vietnam POW to share secret of getting through 'bad days'
BELVIDERE - For retired U.S. Air Force Col. Edward L. Hubbard, each day
brought a new day of terror as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He figures he
had at total of 2,420 "bad days."
So when corporate contacts and others talk of having a bad day, Hubbard just
smiles.
It's his understanding of how to overcome the most dire situations that he
shares with audiences on his 13-week tour of American cities. He stops in
Williams Bay, Wis., today, then heads to McHenry County College in Crystal
Lake on Thursday.
Friday, he'll be in Belvidere from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Community Building
Complex of Boone County, 111 W. First St. The free motivational
presentation, "Human Potential is a State of Mind," is sponsored by Edward
Jones, the nation's largest financial services provider, which has an office
in Belvidere. Hubbard last visited the area in July.
"I want to show others things are never that bad; they can overcome anything
if they have a focused state of mind," said Hubbard, who has earned five
college degrees and may be best known for his book, "Escape from the Box:
The Wonder of Human Potential," first published in 1994.
Hubbard encourages people to think outside the restraints of everyday life.
"Without a focus and a game plan to improve myself a little more each day, I
would never have survived in a North Vietnamese prison, much less life after
prison," Hubbard said.
Some personal achievements include more than 60 commendations and service
awards during his 28-year military career, 300 pushups and 2,700 situps,
learning a 46-verse poem that he recites 25 years later, and learning
Spanish.
Hubbard has tested the physical, mental and emotional limits of the human
body and brain after six years, seven months and 12 days as a war prisoner.
His endurance helps fuel enthusiasm in his seminars, which began in 1985.
Hubbard's book retells his experiences inside a 6-foot-square cell as a POW.
He was released from Hanoi in 1973.
"It still is with me today, but you have to learn to live with it - turn it
into something you can live with," said Hubbard, who has homes in Florida
and Ireland. "It's unbelievable what the human body can do when you try to
improve a little more each day."
================
York Daily Record
Monday, April 12, 2004
Former POW shares story; Retired Col. Edward Hubbard was held by the North
Vietnamese for six years.
JOSEPH MALDONADO
For more than eight hours, U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Edward Hubbard ran
desperately through the jungles trying to find a way to let his comrades at
the 41st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Takhli Airbase in Thailand know
he was alive. It was July 20, 1966, and his EB66C destroyer plane had just
been shot down somewhere near Tuyen Quang, Bac Thai Province, North Vietnam.
H e was using every bit of knowledge he had learned in jungle survival
school. But deep inside, the electronics warfare officer knew no one was
going to come to his rescue even if he succeeded.
"We had all been told that if we were shot down north of the Red River, that
we would be on our own," Hubbard said. "It turned out to be the painful
truth."
By the end of the day, Hubbard was surrounded by a large crowd of local
peasants. One scroungy mutt had sniffed him out of hiding. For the next 6
1/2 years, Hubbard would remain in the country as a prisoner of war.
Beginning April 20, Hubbard, a retired colonel, will begin a three-day
series of lectures in the York County area. He will share his lessons of
survival in the hope others will use them to overcome their own obstacles.
In the hours after capture, Hubbard said his obstacles seemed overwhelming.
To cross the Red River into the south would first mean he had to escape.
Then he would have elude recapture on the 60-mile journey. Finally, he would
have to make contact and hope he was in a place accessible to rescue.
As the march out of the jungle began, however, it quickly became apparent he
wasn't going anywhere accept to Hao Lo Prison, dubbed by the Americans, the
Hanoi Hilton.
All along the journey, there were frequent beatings as his captors tried to
extract military secrets and information.
In a short while, the beatings' centered on obtaining oral and written
statements that could be used for propaganda purposes. Prisoners were told
to voice pro-North Vietnamese positions so they could be broadcast over the
airwaves and used by print media.
Beaten, tortured in captivity
After failing to get what they wanted, Hubbard was thrown into a small cell
with one small window built too high from the floor to look out. In some
prisons, there were no windows at all.
There were 13 rules that could get a prisoner beaten if violated, Hubbard
said. Some included bowing to every North Vietnamese the POWs passed. Not
providing a source for propaganda was another.
"We were brutally beaten to sign statements that said they hadn't been
beaten," Hubbard said. "Under very great duress, men ultimately signed what
they were told to sign."
