(reflective droning music) * LTJG EVERETT ALVAREZ JR.: The POW story can be summarized in the last phrase of the poem, Invictus , "It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment, the scroll.

I am the master of my fate.

I am the captain of my soul."

(tense music) LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: Our target was Hon Gai, which was a naval base out in the, uh, Tonkin Gulf.

I was the first one off the Number Two catapult.

(jet engine roars) As we went by, I looked back in the whole sky lit up with flak; the whole sky just started turning black all around me.

And I was low and fast.

I heard a poof.

It was just like a white flash.

My cockpit immediately started to fill with smoke.

It didn't take long to figure out that if I stuck in the plane, I wasn't going to last.

I couldn't have made it.

My only chance I had was to pull the face curtain and I went out.

And before I knew it, I was in the water.

(waves splashing) That was on a Wednesday, August 5th, 1964.

The irony was that later on, after I was, uh, shot down, I recall that, uh, I said of all things happened to me at that day.

I said, you know, that Wednesday is roast beef night on the ship.

And, uh...when I was floating in the water, I'm thinking amongst other things...it's crazy, but I figured I'm gonna miss roast beef night, (tense music) NEWSREEL NARRATOR: War planes from two carriers, the Ticonderoga and the Constellation, the U.S. sorties were launched to North Vietnam PT bases.

The Pentagon said, "Two pilots were lost.

One was reported to be a prisoner of the Reds."

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: They took me out to interrogation and there were two officers.

And it was at that point where I gave name rank, service number, date of birth.

And they asked...started asking me other questions.

I said, "I can't tell you."

"Geneva agreements."

That's what they said.

"There are...we never signed the Geneva agreements.

We're not at war.

We have not declared war.

You're a criminal and you will be treated as a criminal."

DR. JOE THOMAS: It's a very powerful way of framing this.

We all struggle, try to define ourselves.

And I think for warriors involved in combat operations, you wanna see yourself as a good guy.

And, uh, the more that the North Vietnamese used that device to, to refer to them as criminals, it was a weapon of psychological warfare that meant to chip away at the story that the POWs carried about their, about themselves and about their honor.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: Uh, my name is Everett Alvarez Jr. DR. THOMAS: And certainly everything that we know of the POWs is a story of how they resisted that characterization.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: I found myself totally cut off from the world.

Isolated.

I was the only American there for six months and I was really in isolation.

(trance-like music) NEWSCASTER 1: The Naval academy is increasing COVID restrictions after seeing a rise in cases among midshipmen.

NEWSCASTER 2: All in-person activities and sporting events are canceled and all classes will be held online.

(fluttering of bird wings) SUPERINTENDENT SEAN BUCK: Hello, everyone.

Superintendent Sean Buck here.

I want to give the entire Naval Academy family a quick update on how COVID-19 has affected the academy and what we're doing about it.

Tomorrow, Friday, March 20th will be our first time delivering a virtual academic curriculum to the entire brigade.

KEITH LINDLER: Everybody here.

So, let's go ahead and get started.

Okay.

Let me share my screen.

Hi, can everybody hear me now?

Midshipman Barber.

You should be seeing something that looks like an answer key to the quiz we took last time.

Is that true?

SUPERINTENDENT BUCK: So, when you first invited me to discuss this and kind of serve as a bridge between the POWs from the Vietnam War and our current brigade of midshipmen, I did that with great trepidation.

GEORGE COKER: George Coker.

How are you sir?

SUPERINTENDENT BUCK: How are you sir?

GEORGE COKER: It's a pleasure to meet you.

SUPERINTENDENT BUCK: It's an honor to have you here.

SUPERINTENDENT BUCK: I wasn't sure at first whether any of us could live up to or understand what they went through, but the experiences and the stories of these men have profound lessons for all of us to learn.

(tense music) MIDSHIPMAN FIRST CLASS SYDNEY BARBER: So, right now, I'm in second wing isolation space.

I was feeling a little bit off halfway through this week.

I had a little bit of a fever, chills.

I, I am also was just feeling very fatigued.

I, I could...I could hardly keep my head up to make it through the day.

And, and, um, and just like a very sharp pain behind my eyes.

And so, I went and, and got tested.

And so...it, it turned out on, on Friday, I tested positive for COVID-19.

Physically, I'm isolated, but I'm not the only one who's in this situation.

Currently, every single person in the brigade is in ROM.

ROM stands for Restriction of Movement.

So, everyone is subject to their room as well.

I can't spend my days wishing that something is different.

I can't control the circumstance, but I can control the role that I play in it.

I can control the way that I react.

For me, stoicism...it's just controlling what I can control.

DR. THOMAS: Stoicism is one of those themes that runs to the very heart, the, the timelessness of this story.

The way we can best summarize stoicism is to concern ourselves only with that which we can control.

Everything else, let it go.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: The last thing I would do would be to compare our experience...our one semester here during the pandemic, to being a prisoner of war.

It was difficult for a lot of people, though.

And I know, a lot of people struggle with mental health really, really badly.

That was one of the most difficult things, just to the mental health needs of the brigade.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: If people cannot make the connection between the, uh, isolation of the pandemic situation and our situation of being in a POW cell, then maybe we're not looking at the fact that it's more basic than that.

I think it, I think it's more of a human nature to have a basic need to, to communicate.

The first Christmas there was a very lonely Christmas.

February...early February, there was news, and it talked about, uh, another raid.

And, uh, this time they had shot down and captured a pilot, Robert Shumaker.

I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm not alone."

