Two Souls Indivisible (33 page)

Buckley did not indicate where Cherry or Halyburton lived or, for that matter, whether either man was still alive; fortunately, the Internet makes it relatively easy to find out, and I soon spoke with, then visited, both men. I learned that each was proud of his conduct in Vietnam, and they believed their experience together reflected the military's highest ideals of sacrifice and honor. They wanted their story told and trusted me to tell it, asking for nothing in return; they read the manuscript for factual accuracy, but the conclusions and interpretations are my own.

Cherry and Halyburton spoke with me, in person or on the telephone, for dozens of hours, and they introduced me to their family, friends, and colleagues, civilian and military. I interviewed about 130 people, and I spent several days in their respective home towns, Suffolk. Virginia, and Davidson, North Carolina, to understand how their child-hoods shaped their friendship. Both men are pack rats, and they shared with me their letters, journals, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, news articles, speeches, military yearbooks, maps, bomb summaries, and—from Halyburton—a POW color timeline generated by a computer. They also authorized the release of their military records from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Veterans keep in touch through well-organized networks, which helped me find people who knew Cherry and Halyburton. For example, to understand Cherry's experience as a cadet in the Air Force, Randy Presley, a fellow cadet in the class of 52-G, sent me a list of 135 names; I tried to contact each one. I received about 25 replies, and my respondents, recalling events from fifty years ago, all shared remarkably similar memories of Cherry's pride and determination. I was also given the names and phone numbers of Cherry's instructors and commanders. A notice in
Retired Officer Magazine,
seeking comments on either Cherry or Halyburton, generated additional correspondence.

Interviews were critical in fleshing out the POW experience. Retired Navy Captain Mike McGrath, who was captured in 1967, gave me a list of the former prisoners from Vietnam still alive. I tried to contact all 536 of them. Many responded, and while some had never met either Cherry or Halyburton, others had vivid memories, always positive, confirming the "legendary status" that the officers had achieved.

I interviewed Marty Halyburton many times but also benefited from a trove of audiotapes that she and Porter had sent each other while he was on the
Independence.
Listening to them was like eavesdropping on a private conversation. I also listened to a tape of Porter's mother updating her son on Davidson gossip. When Porter returned, he recorded Marty's description of the day she learned that he had been captured: the words have a haunting quality as she relives her moments of disbelief, excitement, and despair. Even more eerie is the tape of Will Terry's memorial service, which captures Dabney's soft cries in the background and makes Porter's death seem quite real. A cache of letters written by Porter, Marty, and Katharine bring the family further into focus. The library at Davidson College also has a large file on Halyburton and his family, which includes letters that faculty members wrote to American and foreign diplomats on Porter's behalf.

I spoke with all four of Cherry's children, though I met only with Fred Jr. and Cynthia, who were much more sympathetic to their father. I spoke to Shirley once, and she declined to answer most of my questions. As noted in the text, most of the information about her dealings with the Air Force and her former husband's money came from Fred's lawsuit against the service. Beulah's letters to and from the Air Force were also helpful.

The literature on the Vietnam War is vast, and I am fortunate to have made a dent in it. The single best volume, as both a historical overview and a compelling narrative, is
Vietnam,
by Stanley Karnow. Neil Sheehan, in
A Bright and Shining Lie,
brilliantly examines the war's tragic spiral through a charismatic but deeply flawed Army lieutenant colonel. The political culture that produced the war is dissected by David Halberstam in
The Best and the Brightest.
An excellent oral history, capturing a wide spectrum of voices from the United States and Vietnam, is Christian G. Appy's
Patriots.
Another oral history,
Bloods
by Wallace Terry, profiles black veterans of Vietnam, including Fred Cherry.
The Things They Carried
is Tim O'Brien's fictitious but classic account of his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. William J. Duiker's biography,
Ho Chi Minh,
describes the dual forces of nationalism and communism that thwarted America's military. While not appeasing his critics, Henry Kissinger, in
Ending the Vietnam War,
conveys the difficulty of freeing the POWs while achieving other military and political objectives.

Several books helped me understand America's lengthy air campaign in Vietnam, specifically
Thud Ridge,
by Jack Broughton,
Clashes
and
The 11 Days of Christmas,
both by Marshall L. Michel III, and
F-105 Thunderchief
by Dennis R. Jenkins.
City at Sea,
by Yogi Kaufman, describes life on a modern aircraft carrier. Benjamin F. Schemmer, in
The Raid,
re-counts the Son Tay rescue mission.
Stolen Valor,
by B. G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, exposes the war's profiteers and fabricators. In
Vietnam, Now,
David Lamb explains why the Vietnamese embrace Americans three decades after the war.