In the summers that followed, Hubbard estimates the temperature in some of
the cells soared to 120 degrees or more.
The winter nights were just as miserable with temperatures that fell well
below freezing.
During the final eight months of imprisonment, in a jail along the Chinese
border, rain water from a nearby mountain often ran like a stream through
his cell. The damp conditions only added to the suffering.
Of the 13 rules that caused the most violence, none was more heavily
enforced that the no communications rule. Prisoners were not allowed to talk
to each other.
Over time, the ingenuity of the prisoners led to creation of the Tap Code to
communicate with other prisoners.
"Imagine a five-by-five grid of letters in alphabetical order," he said.
"To tap the letter B, you tap once, pause and them tap twice. The letter B
is in row one, column two of the grid. The letter K is not in the grid. The
letter C is used for K."
The code could be produced by tapping on anything that made a sound such as
a rice bowl, wall or cell door.
"We not only passed information critical to our survival but also learned
poetry and new languages," Hubbard said. "All by tapping."
Solitary
But there was still a lot of time spent alone.
As Hubbard neared his first Christmas as a POW, he began talking to himself
in solitary confinement. He searched for any reason to hope. He searched for
an excuse to convince himself that there were others worse off than he.
"I though about my wife, Beverly, and my son, David, who was two and a half
at the time," Hubbard said. "And I thought about orphans, who I was sure had
it worse off than me because at least I had known my parents in my 28 years
of living."
Accepting that others had it worse allowed him to live with a certain amount
of optimism.
The search for hope, any hope when there doesn't seem to be any, is what
Hubbard speaks about as he tours the country.
"I touch on the brutality of my experience so people know we weren't on
vacation," Hubbard said. "But the focus of my message is a positive one. I
want people see how a change in attitude can make life better."
Even in his darkest moments, when Hubbard was shackled in solitary
confinement, or traveling blindfolded to other camps with names like the Zoo
and the Dog Patch, he always tried to find that one positive thought to hold
onto, not the least of which was freedom. Death better than prison
On March 4, 1973, Hubbard was released from his imprisonment
As the C-141 cargo plane carried him past the Vietnamese coastline, Hubbard
remembers the pilot saying that even if they lost all four of their engines,
he'd crash the plane into the Pacific Ocean before going back to Vietnam.
"The whole plane cheered," he said.
Last year, Hubbard did return to Vietnam to visit the prisons were he was
once held captive.
With his wife of 25 years, Jennifer, at his side, (his first wife passed
away when she was 39) he sat in the same cell that held him nearly three
decades ago and it all came back to him.
"Sometimes, people sit around and dwell on their hate," Hubbard said.
"But the truth is, you can never get even with the wrongs of the past. With
every experience, there is a lesson. Sitting in that cell again reconfirmed
my belief that I need to share my lessons. Otherwise my time as a captive
was all for nothing."
On June 6, 1944, a young Pvt. William Linzee Prescott jumped with the 82nd Airborne Division onto the beach in Normandy, France.
He also participated in an attack that would eventually be transformed into paintings which would cement his modest fame.
Fifty-six years after the battle that began the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany, Prescott's paratrooper's vision of D-Day endures in the form of two enormous murals at the West Point Museum.
After landing in Normandy and participating in one major battle, Prescott was quickly captured, according to friend, fellow veteran and longtime Tuxedo Park resident Alex Salm.
"He and a buddy found a deserted farm in the south of France and lit a fire," Salm recounted over breakfast at the Orange Top Restaurant on Route 17, where Prescott's name still registers with diners.
"Linzee was always very amusing," Salm recalled. "I said to him, 'Jesus, how stupid were you to get captured going into a house at night and go and light a fire? No wonder the German's captured you.' "
"Well I was cold," was the answer Salm received. "Me and my buddy cooked – and then we found some wine in the cellar."
But the imprisoned artist didn't suffer much at the hands of the Germans, remembered his friends. In fact, he sketched his way into good treatment.
As the story goes, Prescott sketched life in prison camp. The German commander caught sight of the sketches and requested a portrait. Pleased with the results, the commander spread the news, and officers at other camps commissioned portraits by arranging Prescott's transfer.
Born in New York City, schooled at the prestigious Groton school in Connecticut, Prescott had studied art at the Chouinard School in Los Angeles, then moved to Mexico to study fresco.
