![\"douglashegdahl\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/douglashegdahl-250x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nMary sends us a link to “Cherries – A Vietnam War Novel<\/a>” and a story written by Vietnam veteran and a POW, Dick \u201cBeak\u201d Stratton, Retired US Navy Captain about a sailor by the name of SN Doug Hegdahl<\/a>. It seems that one night SN Hegdahl was pulling watch at oh-dark-thirty while his ship, the USS Canberra was shelling North Vietnam and he missed the part of his training about walking around above decks while the crews were firing their big guns. The concussion knocked him overboard and he floated around for 12 hours until some local fishermen pulled him from the briny.<\/p>\n Captain Stratton goes on with the story about how Hegdahl convinced his captors that he wasn’t very bright and they nicknamed him “the incredibly stupid one”. How Hegdahl memorized the names of every US POW held in Vietnam and details about their lives that would convince family members of his veracity. How Hegdahl disabled five North Vietnamese trucks. And how the North Vietnamese concluded that his early release would do them no harm, until they did release him – Stratton had to order Hegdahl to comply with the early release, by the way.<\/p>\n It’s a very long story, but every word is worth the read.<\/p>\n The 256 names he had memorized contained many names that our government did not have. He ended up being sent to Paris by Ross Perot to confront the North Vietnamese Peace Talk Delegation about the fate of the Missing in Action. He entered the Civil Service and is today a Survival School instructor for the U.S. Navy and the James B. Stockdale Survival, Evasion, Resistance, And Escape Center (SERE), naval Air Station, North Island, Coronado, California. And yes, he can still recite those names! <\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"doug-hegdahl\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/doug-hegdahl.jpg\")
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