Synopses & Reviews
Hirsch recounts a remarkable friendship forged between two U.S. soldiers in one of the most harrowing settings the twentieth century has ever produced--the North Vietnamese POW camp known as the Zoo. One prisoner, Fred Cherry, was a pioneering air force pilot and the first black officer captured by the North Vietnamese. The other was a young navy flier named Porter Halyburton, from a privileged southern background. Their captors threw them into the same fetid cell, believing that their antipathy toward each other would break them both. But Cherry and Halyburton overcame initial suspicion to save each other's lives. When Halyburton first saw him, Cherry was a wreck; one arm hung uselessly at his side, he hadn't bathed in weeks, and he could not walk, the results of torture and inept medical care. In his own mind, Cherry was steeling himself for death. Halyburton was much healthier but was scarred by brainwashing and physical abuse that his privileged life had not prepared him for. He had to learn how to endure, or he would become another of the incoherent wraiths who haunted the Zoo. Halyburton and Cherry became legendary among fellow POWs for the singular friendship that enabled them to overcome prodigious suffering. In limning the bond behind that legend, Hirsch compellingly shows how good people can achieve greatness in hellish circumstances. Though Cherry and Halyburton were each grateful to have a cellmate, each was initially wary of the other. Cherry thought Halyburton was a French spy, while Halyburton doubted that a black man could even be a pilot. But they overcame their misgivings and preconceptions and found common ground in this uncommon environment--a friendship in extremisthat inspired many of their fellow prisoners. As Giles Norrington, a navy pilot shot down in 1968, recalled, "By the time I arrived, Porter and Fred had already achieved legendary status." Many of the POWs had to cross racial, cultural, or social boundaries to coexist in such close confines. But Halyburton and Cherry did more than coexist--they rescued each other. Each man credits the other with saving his life. One needed to be saved physically, the other emotionally. In doing so, they forged a brotherhood that no enemy could shatter.
Review
"A moving story of two men whose courage, sense of duty and love proved greater than the depravity of their captors. I highly recommend it." --John McCain, US Senator and author of FAITH OF MY FATHERS
Review
"A moving story of two men whose courage, sense of duty and love proved greater than the depravity of their captors. I highly recommend it." --John McCain, US Senator and author of FAITH OF MY FATHERS
"This is a shattering account of the long, horrific ordeal of two very brave POWs. Beyond that, it is a genuinely inspiring testament to our shared human capacity to find friendship and love and forgiveness and understanding and even hope in the very furnaces of hell." -- Tim O'Brien, author of THE THINGS THEY CARRIED and JULY, JULY
Review
"A moving story of two men whose courage, sense of duty and love proved greater than the depravity of their captors. I highly recommend it." --John McCain, US Senator and author of FAITH OF MY FATHERS
"This is a shattering account of the long, horrific ordeal of two very brave POWs. Beyond that, it is a genuinely inspiring testament to our shared human capacity to find friendship and love and forgiveness and understanding and even hope in the very furnaces of hell." -- Tim O'Brien, author of THE THINGS THEY CARRIED and JULY, JULY
Synopsis
Hirsch recounts a remarkable friendship forged between two U.S. soldiers in one of the most harrowing settings the twentieth century has ever produced — the North Vietnamese POW camp known as the Zoo. One prisoner, Fred Cherry, was a pioneering air force pilot and the first black officer captured by the North Vietnamese. The other was a young navy flier named Porter Halyburton, from a privileged southern background. Their captors threw them into the same fetid cell, believing that their antipathy toward each other would break them both. But Cherry and Halyburton overcame initial suspicion to save each other"s lives.
When Halyburton first saw him, Cherry was a wreck; one arm hung uselessly at his side, he hadn"t bathed in weeks, and he could not walk, the results of torture and inept medical care. In his own mind, Cherry was steeling himself for death. Halyburton was much healthier but was scarred by brainwashing and physical abuse that his privileged life had not prepared him for. He had to learn how to endure, or he would become another of the incoherent wraiths who haunted the Zoo.
Halyburton and Cherry became legendary among fellow POWs
for the singular friendship that enabled them to overcome prodigious suffering. In limning the bond behind that legend, Hirsch compellingly shows how good people can achieve greatness in hellish circumstances.
Synopsis
James Hirsch recounts one of the great friendships of the twentieth century forged in one of the most horrific settings that century produced--a North Vietnamese POW camp its inmates called the Zoo. One prisoner, Fred Cherry, was a pioneering air force pilot and the first black officer captured by the North Vietnamese. The other, a young navy flier named Porter Halyburton, was a racist southerner who doubted that a black man could even be a pilot. Their captors threw them into the same fetid cell, believing that their antipathy toward each other would break them both. But Cherry and Halyburton overcame their initial suspicions and saved each other's lives.
When Halyburton first saw him, Cherry was a wreck. One arm, damaged in his plane crash, hung uselessly at his side. He hadn't bathed in weeks, and he could barely walk. In his own mind, Cherry was steeling himself for death. Halyburton was also weakening, emotionally battered from the interrogations and isolation that his sheltered life had not prepared him for. He had to learn how to endure, or he would become one of the incoherent wraiths who haunted the Zoo.
Halyburton and Cherry became legendary among fellow POWs for the singular friendship that enabled them to overcome prodigious suffering and unspeakable torture. Hirsch weaves through this account a surprising, sometimes shocking view of the toll these men's captivity took on their loved ones. While Cherry's family was sundered by his absence, Halyburton's bond with his wife, Marty, endured and deepened. We see her receive the news of her husband's death, and we share her mingled elation and fear when she later learns that he is in fact alive and imprisoned. We also witness her unlikely rise to a leading role in the battle to bring the POWs home.
Often inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking, Two Souls Indivisible shows how trust and hope can cheat death, and how good people can achieve greatness in hellish circumstances.
Synopsis
An unforgettable true story, Two Souls Indivisible stirringly recounts the forging of a legendary, heroic bond between two soldiers. Fred Cherry and Porter Halyburton first met in their shared cell in a brutal POW camp in Vietnam. Cherry, an air force pilot, was badly injured after his plane crashed; he became the first black officer to be captured by the North Vietnamese. Halyburton, a young navy flier, was a naive white southerner thrown in as Cherryand#8217;s cellmate. Their captors hoped close quarters would inflame American-bred racial tensions and break both men. Instead, American integrity and honor flourished, and as Cherry was nursed back to health, a friendship grew strong. The intense connection, powerfully reported by James S. Hirsch, would sustain both men through the war and throughout their lives. Inspiring, heartbreaking, remarkable, and never more timely, Two Souls Indivisible shows how good people can achieve greatness in the most hellish of circumstances.
About the Author
James S. Hirsch, a former reporter for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, is the author of Cheating Destiny, the bestseller Hurricane: The Miracle Journey of Rubin Carter, Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy, and Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam. He is also a principal of Close Concerns, a consultancy and publishing company that specializes in diabetes. He lives in the Boston area with his wife, Sheryl, and their children, Amanda and Garrett.
Table of Contents
Contents 1 Better Place,Worse Place” 1 2 One More Round 11 3 On Target 21 4 Hanois Welcome 30 5 The Independence 45 6 No Chutes Observed” 53 7 Strangers in the Cell 73 8 No Ordinary Prisoner 101 9 The Hanoi March 134 10 The Home Front 145 11 Unspeakable Agony of the Soul” 154 12 Change in Status 179 13 The Good Life 190 14 Divergent Paths at Home 207 15 Operation Homecoming 221 Epilogue 246 sources 255 acknowledgments 260 index 263