After a tour of Africa, he held a successful exhibition in New York in 1940 before enlisting.
After leaving the Tuxedo Park home his family occupied with the family of actor Fred Gwynn, Prescott traveled around the world before settling in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where he painted as artist in residence at the Swimming Hall of Fame.
His paintings are scattered around the world. In Tuxedo, two golf murals hang in The Junction restaurant and bar, and regulars say old-timers can identify the people. Paintings can also be found in the Duck Cedar Inn, in the Clubhouse in Tuxedo Park, in old friends' homes and at West Point.
If wars were documented by his paintbrush, they were also recorded in his genealogy, which dates back to the American Revolution.
Prescott was descended from the rebel Col. William Prescott, who told his troops, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," at Bunker Hill.
"Linzee" came from redcoat Capt. John Linzee, who fought from his ship, the Falcon, on the Charles River.
Despite the extent of warfare Prescott documented, by all accounts, he didn't seem to take himself or his paintings too seriously.
St. Mary's-Tuxedo Episcopal Church had a mural in which the 12 disciples of Jesus stood, wearing long robes that fell to their feet.
When an observer counted 25 feet on 12 men, Prescott conceded it was unintentional in a Fort Lauderdale News story.
"I guess maybe I was a bit looped," he told the reporter.
But the humor behind the man seems only to add to the veracity of his work.
Prescott returned to warfare, at the invitation of General William Westmoreland, in 1967 as a civilian artist in Vietnam were he spent about one year recording the places and activities of the American soldier in Vietnam.
In a 1991 review of his work in American Heritage magazine, Vol.42, No.1, February/March 1991.
authored by Morley Safer "Prescott's War" (pp.100-113)
[the paintings of William Linzee Prescott, a "civilian adventurer" artist in 1967 Vietnam]
Vietnam War correspondent Morley Safer argued that Prescott documented the war with an accuracy photographers should envy. He wrote:
"For the truth of war is that, as tragic as the whole awful persona may be, it is also very funny."
Prescott, who prefered his middle name Linzee over his first name William, died in 1981 in Florida at the age of 63.
HUBBARD, EDWARD LEE
Name: Edward Lee Hubbard
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 41st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Takhli AB TH
Date of Birth: 18 May 1938
Home City of Record: Shawnee Mission KS
Date of Loss: 20 July 1966
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 215058N 1051657E (WK292160)
Status (in 1973): Released POW
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: EB66C
Missions: 26
Other Personnel in Incident: Norman A. McDaniel; Lawrence Barbay; William H.
Means Jr.; Glendon W. Perkins (all released POWs); Craig R. Nobert (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 May 1990 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 2002.
REMARKS: 730304 RELSD BY DRV
SYNOPSIS: The Douglas EB66C Skywarrior was outfitted as an electronic
warfare aircraft which carried roughly 5 tons of electronic gear in addition
to its flight crew of three and technical personnel. The EB66C featured a
pressurized capsule installed in the bomb bay, that accommodated four
technicians whose responsibility was to operate electronic reconnaissance
gear.
On July 20, 1966, an EB66C was dispatched from the 41st Tactical
Reconnaissance Squadron at Takhli Airbase in Thailand on an electronic
countermeasure mission over North Vietnam. The crew and technicians that day
included Capt. Lawrence Barbay, Capt. Glendon W. Perkins, Capt. Norman A.
McDaniel, Capt. William H. Means Jr., 1Lt. Edward L. Hubbard, and 1Lt. Craig
R. Nobert. Nobert served as the electronics warfare officer on the flight.
The flight was normal to the target area near Tuyen Quang, Quang Bac Thai
Province, North Vietnam. At this point, the aircraft was orbited east/west.
During this maneuver, the aircraft was hit by hostile fire. Two parachutes
were seen to eject the aircraft, after which the aircraft descended and
disintegrated.
In the spring of 1973, 591 Americans were released from prison camps in
Vietnam, including most of the crew of the Skywarrior lost on July 20, 1966.
They had been held in various POW camps in and around Hanoi for nearly seven
years. Only Nobert remained Missing in Action.
For 24 years, the Vietnamese have denied knowledge of the fate of Craig R.
