{"id":6462,"date":"2022-02-07T19:27:57","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T00:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/?p=6462"},"modified":"2022-02-07T19:50:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T00:50:47","slug":"colorado-springs-man-details-escape-from-vietnam-prison-in-self-published-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/colorado-springs-man-details-escape-from-vietnam-prison-in-self-published-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Springs man details escape from Vietnam prison in self-published book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.com\/users\/profile\/David%20Bitton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">By David Bitton david.bitton@gazette.com<\/a><\/li><li>Feb 6, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As a young Air Force public affairs sergeant in 1990, George Hayward learned firsthand accounts of Americans tortured in North Vietnamese prisons and a little-known story of escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The telling came from retired Col. William Baugh, a civilian public affairs chief Hayward served under at Falcon Air Force Base\u2014 now Schriever Space Force Base&nbsp;\u2014 east of Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baugh was shot down in an F-4 while bombing a railroad east of Hanoi on Jan. 21, 1967. He would spend more than six years as a prisoner of war alongside many other Air Force fighter pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An essential conflict in \u201cThe Party Dolls,\u201d a book by Hayward, surrounds the Code of Conduct for American POWs, and in particular, Articles III and IV, which butted heads. Article III stated, \u201cIf I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.\u201d While part of article IV read, \u201cIf I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hayward interviewed nine former POWs between 1995 and 2002. Their voices and remembrances drive the book and move the story forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Captains John Dramesi and Ed Atterberry escaped on May 10, 1969, with help from their fellow prisoners, only to be captured within a day. Planning the escape and waiting for the right opportunity took more than a year. Many in the Hanoi prison known as The Annex didn\u2019t want an attempted escape to occur, saying that it wouldn\u2019t work and that those left behind would be punished. Both proved to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a story of incredible bravery against the longest of odds, and of bitter conflict,\u201d Hayward said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The North Vietnamese segregated prisoners by rank, with mostly Air Force captains and Navy lieutenants (equal rank)&nbsp;\u2014 pilots and aircrew&nbsp;\u2014 housed in The Annex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Annex had six identical buildings that were divided in half by a thick wall. Each cell was roughly 18 by 20 feet and housed as many as nine prisoners. Those interviewed for \u201cThe Party Dolls\u201d were in Room 6 and 5, which shared a wall. Dramesi was one of the six interviewed from Room 6. Atterberry died shortly after being captured and his voice isn\u2019t included in the book. Navy Lt. John \u201cMike\u201d McGrath and Air Force Capt. Konrad \u201cKonnie\u201d Trautman are the two voices included from Room 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKonnie Trautman is pivotal in the entire story because he was the senior ranking officer\u201d and \u201cessential in command of all the POWs,\u201d Hayward said. \u201cThe fact that they were right next door, there was more direct communication between the two cells, plus they (Dramesi and Atterberry) couldn\u2019t escape without his approval, made them critical elements to the story. Every room had a designated note writer, the person who could write clearest and neatest for scribbling on toilet paper. Mike McGrath happened to be Room 5&#8217;s guy. Therefore, when Troutman would say we need to send a note to Room 6, McGrath was the one that wrote it. So, the two of them really had key insights into the whole process. Their insights weren\u2019t just hearsay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.com\/premium\/air-force-academy-cadets-connect-with-astronaut-aboard-the-international-space-station\/article_287ffd38-73e8-11ec-a5bd-cbf9f2cb9dbd.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>McGrath&nbsp;\u2014 who lives in Monument and wrote the book \u201cPrisoner of War: 6 years in Hanoi\u201d&nbsp;\u2014 served more than 24 years after graduating from the Naval Academy. The then Navy lieutenant was shot down flying his 179th&nbsp;mission, in June 1967. He arrived at The Annex via the infamous Hanoi Hilton where many fighter pilots were tortured for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEverybody thought it was a bad idea to try to escape,\u201d said McGrath, who was imprisoned for five years, eight months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDramesi really wanted to escape and used the third rule of conduct. Konrad didn\u2019t support it,\u201d McGrath said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the senior officer in charge, Trautman was seeing his third war. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1945, months before World War II ended. He earned a commission in the Air Force and his pilot wings in 1950. He flew more than 100 missions during the Korean War and was shot down on his 62nd&nbsp;mission of the Vietnam War in an F-105D Thunderchief fighter-bomber on Oct. 5, 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hours before the May 1969 escape, when Dramesi asked for Trautman\u2019s approval, Trautman\u2019s response was simply, \u201cGod bless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can learn more about Hayward\u2019s self-published book at <a href=\"https:\/\/thepartydolls.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thepartydolls.com<\/a>. The escape was code-named \u201cthe Party\u201d by the men involved. The book recently won a <a href=\"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/best-indie-book-award-announces-2021-winners\/\">Best Indie Book Award<\/a> in the nonfiction military history category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis was the first book to piece together the actual story by talking to each of the guys involved and figuring out how they did it in detail and spelling it out, including the conflicts,\u201d Hayward said. \u201cIt is not a patriotic, we\u2019re all in this together kind of story. It is kind of a dark story and it doesn\u2019t have a happy ending. It has a heroic ending, certainly, but it is not a happy ending.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Bitton david.bitton@gazette.com Feb 6, 2022 As a young Air Force public affairs sergeant in 1990, George Hayward learned firsthand accounts of Americans tortured in North Vietnamese prisons and a little-known story of escape. The telling came from retired Col. William Baugh, a civilian public affairs chief Hayward served under at Falcon Air Force [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_4417260021_4417260021":"","facebook_2752729431657742_150450788658353":"","facebook_2752729431657742_17841415386502662":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1190,135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2021-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6465,"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462\/revisions\/6465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestindiebookaward.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}