The most comprehensive book about the POWs in Southeast Asia is
Honor Bound,
by Stuart I. Rochester and Frederick Kiley. As government historians, they had access to former prisoners' debriefings, which are otherwise sealed, and their book is a lengthy synthesis of the entire ordeal. Vernon E. Davis's
Long Road Home
is a companion book, examining the public policy issues surrounding the POWs. Both accounts were released more than twenty-five years after the end of the war. The first major study of the prisoners came in 1975 in John G. Hubbell's
P.O.W.,
which focused on the early years of captivity and tended to celebrate the Americans' resistance. Craig Howes's
Voices of the Vietnam POWs
offered a more critical look, highlighting examples of dissension among officers and collaboration with the enemy.
Survivors,
by Zalin Grant, is a fine oral history of one prison camp in South Vietnam, and
Bouncing Back
is Geoffrey Norman's sturdy profile of several POWs in the North.

The most familiar prison memoir is John McCain's
Faith of My Fathers,
and Robert Timberg's biography,
John McCain,
is also revealing. Jim and Sybil Stockdale jointly wrote
In Love and War,
about their respective experiences when Jim was in captivity. Other useful memoirs were Ralph Gaither's
With God in a P.O. W. Camp,
Jeremiah A. Denton's
When Hell Was in Session,
Mike McGrath's
Prisoner of War,
Gerald Coffee's
Beyond Survival,
George E. Day's
Return with Honor,
James A. Daly's
Black Prisoner of War,
Larry Guarino's
POW's Story,
Norman A. McDaniel's
Yet Another Voice,
Jay R. Jensen's
Six Years in Hell,
Everett Alvarez's
Chained Eagle,
John "Spike" Nasmyth's
2,355 Days,
and Larry Chesley's
Seven Years in Hanoi.
Richard Stratton's experience was re-counted in Scott Blakey's
Prisoner of War.
An oral history of the POWs in the Korean War is presented in Lewis H. Carlson's
Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War.

Several books examined the military's integration, including
The Air Force Integrates,
by Alan L. Gropman, Bernard C. Nalty's
Strength for the Fight,
Robert B. Edgerton's
Hidden Heroism,
and
All That We Can Be,
by Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler. Accounts of distinguished black commanders, all pioneers, can be found in the autobiography of Lieutenant General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.,
American,
J. Alfred Phelps's biography of General Daniel James, Jr.,
Chappie,
and General Colin Powell's autobiography,
American Journey.
African Americans' participation in Vietnam is studied in James E. Westheider's
Fighting on Two Fronts.

For young adults, Walter Dean Myers wrote a biography of Cherry,
A Place Called Heartbreak. A
fine description of the Lower Tidewater can be found in
The Great Dismal,
by Bland Simpson, and in
Readings in Black & White,
edited by Jane H. Kobelski, which includes health and poverty data for Suffolk and a history of the community's race relations. The story of Davidson is told in two books by Mary D. Beaty,
A History of Davidson College
and
Davidson,
while a black barber, Ralph W. Johnson, wrote about the town in his memoir,
David Played the Harp.

I found helpful articles on the POWs in the
New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Providence Journal, Stars and Stripes, Time, Newsweek,
and
U.S. News and World Report.
Cherry's return was covered by the
Virginian-Pilot,
the
Richmond News Leader,
and the
Suffolk News Herald,
while Davidson's mix of small-town ethos and highbrow culture was covered by the
Mecklenburg Gazette.
Halyburton's experience in Vietnam produced stories in the
Charlotte Observer.
The single best article about Halyburton and Cherry appeared in the fall of 1989 in the
Davidson Journal,
a college publication.

Ludwig Spolyar, a former Air Force psychologist, gave me two papers he wrote on the prisoners in 1970 and 1973, which described the difficult adjustment to freedom that each man would face. Information about their physical condition after their release came primarily from
Medical Service Digest,
an Air Force publication. Details about Halyburton's cruise on the
Independence
came from the Naval Historical Center at the Department of the Navy.