Nobert, even though the U.S. believes there is a good possibility he was
captured and died in captivity. On January 18, 1978, the Department of the
Air Force declared Craig Nobert dead, based on no specific information he
was still alive.
Disturbing testimony was given to Congress in 1980 that the Vietnamese
"stockpiled" the remains of Americans to return at politically advantageous
times. Could Nobert be waiting, in a casket, for just such a moment?
Even more disturbing are the nearly 10,000 reports received by the U.S.
relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia. Many authorities who have
examined this information (largely classified), have reluctantly come to the
conclusion that many Americans are still alive in Southeast Asia. Could
Nobert be among these?
Perhaps the most compelling questions when remains are returned are, "Is it
really who they say it is?", and "How -- and when -- did he die?" As long as
reports continue to be received which indicate Americans are still alive in
Indochina, we can only regard the return of remains as a politically
expedient way to show "progress" on accounting for American POW/MIAs. As
long as reports continue to be received, we must wonder how many are alive.
As long as even one American remains alive, held against his will, we must
do everything possible to bring him home -- alive.
During their captivity, Perkins, Barbay and McDaniel were promoted to the
rank of Major. Hubbard was promoted to the rank of Captain. Means was
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Craig R. Nobert was promoted to the rank of Major during the period he was
maintained missing.
Norman A. McDaniel resided in Camp Springs, Maryland in early 1990.
William H. Means, Jr. died in 1986 as a result of illness stemming from his
incarceraton in Vietnam.
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977 Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR
Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St.,
Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Text is reproduced as found in the original
publication (including date and spelling errors).
UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO
EDWARD LEE HUBBARD
Major - United States Air Force
Shot Down: July 20, 1966
Released: March 4, 1973
I am Edward Lee Hubbard, known to all my friends as Ed. l was born 18 May
1938 in Kansas City, Missouri and spent the first 24 years of my life in the
Kansas City area. In June 1955 I joined the USAF Reserve at Richards-Gebaur
AFB where I flew as a flight engineer in the C-119 for several years. I
graduated from Shawnee Mission High School in May 1956. From December 1957
til August 1961 I worked in the mens clothing business in Kansas City. In
August 1961 I went on active duty, going to the aviation cadet program at
James Connally AFB, Texas for Basic Navigation Training. I was commissioned
and received my wings on 6 July 1962. Then I went to Navigator-Bombadier
Training at Mather AFB, California. From there to survival school at Stead
AFB, Nevada, then photo recce school and RB-66 crew training at Shaw AFB,
South Carolina. Following that I departed for Europe on 1 October 1963,
first to Alconbury AB in England for about two years and then Chambley AB in
France for about a year. In May 1966 I left Chambley AB, going directly to
SEA with just a few days leave in Kansas City. I stopped for a few days at
Clark AB for jungle survival school and then on to Takhli AB, Thailand. On
20 July 1966, on my 26th mission over North Vietnam, we were shot down by
two SAMs. I spent 2420 days as a POW in North Vietnam, being released on 4
March 1973. When I returned to the USA, I had been gone for 9 1/2 years
except for the few days leave in May of 1966.
The greatest single thing I found that helped sustain me throughout our long
ordeal was the fantastic ability of Americans to always find something to
laugh about no matter how bad things got. So, to me, the biggest asset we
had was our sense of humor.
As to the future, I will attend Air Command and Staff College and then go to
Torrejon Air Base, Spain to fly F4s. My son, David, was born in Kansas City
on 2 October 1963, the day after I left for Europe.
I have written an open letter to be published in the local paper and to be
sent to all the people who have written me. I asked them to keep their
Bracelets in remembrance of the men who gave their lives in Southeast Asia,
and the men who returned but will forever carry the burden of the war
because of their injuries. I would like to see the enthusiasm, energy and
efforts used for our reception redirected to the Disabled veterans, the men
who gave more than the POWs, the men who are more deserving of the great
reception we received, the men whose lives will never return to normal as
mine has. Don't let those men be forgotten. Every American should do his or
her utmost to guarantee that these men are NEVER FORGOTTEN!
===========
Edward Hubbard retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He and
his wife Jennifer reside in Florida.
