Iowa Veteran Major Harold Johnson Describes Being Prisoner of War in Vietnam

During the Vietnam War many United States soldiers were captured and held as prisoners of war. Many soldiers reported being regularly tortured, and some were used for military propaganda. This video includes archival footage and interviews with Iowa veteran Harold Johnson. Johnson describes his role as a military jet pilot, his experience being captured, his days in captivity and his eventual release.

Major Harold Johnson of Blakesburg, Iowa was among the first to take up the fight. By 1966, he was flying missions from Takhli Air Force Base in Thailand as an electronic warfare officer in the back seat of an F-105 Wild Weasel.

“Every day you were shot at pretty severely, you know, and I'd have a lot of the electronics there and hopefully do the job that I'm supposed to do to protect the rest of the flights.”  

Wild Weasel crews who flew in the specialized top secret jet had only a 50 percent survival rate. By April of '67, Johnson had beaten the odds, flying 92 missions with Major Leo Thorsness. But on their 93rd mission, just 7 shy of the 100 flights that would have allowed them to go home, their luck ran out. “Just like somebody slammed a big door behind me. An infrared missile went up the tailpipe and exploded and we had the smoke and fire and whatever. Leo said, ‘Get out, Harry!’ And so I did.”  Both men ejected safely, but were later captured. Before being taken to a Prisoner of War camp, Johnson was paraded through a nearby village.

“They were screaming and hollering, throwing rocks and some used sharp bamboo and they were stabbing and I've still got scars on my legs. The kids were the worst, they could slip through the guards and get at you. I had a lot of holes in me when I got to the camp.”

Seeking information on the U.S. air campaign, his captors tortured him virtually every day. 

“At the end of about 8 days when I started having so many hallucinations, pointing out targets here and a target there and whatever. I had no idea. But it looked like a good target to me.”

A year into his captivity, Johnson's value as an intelligence source was exhausted. But the torture continued. 

“They ask these questions and expected you to answer. If they had a need to use you as a propaganda voice, they'd take us out and put us in individual cells and then bring us in for interrogation until they could work somebody to see a delegation or write, you must write something. And then they'd finally get somebody to the point where you'd do it and then they'd put you back in your cell.”

For the most part, Johnson was isolated in a small cell. But over time, he learned to secretly communicate with other prisoners. 

“We had a POW communication system that usually had tapping. If you can picture a box with five units that you put your letters in, 1 would be the first line and then you'd go A, B, C, D, E. The guards couldn't speak English, most of them, but they knew, keep shut up!”

“I am alive and well and being treated very fairly.” 

After being shot down, Johnson was listed as missing in action. His wife, Linda, had no idea if he was dead or alive. 

“I had such faith that he was still alive and had three little children that depended on me. So I just stayed positive. The military chaplain came about two hours after they had told me, and he said, 'We've got to plan a memorial service.' And I said, 'My husband isn't dead'. And I said, 'Get out of here and I don't want to ever see you again.”

Firm in the belief her husband was still alive, she carried on for nearly 3 years without any official confirmation of his fate. 

“Well, when I actually saw him was on TV and I had just turned off watching all the news because I didn't want the children to be exposed to it. And they were watching cartoons. And I heard this announcement that they had some Japanese, some Japanese photographers had gone into North Vietnam and they had some film. So of course I tuned in and that's the first thing, I saw him right there in the middle of the screen. And I was just amazed.” 

After enduring nearly six years in captivity, Harold Johnson was repatriated to the United States.

Harold Johnson: It finally happened. A lot of times when you're being interrogated that was the thing that gave us strength was you're going to have to stay here one of these days and I'm going out of here. Anyway, it finally happened. 

Harold Johnson: Out at the airplane and all these people. So I get down and say a few words and then I go, they say, go to this red carpet and there's a red carpet there, you could see that much. And this shadow comes flying through the air. It's Linda.