This moving documentary did an incredible job at capturing a Vietnam veteran's harrowing experience as a MIA/POW. So many moments from this film will stay with me. Watching his PTSD activate when they tied his hands in the jungle to recreate his capture. Hearing him equate a bear following him to a symbol of death - where at the end of his journey toward freedom, his only friend that remained was death. The story he told of watching a man's finger get cut off because the man had stolen his wedding ring. The beheading of his fellow POW. Growing up in WW2 Germany, eating cooked wallpaper to survive.
After I watched the film, I learned that he killed himself just 4 years after the films release - after being diagnosed with ALS he rolled his wheelchair to the driveway of a nearby fire station and shot himself. The next time I'm in DC, I'm going to visit his grave in Arlington National Cemetery to pay my respects. All he really wanted was to fly.
After I watched the film, I learned that he killed himself just 4 years after the films release - after being diagnosed with ALS he rolled his wheelchair to the driveway of a nearby fire station and shot himself. The next time I'm in DC, I'm going to visit his grave in Arlington National Cemetery to pay my respects. All he really wanted was to fly.