News-Info-Alerts

Re: POW Shares Story With Exchange Club

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: March 22, 2002

"POW shares story with Exchange Club

By: Bob Darden, Staff Writer March 20, 2002

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Ed Hubbard, a former POW, shared his story with the Greenwood Exchange Club Tuesday.Hubbard was shot down and imprisoned in North Vietnam in 1966

For 36 years, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Ed Hubbard has explored the strength and possibilities of the human spirit.

Hubbard, the author of "Escape from the Box: The Wonder of Human Potential," spoke to the Greenwood Exchange Club Tuesday.

"You know, if we were to go out and do something for somebody else every day, we wouldn't have very many bad days. Quite honestly, in the last 36 years, I've never had a bad day," Hubbard said.

Hubbard said his journey into understanding human potential started with his aircraft was shot down and he was imprisoned in North Vietnam in 1966. He spent the next six years, seven months and 12 days in a small, 6-foot-square cell.

"Every day of your life, when you get up in the morning and nothing works out the way you thought it would, it has nothing to do with what happened. It depends on what you do about it," he said.

Hubbard cited "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl as an example.

Frankl had begun writing his manuscript in 1942, but was captured by the Germans. He was imprisoned and his manuscript was destroyed.

Frankl memorized his work and was able to apply it to the concentration camp environment, Hubbard said.

"Everyone who came to that concentration camp over the period of that war - 300,000 people - their attitudes determined what group they would be in when the war was over," he said.

The first group was very large and consisted of everyone who died in captivity. The second group, also large, committed suicide.

"The third group, a tiny handful of people who walked out of that situation with a smile on their face and who thought they had gotten a good deal there. Those people obviously understood the meaning of life," Hubbard said.

The situation is no different for those who have never experienced a prisoner-of-war camp or a concentration camp, he said.

"We all walk down the same road everyday. It's called life.

"It's a road filled with rocks. We've seen them so much we've even given them names, they're called hurdles, obstacles and stumbling blocks," Hubbard said.

People who possess a positive outlook see "the same rocks we do, only they see them a little differently. They are stepping stones to greater understanding. It's up to each and everyone of us how we're going to deal with the rocks in the road," he said.

One of Hubbard's last bad days was in July 1966 when his plane was shot down over North Vietnam.

He said his day began at 2 a.m. and got worse as the day progressed.
His attitude descended into self-pity.

One day, shortly before Christmas 1966 Hubbard said he realized something for the first time.

"Ever hear the story of the man who felt sorry for himself because he had no shoes? Then he met a guy who had no feet. No matter how bad your day was, take a look around/ There's always somebody who has it worse than you do," Hubbard said.

A change in attitude can often change the outcome and that still holds true today, he said.

"Somebody invents a problem, we form a committee. We spend millions of dollars and millions of manhours talking about why we can't solve the problem.

"If we said, 'How can we start? How soon can we finish? How can we do it with the resources available? You'd be amazed how quickly we can solve our problems," Hubbard said.

©Greenwood Commonwealth 2002 "