My first acknowledgment goes to Fred and Porter, who fielded my endless calls and e-mails, accommodated my visits, and always delivered on my requests for more documents and details. They never complained, even when they had to slowly walk me through how a plane is launched from a carrier or a bomb is dropped from a jet. Marty was unfailingly gracious, and I hope she is pleased that her own contributions as a POW's wife have not been forgotten. 1 also appreciate that their children, Dabney, Emily, and John-Fletcher, shared their thoughts with me. Despite his family's breakup, I know that Fred wants the best for his children, and I am grateful that Fred Jr. and Cynthia candidly described a difficult history.

I am part of a select group of authors who claim Houghton Mifflin's Eamon Dolan as their editor. In this book, he pushed me to explore every angle of a white man and a black man trapped in a cell and helped me streamline a narrative that weaves together disparate prison camp and homefront stories. My agent, Todd Shuster, immediately recognized the power of the story and helped me structure a proposal that became the blueprint for the final product. I am always grateful to my manuscript editor, Luise Erdmann, who understands the craft of writing as well as anyone I know.

My thanks to Betty Dyess, who remarried after her husband, Stan Olmstead, was killed. She shared memories of Stan and Marty and gave me a photograph of Stan and Porter. I'll always be indebted to Marion Godwin, who escorted me in Suffolk, introduced me to Fred's friends and relatives, and gave me photographs of Fred. I am grateful to Mike McGrath for giving me information on the former prisoners and for spreading the word about my book. I also appreciated meeting John McCain, who interrupted our interview to cast a vote on the Senate floor but returned to finish our conversation.

I owe special thanks to the hundreds of former prisoners who responded to my inquiries. Even those who didn't know Fred or Porter encouraged my efforts. I also got a sense of the lasting bond among these men. The first letters and e-mails arrived with "GBU" at the bottom. More notes came in, and the same thing appeared.

GBU.

GBU.

GBU.

The letters, of course, stood for God Bless You, which was tapped out as the universal sign off in the prison camps. In a way, I believe these men are still tapping to each other, still finding strength in unity. I never learned their code, but I won't forget their message of resilience, sacrifice, and survival.

While I can't thank everyone, the following people helped make this book possible: Dick Abel, Phil Alden, Everett Alvarez, Margaret Bourdeaux Arbuckle, James Bailey, Bob Barnett, Carl Battjes, Laura E. Bethea, Osborne Bethea, Jr., Marie Fisher Bjorneboe, Nancy Blackwell, Taylor and Irene Blackwell, John Bourdeaux, Eddie Bracken, A1 Britt, Evelyn Brown, Ron Bryne, Arthur Burer, B. G. Burkett, Murray Bywater, A1 Carpenter, Debbie Cherry, Donald Cherry, Jennifer Cherry, Carolyn Collins, Quincy Collins, Michael Cooper, Arthur Cormier, Joe Crecca, Glenn Daigle, Jeremiah Denton, Francis Drew, Hans H. Driessnack, John and Luann Fletcher, David Geffen, William Giduz, Joyce Ann Gnatt, Harry Gronewald, Thomas Halyburton, Roy Hart, Emmett E. Hatch, Jr., Roy Henry, Calvin Hightower, James Hiteshew, Julia Johnson, Mona Jones, Murphy Neal Jones, David Jordan, Ed Kenny, Frederick Kiley, Lawrence Kimbrough, Rodney Knutson, Theodore Kopfman, John Kuykendall, Jim Lamar, Lewis'S. Lamoreaux, Bob Lilly, VanLear Logan, Tom Madison, Paul Mather, Norman McDaniel, Gerald E. Mcllmoyle, Martha Fortner Mclnnis, Sam Morgan, Giles Norrington, Albert W. Owens, Leland Park, Wookie Payne, William Peoples, John Pitchford, Randy Presley, Clark Price, Leo Profilet, Fred Purrington, James Raeford, Bruce Rankin, Donald Robinson, William Robinson, Brenda Ryan, Samuel Spencer, Ludwig Spolyar, Don Spoon, Erskine Sproul, John Stavast, Will Terry, Bill Thompson, Deborah R. Thompson, Jon Thorin, Konrad Trautman, Terry Uyeyama, Dick Vogel, Marvin and Raye Walls, Betty Wally, Henry Ward, Claude Watkins, Mildred Watkins, E. W. "Bill" Webster, David Wheat, and Irv Williams.