One of the most enduring memories of the early adolescent years of my youth is the end of direct U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia. This was heralded by the return of the first group of 591 American Prisoners of War held by North Vietnam which happened fifty years ago today. The longest held among that first group repatriated was a U.S. Navy pilot by the name of Everett Alvarez, Jr, who had been in captivity since August 1964. Being a wide-eyed anxious eighth grader and seeing this happen in real time, it appeared that a long and divisive national nightmare which had been grist for the mill of the evening news headlines ever since I was in kindergarten was finally coming to an end. The men returning home from years of captivity helped to put a human face on a genuine national tragedy. Although in many instances it was only sham window dressing, the visible joy that was evident in their reunions with wives, children, family and friends made for a wonderful scene of momentary warm fuzzies, however brief, for all to share. Although it marked a major national milestone, it would leave many people with a lot to process and perhaps some things to reconsider like certain American values that once evoked a great sense of national pride. Would the USA still be willing to bear any burden as President Kennedy had so eloquently articulated a decade before? There was no doubt that these men had borne the heaviest of the burdens of that misguided and mismanaged conflict, short of the ultimate sacrifice. President Nixon’s “Peace with Honor” policy at least matched their collective solemn determination to “Return with Honor.”
It has been the esteemed honor of Yours Truly to have served in the Navy under the command of one of those men. When I attended Officer Indoctrination School at Naval Education and Training Center, Newport, RI in 1987, Captain Frederick Purrington was the Director of Training. Captain Purrington gave my entire class, all five companies comprised of over 250 members, the mandatory lecture on the Military Code of Conduct. It was mostly his story of being shot down over North Vietnam and subsequently captured and incarcerated as a POW. That lecture/story holds special significance my memory of OIS in that it is the only one in six weeks of classroom instruction in which nobody was noticed to have fallen asleep.
A little closer to home and a little more recently, I met and got to know one of the longer serving POWs of the Vietnam War. Phillip Neal Butler, a hometown product and fellow Will Rogers High School graduate. I was able to first able to meet Phil in 2009 when he was admitted to the WRHS Hall of Fame. He was the eighth longest held POW of the North Vietnamese. Regular readers may recall when Yours Truly was invited to be one of Phil’s guests at his induction ceremony to the Oklahoma Military Heritage Foundation Hall of Fame back in October of 2019. The story about that evening can be found in the archives of this blog under the title, Selflessness above and beyond the call. Phil penned an impressively inspirational autobiography a few years ago, Three Lives of a Warrior. I was able to write and post online a short review of Phil’s book:
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RETURN WITH HONOR. Repeat that phrase a few times and it is only words. Repeat it enough to internalize its meaning and it becomes not only a goal but the ironclad resolve to achieve it. Such was the motto for young Navy Lieutenant Phillip Neal Butler, Prisoner of War of the North Vietnamese. As a warrior true to his commissioning oath, he did indeed return with honor. For any reader, may your tests of character and loyalty to oath and country never be as prolonged or as difficult as that detailed in this man’s story.
Three Lives of a Warrior is not merely an autobiography of a fellow Tulsan from my old neighborhood who worked his way to a Navy commission via the U.S. Naval Academy. Nor is it simply a harrowing first person account of the hardship and abuse of captivity of one of the longest serving POWs of the Vietnam War. What emerges from the pages of a story which takes the reader from his youth to his post-military career and retirement is an honest and captivating description of one man’s unique trek to achieving his fullest potential in this life. As a prisoner of unsympathetic North Vietnamese captors, this story takes you to medieval places and unthinkable circumstances. As a survivor of nearly eight years of austere incarceration and withering brutality, this author takes you to places in his heart and soul where is seen personal growth and transformation into a man with authentic humanist and progressive values bound for true self-actualization as a warrior for peace and justice.
LIVE WITH HONOR. Repeat that phrase a few times and it is only words. Repeat it often enough to internalize its meaning and it becomes an ironclad resolve and way of life. Such it is for Phillip Neal Butler, PhD. As a warrior, this man’s service and conduct as a POW qualify him as a bona fide hero of the Republic. As a veteran, his shining example is one worthy of emulation.
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U.S. combat troops would leave Vietnam near the end of the following month, March 1973, along with the final group of POWs, those with the least amount of time in captivity. This indeed marked the end of the ordeal of those serving their country under the most difficult of circumstances. It would also mark the end of American military intervention in what was for all intents and purposes a civil war. The U.S. would maintain a diplomatic presence in South Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in 1975 at which time one chapter of ugly history would close for the Americans and another one would open for the former South Vietnamese. Regardless of what was to follow, those men who survived their ordeal of being shot down and captured in whatever manner and losing years out of their life emerged as shining examples of loyalty to their oath and dedication to the cause of their nation. They established a gold standard of character worthy of all to follow. May their service, sacrifice and resolve of spirit always be remembered and forever be revered.
Possibly only former war veterans at the time could recognize the psychological/spiritual traumas inflicted by war on military service people returning home. I appreciate the education you received as you began your service in the Navy. I’m afraid I never properly celebrated the historical fact of POWs coming home because I felt that there was always a possibility of someone remaining in captivity and it would feel unfaithful, in a way, to celebrate the freedom of some while others remained imprisoned. I was kind of weird back then. Three Lives of a Warrior was a huge eye-opening reading experience for me. Thank you for writing so respectfully of an historic event that holds significance throughout time to us.