“It absolutely worked and saved our lives to have this discipline. “We’ll pursue the war to our last dying breath,” Plumb, also a Silver Star recipient, remembered one coded message saying. “It showed the enemy we had power and unity,” Plumb said, adding that Stockdale sent out messages of inspiration, including that they were “not on the defensive, but the offensive.” Stockdale asked the American prisoners to show resistance to their captors, Plumb said, including not bowing to the jailers when they came to their cells. Stockdale spent seven years imprisoned and was later awarded the Medal of Honor. Jim Stockdale, the prison’s senior residing Naval officer, was using the code to organize and encourage the American prisoners, Plumb said. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Vietnam POWs Mike McGrath, left, and Charlie Plumb at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the return of the Vietnam POWs in Yorba Linda, CA, on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. “It was fairly easy to understand, and six years later, we could go 15 words a minute,” Plumb said. Two hours later, it appeared again, with a piece of toilet paper introducing him to a code developed by the first American taken prisoner, Carlyle “Smitty” Harris. Plumb said he thought it at first it was a cricket because it made a small chirping noise. When first imprisoned, a small wire appeared in a hole in his cell. In solitary confinement, you’re alone all day and you blame yourself.”Ĭode became a lifeline for the POWs, helping them support each other in their solitude and build resistance against their captors, Plumb said. “But the torture technique worked and many of us broke. “We all flew our missions thinking we were tough enough,” he said. The North Vietnamese quizzed the prisoners on military information in the early years and then shifted to propaganda, Plumb said.
Plumb said he and other prisoners spent years in 8-by-8 foot cells, shackled nightly to their beds and regularly questioned and tortured.
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