Surviving Hell: An Introduction, part 3

surviving.jpg
USAF Col. (ret.) Jack Broughton supplies one of the numerous endorsements that prefaces Leo Thorsness’s memoir of his Medal of Honor mission and his subsequent six years of captivity in North Vietnam:

“Leo was the boss of our Wild Weasel SAM hunters, and if he was on our daily trip to Hanoi, it was no sweat. I saw him being shot down, and as I set up the rescue attempt and talked to him on our fragile survival radio, the last thing he said to me was ‘Get me out of here!’ We could not, and thus began this remarkable story of skill, heroism, and bravery.”

Col. Broughton is the author of his own memoir regarding his service during the Vietnam War, Thud Ridge: F-105 Thunderchief Missions in Vietnam. When I asked Col. Thorsness last month if he had read any of the other outstanding memoirs of service or captivity during the Vietnam War, Broughton’s was the one that Leo named. “I read it up to the part where he described the effort to rescue me,” he said, “but I just couldn’t get past it. I knew how it ended.”
Thorsness’s Surviving Hell: A POW’s Journey is published officially next Tuesday, with a new introduction that I contributed to the book, though the book is available from Amazon now. The book is part memoir and part self-help manual for “peopIe going through tough times,” as Leo writes in the Author’s Note that prefaces the text. “Time heals most things, and we are stronger than we think.”
I love this book and urge readers interested in the subject or struggling with their own tough times to consider buying a copy, which you can do via the image above or via this link.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses