--- title: "How this Vietnam POW stayed strong during more than 6 years in captivity" date: "2026-09-11" modified: "2026-09-11" authors: - name: "Stephen Ruiz" job_title: "Editor, Writer" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/stephen.md" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/how-this-vietnam-pow-stayed-strong-during-more-than-6-years-in-captivity/" categories: - "Air Force" - "History" - "Vietnam War" - "War History" tags: - "Air Force" - "Military History" - "POWs" - "Vietnam War" --- # How this Vietnam POW stayed strong during more than 6 years in captivity ![Vietnam War POW Ken Cordier]() *Vietnam War POW Ken Cordier returns home after 6 years, 3 months in captivity in March 1973. (U.S. Air Force)* Air Force Maj. Kenneth Cordier, an experienced military aviator, knew something was wrong almost immediately. His F-4C Phantom II began thumping, and Cordier soon realized he couldn’t control the aircraft. The North Vietnamese launched a surface-to-air missile that struck Cordier’s jet in early December 1966. The impact occurred when the F-4C Phantom II was about 24,000 feet above the ground and flying at a speed of 575 mph. Cordier, who was on his [176th combat mission](), informed his co-pilot, Mike Lane, that they had to eject. As Cordier descended toward the earth, he noticed his aircraft explode in the distance. He also survived a second missile attack while exposed in the sky. **Also Read:** [**Inside Operation Frequent Wind and the scramble to get US military out of Vietnam**]() He was in a highly vulnerable position. “Getting shot down is just the most amazing change of state that you can imagine,” Cordier [recalled to the Veteran Tales Project]() in 2013. “One minute, you’re a hotshot fighter pilot, master of the universe, and seconds later, you’re hanging helpless in a parachute.” It got worse. When he came down 85 miles north of Hanoi, Cordier landed in an exposed area. He had no chance of escape. For the next six years and three months, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) held Cordier prisoner. ### Cordier’s Time as a POW Begins ![Vietnam War POW Ken Cordier]() *The North Vietnamese shot down Air Force pilot Kenneth Cordier's F-4C Phantom II aircraft in early December 1966. (U.S. Air Force)* Cordier served his time as a prisoner of war in four locations, including the infamous Hanoi Hilton. His captivity, however, [began in a truck](), he explained to the Veteran Tales Project. Their captors blindfolded Cordier and Lane and tossed them into the back of their vehicle for the trip to Hanoi. Along the way, villagers beat and spat on them. The ride was quite bumpy, a journey made all the more unpleasant because Cordier suffered from a broken back. Once they arrived at the POW camp, interrogators tried to break Cordier. Whenever he resisted, they tied him up in excruciatingly painful positions until he cracked. Once he signed a confession that they wrote, they threw him into solitary confinement. After a month of being by himself, Cordier said, his captors [put him and Lane in the same cell](). That arrangement came only after Cordier agreed to certain conditions, including no talking, singing, whistling, and exercising. Cordier and Lane shared a cell that was only 63 square feet. The bed included no mat or mattress and was made of hard wood, making Cordier’s back hurt even more. The lone light bulb was overhead and was on around the clock. Bricks filled the windows, so they had no light and very little ventilation. A rusty bucket served as their toilet, and a speaker in the cell blared North Vietnamese propaganda. The prison guards gave the POWs mosquito net, Cordier said, a small concession given the myriad indignities of their daily lives. “We were there to be punished, so they didn’t care about our creature comforts,” [Cordier said](). ### Secret Communications ![former Vietnam War POW Ken Cordier]() *Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Kenneth Cordier delivers a speech at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Sept. 16, 2022. (U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Thomas Karol)* Although the POWs could not communicate with each other, they did it anyway. Because the North Vietnamese guards did not allow them to speak to each other, they devised a tapping code. Long before shorthand became common in text messaging, Cordier said the prisoners came up with their own quick ways of communicating. Their captors eventually found out and tortured the men severely for their transgressions. They also split up Cordier and Lane and changed other living arrangements. It did not have the desired effect. “In spite of the torture and beatings, they never stopped us from communicating,” [Cordier noted](). Cordier said the North Vietnamese treated the POWs like “the worst kinds of criminals,” especially after U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced a halt to bombing—[and made no mention of the prisoners]()—less than a week before the 1968 election. [As Cordier recounted](), the prisoners were made to take off their clothes and lie face down on the ground while guards whipped them. “When we’d go back to our cell, our backs would just be red X’s all the way from the shoulder to the butt,” [Cordier said](). “They could flog you for anything. One of my cellmates got flogged for looking disrespectfully at a guard.” Besides the floggings, the prisoners endured limited rations and were rarely allowed outside. The physical and mental toll wore down the POWs’ collective resolve at times. ### “Going Out with Our Heads Held High” ![Operation Homecoming]() *A total of 591 U.S. prisoners of war returned home as part of Operation Homecoming in 1973. (U.S. Air Force)* Cordier didn’t know when or if he would ever see his family again. To give himself hope, he played a game with himself, predicting when he eventually would be released. Cordier chose America’s bicentennial, July 4, 1976, but he didn’t have to wait that long. Cordier was let go on March 4, 1973, as part of [Operation Homecoming]()—which involved the release of 591 U.S. POWs from North Vietnam. “Talk about proud,” [he enthused to the Veteran Tales Project](). “Here we were, after all these years of mistreatment and everything, going out with our heads held high, flying out in a U.S. Air Force airplane, not driven across some crummy bridge in an Army truck.” They flew to the Philippines, where the former POWs were taken to a hospital for evaluation. It was there that Cordier enjoyed his first hot shower since his aircraft went down. He never forgot that feeling of warm water finally hitting his skin again. “You might think that I lost my life and freedom during that time, but I didn’t,” [Cordier said.]() “As long as you have freedom in your mind, you have a degree of freedom.” After recovering for a few months, Cordier eventually continued his Air Force career before retiring as a colonel in 1985. He died on June 18, 2024, at the age of 87. **Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty** **•** [**How ‘the real Forrest Gump’ got his stolen Medal of Honor back**]() **•** [**What happened when North Vietnam attacked a Special Forces base**]() **•** [**6 songs that will always remind America of the Vietnam War**]() ## Author Stephen Ruiz is an editor and writer at We Are The Mighty. His writing revolves mostly around military history and sports stories, but it can branch into other areas. Stephen has more than 35 years of journalism experience. His career began with stints at The Ledger newspaper in Lakeland, Florida, and The Kansas City Star in Missouri, but most of his time was spent on the copy desk at the Orlando Sentinel. After accepting a buyout from the Sentinel in 2020, Stephen worked at Military.com for 4½ years as a content editor and writer. He joined the We Are The Mighty staff in December 2025. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()