David Harker tells the horrific story of his life as a POW for more than five years during the Vietnam War. Born in Virginia in 1945, Mr. Harker enlisted in the Army early in 1967. After basic training at Fort Bragg and AIT at Fort Polk, he deployed to Vietnam in mid-November of 1967 and was assigned to Company D, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 196th Infantry Brigade in South Vietnam (which later became the 23rd Infantry Division, the Americal). Less than two months after arriving in country, he was captured after a harrowing day of fighting and seeing many of his leaders and many of his friends killed in action. Harker was held for four years in a jungle camp in South Vietnam, which he describes as “the most horrendous conditions. You get very little food, no medicine hardly, infectious diseases, all of us get malaria, men start dying.” He was later marched for two months up the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos to the Hanoi Hilton in North Vietnam. After spending 1,884 days in captivity, SSG Harker was released during Operation Homecoming on March 5, 1973.

Key Words: Mead Corporation, Fort Bragg, Fort Polk, 11H, recoilless rifle, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Chu Lai, Que Son, Hiep Duc, Quang Nam Province, Firebase Central, spider holes, O Lau River, Red Cross, Phantom, duck-winged, POW camp, Ho Chi Minh Trail, COWs (criminals of war), Punji stakes, OV-10s, L-19s, cassava root, manioc, dysentery, Chloromycetin, Code of Conduct, Chieu Hoi, National League of Families, Hoa Lo jail, Hanoi Hilton, Voice of America