==============
VIETNAM VET TEACHES SURVIVAL FORMER POW SHOWS HOW TO COPE WITH EVERYDAY LIFE
By MELISSA M. SCALLAN
THE SUN HERALD
BILOXI --- Nothing that Col. Ed Hubbard learned in the Air Force prepared
him for the six years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
He said every day he spent in a cell taught him that survival is possible
even in the most dire circumstances. Hubbard has spent the last 18 years
giving motivational speeches to people throughout the country based on his
experiences, and he will visit South Mississippi on Thursday night.
"It's a little grueling," he said of the time he spent as a POW. "You
experiment. You keep experimenting until you get it right.
"Without a focus and a game plan to improve myself a little more each day, I
would never have survived in a North Vietnamese prison, much less life after
prison."
Hubbard said he learned how to prioritize his life, as well as how to deal
with adversity.
"Life is simple once you realize it's simple," he said. "I built a
philosophy that human potential is nothing more than a state of mind. Every
day I have more experiences that prove how correct my theory is."
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 didn't change the subject of Hubbard's
speech, but he finds that people are paying even more attention to his words
since that day.
"I still say the same things," he said. "It's the points I've been making
for the past 18 years, but audience reaction has been significantly better
since then."
Hubbard said he tries to make people realize that they limit themselves and
can do anything they set their minds to.
"One of the most difficult things to do is get American people to change the
way they do things," he said. "Change is uncomfortable."
---Melissa Scallan can be reached at 896-0541 or at mmscallan@sunherald.com.
========================
Rockford Register Star
Wednesday, May 8, 2002
Vietnam POW to share secret of getting through 'bad days'
BELVIDERE - For retired U.S. Air Force Col. Edward L. Hubbard, each day
brought a new day of terror as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He figures he
had at total of 2,420 "bad days."
So when corporate contacts and others talk of having a bad day, Hubbard just
smiles.
It's his understanding of how to overcome the most dire situations that he
shares with audiences on his 13-week tour of American cities. He stops in
Williams Bay, Wis., today, then heads to McHenry County College in Crystal
Lake on Thursday.
Friday, he'll be in Belvidere from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Community Building
Complex of Boone County, 111 W. First St. The free motivational
presentation, "Human Potential is a State of Mind," is sponsored by Edward
Jones, the nation's largest financial services provider, which has an office
in Belvidere. Hubbard last visited the area in July.
"I want to show others things are never that bad; they can overcome anything
if they have a focused state of mind," said Hubbard, who has earned five
college degrees and may be best known for his book, "Escape from the Box:
The Wonder of Human Potential," first published in 1994.
Hubbard encourages people to think outside the restraints of everyday life.
"Without a focus and a game plan to improve myself a little more each day, I
would never have survived in a North Vietnamese prison, much less life after
prison," Hubbard said.
Some personal achievements include more than 60 commendations and service
awards during his 28-year military career, 300 pushups and 2,700 situps,
learning a 46-verse poem that he recites 25 years later, and learning
Spanish.
Hubbard has tested the physical, mental and emotional limits of the human
body and brain after six years, seven months and 12 days as a war prisoner.
His endurance helps fuel enthusiasm in his seminars, which began in 1985.
Hubbard's book retells his experiences inside a 6-foot-square cell as a POW.
He was released from Hanoi in 1973.
"It still is with me today, but you have to learn to live with it - turn it
into something you can live with," said Hubbard, who has homes in Florida
and Ireland. "It's unbelievable what the human body can do when you try to
improve a little more each day."
================
York Daily Record
Monday, April 12, 2004
Former POW shares story; Retired Col. Edward Hubbard was held by the North
Vietnamese for six years.
JOSEPH MALDONADO
For more than eight hours, U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Edward Hubbard ran
desperately through the jungles trying to find a way to let his comrades at
the 41st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Takhli Airbase in Thailand know
he was alive. It was July 20, 1966, and his EB66C destroyer plane had just
been shot down somewhere near Tuyen Quang, Bac Thai Province, North Vietnam.
H e was using every bit of knowledge he had learned in jungle survival
school. But deep inside, the electronics warfare officer knew no one was
going to come to his rescue even if he succeeded.
"We had all been told that if we were shot down north of the Red River, that
we would be on our own," Hubbard said. "It turned out to be the painful
truth."
By the end of the day, Hubbard was surrounded by a large crowd of local
peasants. One scroungy mutt had sniffed him out of hiding. For the next 6
1/2 years, Hubbard would remain in the country as a prisoner of war.
