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Re: 6 1/2 Years In Tiny Cell Changed Pilot's Life

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: May 23, 2003

"Never a bad day for ex-POW
By:January Holmes , Staff writer

Spending six and a half years in a tiny cell in North Vietnam changed Col. Ed Hubbard's life.

Hubbard, who served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, spoke at Brewton-Parker Auditorium on Thursday about his experience as a prisoner of war in the 1960s, sharing how he developed a positive state of mind in the midst of his captivity.


In 1966, his plane was shot down by enemy fire. Hubbard survived the crash, spending eight hours in the jungle playing "hide and seek" with the Vietnamese until they caught up with him. For him, it was the start of bad day.

"I had nothing left but a bad attitude," he said. "And later when I was in my cell, I discovered I had self pity, too."

But his idea of life changed a few months later, on Christmas Day 1966.

"I learned something," Hubbard said. "I promised I would walk out of there alive and I would never allow myself to have another bad day. I have not had one bad day in over 36 years."

Despite living on very little food and water and being beaten often, Hubbard never looked upon his days in captivity in a bad light.

"I changed the human thought process," he said.

In applying his methods to everyday life, Hubbard said Americans would be able to accomplish much more than they do.

"People think that they are overworked and underpaid so they believe they are past their potential, but they never scratch the surface of what they could do," he said.

With Hubbard's newfound positive outlook in prison, he turned himself over to some interesting challenges. He learned to do 300 push-ups and nearly 3,000 sit-ups consecutively and also learned Spanish without ever hearing it spoken.

"It was against the rules for us to communicate. You could lose your life if you were caught," Hubbard said. "We communicated by using a tap code."

The prisoners would tap on the walls to hear the latest news around the camp, which was not much, Hubbard said. It would take all day sometimes to tap out a joke on the wall, to tell each other stories and poems.

There were two important phrases he learned while in prison.

The first one was "clear."

"We had about an 8- to 10-centimeter crack under the wall where we could look to see if a guard was standing nearby," he said. "If we saw feet, we would not talk, but once the feet were gone, we started tapping on the walls."

The second phrase consisted of the acronym "GBA" which stands for God Bless America. They would tap this out at the end of their church time, which occurred once a week. They would sing a patriotic hymn and quote the 23rd Psalm to themselves so the guards outside would not hear them. Church would end with the singing of "God Bless America."

"We would tell each other that each night before we went to bed. It helped us understand why we were there," he said.

After being released in 1973, Hubbard began to realize that the greatest tragedy of life is that people tend to focus on the wrong things.

"We need to quit talking about what we can't do and look at what we can do," he said.

From learning how to cope in the difficult situation of being a POW, Hubbard had discovered that he could achieve anything he sets his mind on.

"As humans, we can do far greater things than we can imagine. You can make a decision to do something and learn from that experience," he said.

Hubbard served 35 years in the United States Air Force. He received various metals for his service, including the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with a "V" for valor. He travels all over the country to share his message.


©Hinesville Coastal Courier 2003 "