News-Info-Alerts

Re: Former POW Speaks

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 31, 2002

"Former POW speaks to Nevadans
Brent Welder, Staff Writer

      Human potential has no limit as long as you believe you can do it and are willing to work hard enough, said a former POW who spent nearly seven years in a prison camp during the Vietnam war, only to emerge to be fluent in Spanish, a world record holder in jump roping and with the ability to do thousands of sit-ups and over 300 pushups continually, all from experiences in prison.

      Now retired, Air Force Col. Ed Hubbard gave an inspirational speech to 35 community members at Gates Hall Monday night. He stayed away from talking about many of the horror stories of his 2,420-day containment in North Vietnam and rather chose to speak about human accomplishment. Hubbard's speech was sponsored by Edward Jones Investments.

      "Another prisoner told me to take the valuable lessons home and leave the horrors behind," Hubbard told the crowd. "I've thought about that every day for the last 30 years of my life."

      The crux of Hubbard's speech was that anyone can overcome adversity and reach beyond the loftiest of goals by developing a positive, focused state of mind.

      "Without a focus and a game plan to improve myself a little more each day, I would never have survived in a North Vietnamese prison, much less life after prison," Hubbard said.

      Living on only 300 calories a day, consisting of a bowl of rice and a bowl of green food that was commonly called "weeds," served twice daily with two cups of water, Hubbard worked his way up to being able to do 300 push-ups and 2,700 sit-ups, and six hours of jump roping continuously. Also, using a tapping code on the wall of his cell, Hubbard, who had never known any Spanish, learned the language fluently and memorized a 46-verse poem without ever seeing or hearing any words.

      Hubbard also tells his story in his book, "Escape From the Box." He personally signed copies of the book for many of the attendees. He has been hired by Edward Jones Investments to give a talk in the towns of each of the offices world-wide. When he started in 1998, there were about 4,000 offices. Today there are over 8,000. Hubbard has been to over 1,000 of them.

      "I did not travel to Iowa this week to belittle you," Hubbard said. "I came here to tell you no matter what you've done, how many awards you have received, you have only scratched the surface."

      Hubbard said that if more Americans would learn the importance of incremental improvement, this country would be a better place to live.

      "When (Americans) have a problem we form a committee and spend millions of dollars and millions of hours telling everybody why the problem can't be solved," Hubbard said. "We should be asking how soon we can start and how soon it can be done."

      "With enough teamwork we can move this building (Gates Hall) across town."

      Hubbard opened the talk by asking the audience how many people had had a bad day in the last 30 days. Nearly everybody rose their hands. Later, Hubbard said that he hasn't allowed himself to have a bad day in over 30 years.

      He said for the first 150 days in the prison, he sat around feeling sorry for himself, but then decided to make a change. "At that point I decided no matter what happened I would never, ever have a bad day again," Hubbard said.

      Hubbard said not every day has been perfect, but none of them has been bad. One difficult day since then that he shared was when he had to give four speeches in one day - which he had never done before - and on top of it he had forgotten to bring his pants. But, Hubbard said, that's hardly a bad day compared to the ones spent in the North Vietnamese prison.

      The talk ended with the attendees singing "God Bless America" in unison.

      Hubbard was also in Ames on Monday, and on Tuesday he traveled to Boone and Webster City.

©Nevada Journal 2002"