Beginning April 20, Hubbard, a retired colonel, will begin a three-day
series of lectures in the York County area. He will share his lessons of
survival in the hope others will use them to overcome their own obstacles.
In the hours after capture, Hubbard said his obstacles seemed overwhelming.
To cross the Red River into the south would first mean he had to escape.
Then he would have elude recapture on the 60-mile journey. Finally, he would
have to make contact and hope he was in a place accessible to rescue.
As the march out of the jungle began, however, it quickly became apparent he
wasn't going anywhere accept to Hao Lo Prison, dubbed by the Americans, the
Hanoi Hilton.
All along the journey, there were frequent beatings as his captors tried to
extract military secrets and information.
In a short while, the beatings' centered on obtaining oral and written
statements that could be used for propaganda purposes. Prisoners were told
to voice pro-North Vietnamese positions so they could be broadcast over the
airwaves and used by print media.
Beaten, tortured in captivity
After failing to get what they wanted, Hubbard was thrown into a small cell
with one small window built too high from the floor to look out. In some
prisons, there were no windows at all.
There were 13 rules that could get a prisoner beaten if violated, Hubbard
said. Some included bowing to every North Vietnamese the POWs passed. Not
providing a source for propaganda was another.
"We were brutally beaten to sign statements that said they hadn't been
beaten," Hubbard said. "Under very great duress, men ultimately signed what
they were told to sign."
In the summers that followed, Hubbard estimates the temperature in some of
the cells soared to 120 degrees or more.
The winter nights were just as miserable with temperatures that fell well
below freezing.
During the final eight months of imprisonment, in a jail along the Chinese
border, rain water from a nearby mountain often ran like a stream through
his cell. The damp conditions only added to the suffering.
Of the 13 rules that caused the most violence, none was more heavily
enforced that the no communications rule. Prisoners were not allowed to talk
to each other.
Over time, the ingenuity of the prisoners led to creation of the Tap Code to
communicate with other prisoners.
"Imagine a five-by-five grid of letters in alphabetical order," he said.
"To tap the letter B, you tap once, pause and them tap twice. The letter B
is in row one, column two of the grid. The letter K is not in the grid. The
letter C is used for K."
The code could be produced by tapping on anything that made a sound such as
a rice bowl, wall or cell door.
"We not only passed information critical to our survival but also learned
poetry and new languages," Hubbard said. "All by tapping."
Solitary
But there was still a lot of time spent alone.
As Hubbard neared his first Christmas as a POW, he began talking to himself
in solitary confinement. He searched for any reason to hope. He searched for
an excuse to convince himself that there were others worse off than he.
"I though about my wife, Beverly, and my son, David, who was two and a half
at the time," Hubbard said. "And I thought about orphans, who I was sure had
it worse off than me because at least I had known my parents in my 28 years
of living."
Accepting that others had it worse allowed him to live with a certain amount
of optimism.
The search for hope, any hope when there doesn't seem to be any, is what
Hubbard speaks about as he tours the country.
"I touch on the brutality of my experience so people know we weren't on
vacation," Hubbard said. "But the focus of my message is a positive one. I
want people see how a change in attitude can make life better."
Even in his darkest moments, when Hubbard was shackled in solitary
confinement, or traveling blindfolded to other camps with names like the Zoo
and the Dog Patch, he always tried to find that one positive thought to hold
onto, not the least of which was freedom. Death better than prison
On March 4, 1973, Hubbard was released from his imprisonment
As the C-141 cargo plane carried him past the Vietnamese coastline, Hubbard
remembers the pilot saying that even if they lost all four of their engines,
he'd crash the plane into the Pacific Ocean before going back to Vietnam.
"The whole plane cheered," he said.
Last year, Hubbard did return to Vietnam to visit the prisons were he was
once held captive.
With his wife of 25 years, Jennifer, at his side, (his first wife passed
away when she was 39) he sat in the same cell that held him nearly three
decades ago and it all came back to him.
"Sometimes, people sit around and dwell on their hate," Hubbard said.
"But the truth is, you can never get even with the wrongs of the past. With
every experience, there is a lesson. Sitting in that cell again reconfirmed
my belief that I need to share my lessons. Otherwise my time as a captive
was all for nothing."
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