Lance Sijan, a young Air Force pilot, was on a bombing mission over
Laos in 1967 when he ejected from his crippled Phantom above the
Ban Loboy Ford - landing deep in mountain jungle with a severely
fractured leg and a serious head injury. Over the next 24 hours, as
meticulously detailed here, rescue helicopters attempted to
determine Sijan's exact location (despite heavy enemy fire) -
giving up only when losing radio contact with him. So, determined
to avoid enemy capture no-matter-what, Sijan began dragging himself
through the jungle - searching for water, eating bugs, repeatedly
falling and re-injuring himself, suffering from concussion as well
as immense pain. ("He forced open the dry, sour tube of his throat
and howled, leaning into the hot agony like some circus
daredevil.") He survived this ordeal for 46 days before being
captured by the North Vietnamese. Now "a long skeleton in muddy
rags" with "raw, bleeding expanses of flesh," Sijan nonetheless
managed to escape briefly from a holding camp, felling a guard with
a skeletal karate chop. Recaptured, delirious and near death, he
refused to answer NVA questions while being tortured: "Clearly the
only force that was keeping Sijan's ruined body alive was his
indomitable spirit. And that tough, driving spirit was irreversibly
bonded to his will to defy and resist the enemy interrogators." And
he finally died - of pneumonia, untreated wounds, and malnutrition
- in Hanoi's Hoa Lo Prison in 1968, winning a posthumous Medal of
Honor. McConnell, author of novels (Just Causes) and non-fiction
(First Crossing), bases much of this reconstruction on the
years-later recollections of Sijan's POW comrades - to whom Sijan,
amid deliriums, told his story. (McConnell goes on at defensive
length about his primary source's "incredible memory," which
doesn't have quite the intended, reassuring effect.) Throughout,
the reliance on cliched rhetoric ("heroic," "astonishing,"
"incredible") detracts from the events themselves. Still, though
lacking in thoughtfulness or eloquence, this quasi-documentary -
commissioned by Reader's Digest - should find a solid,
military-exploit readership, along with the POW portions of the
Stockdales' recent In Love and War (p. 864). (Kirkus Reviews)
On the night of November 9, 1967, Sijan was ejected from his
crippled fighter-bomber over the steep mountains of Laos. Although
critically injured and virtually without supplies, he evaded
capture in savage terrain for six weeks. Finally caught and placed
in a holding camp, he overpowered his guards and escaped, only to
be captured again. He resisted his interrogators to the end, and he
died two weeks later in Hanoi. His courage was an inspiration to
other American prisoners of war, and he was posthumously awarded
the Medal of Honor.
General
Imprint: |
W W Norton & Co Inc
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
December 1984 |
First published: |
November 1984 |
Authors: |
Malcolm McConnell
|
Dimensions: |
203 x 127 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
256 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-393-01899-8 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-393-01899-7 |
Barcode: |
9780393018998 |
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