(tense piano and bass synth music) LCDR ROBERT SHUMAKER: I was handcuffed, put me in a Jeep-like vehicle and transported 200 miles north to the, the capital city of Hanoi.

And I was put into a prison that the French had built and it was called, uh, The Fiery Furnace or in Vietnamese, the Hoa Lo prison.

There were a... apparently a lot of common criminals that were using up a lot of other cells and the Vietnamese had to make room for subsequent POWs.

So they, they somehow they moved these, uh, civilian prisoners out, but before they were able to accomplish that, they, they moved three POWs in with me, and one guy's name was Phil Butler, and one was Smitty Harris, and another was Bob Peel.

And I was the senior guy there.

I was the Lieutenant Commander and I said, "Hey, you know, they're gonna try to separate us later on, so we ought to figure some way to stay in contact."

(hypnotic piano music) LCDR PHIL BUTLER: And Smitty one day told us, he said, "You know, there's something I learned in Air Force survival.

They called it a tap code."

He said, "I don't know if it's gonna be worth anything or not."

LCDR SHUMAKER: And it was called the A-F-L -Q-V code.

And it got its name because, uh, in a five-by-five square, that had five rows and five columns, you can put the alphabet, if you leave off the letter K. And so to, to send a message, you would first say, we'll have to make sure that it was an American on the other side of the wall.

And the way you would know that there was an American, not a Vietnamese on the other side of the wall, was we would tap "shave and a haircut, two bits."

That, that's something that was very common to, to my generation.

It sounds like this.

(knocks five times) And then the answer from the other side would be (knocks twice) so we knew there was an American there.

Really, uh, it was our lifesaver.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: The covert communication system we had was we recognized that it was the one element of our existence that was important for our survival.

(bugle playing First Call) DR. THOMAS: So, how is that relevant to today?

Communication isn't merely about exchanging information.

It's about building supportive communities.

And that is, in a sense, what is lacking in this moment.

We're connected to people, yet, we remain isolated.

This is the great contradiction of our time.

This dissonance perfectly describes the life of midshipmen in 2020.

(clicking of a cell phone keyboard) BRIGADE COMMANDER RYAN CHAPMAN: I was the brigade commander for the fall semester, and it was hectic.

We came back from the COVID.

Isolation was tough.

You're plugged into your phone and it's a new generation.

Let me show you how this works.

So, you open up Yodel.

This is what you come to.

Yodel wasn't very popular until this semester.

Yodel is a social media app, except it's more anonymous, so I...I'd equate it to Twitter, but there's no usernames or any hashtags that are involved with one certain person.

They're just anonymous feeds.

You can pick your location right here.

I've got it picked on Annapolis, but really, you can dial in from anywhere.

You could be at West Point and pick Annapolis.

Our world is different from the POWs in a sense that we can't verify who we're talking to.

(clicking of a cell phone keyboard) MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: It's very difficult to interact with people when the virtual means is the only way that you can connect.

Um, I'm finding myself a lot more glued to my devices than I would personally be comfortable with.

So it, it does put kind of an emotional stress on me.

MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: In comparing it to the POW's experience, the easy word to describe it would be "isolated," 'cause that's exactly what those super computers and the AI are doing behind these chips, and this computer is pushing out what you want to see...to get you diving right back into here.

SUPERINTENDENT BUCK: I heard a very startling quote from a first class midshipman.

This young man, pretty profound statement said, "I have never felt so connected, but at the same time, so lonely in my life at the Naval Academy."

DR. THOMAS: It's in precisely these kinds of times that good leadership is required to make a difference.

(rumble of plane engines) FILM REEL NARRATOR: From February, 1965 to November, 1968, the United States waged a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

(bombs exploding) Operation Rolling Thunder sent American Warplanes against heavily-defended targets.

(bomb explodes) CMDR JAMES MULLIGAN: Good military leadership always goes first.

And if you notice, the high number of CO's and XO's and Ops officers that were shot down in Vietnam, (flares whiz by) we lost a tremendous amount of topnotch aviators in Vietnam because they were leading.

And that's the way it's supposed to be.

(music intensifies) * DR. THOMAS: Commander Jeremiah Denton, followed by Commander Jim Stockdale and um, Lieutenant Colonel Robbie Risner, they're shot down in rapid succession.

Certainly, the POWs were very fortunate that those three were shot down when they were in 1965, because these are senior officers with a strong vision and capable leadership that helped to bind together the POWs as...as time goes on.

(empowering music continues) * LT JAMES "MIKE" MCGRATH: This is the sketch I made of Jim Stockdale.

Stockdale was our key guy.

He was the senior ranking officer.

DR. THOMAS: Commander Stockdale, as a prisoner of war, he's the CAG.

The Carrier Air Group Commander is the senior most.

He makes all the decisions.

LT GEORGE COKER: I think, he might have been one of those natural leaders.

He certainly was there.

All he needed was like, the opportunity of a situation.

And the number one thing that I could say about CAG, beyond any shadow of a doubt, was the concept that the leader sets the example.

He never asked anybody to do anything that he would not do.

And not just hypothetically, if I want you to suffer, I suffer first.

LCDR SHUMAKER: They started a series of interrogations and we military people are...are sworn to abide by a...a code called the Big Four.

And the Big Four means you, you're obliged to give only your name, rank, serial number and date of birth.

But, uh, Vietnam, um, decided, uh, not to abide by those rules and as was, uh, to be experienced in the next eight years, they did indeed resort to...to torture.

(tense music) LTJG ALVAREZ, JR.: It was 1966 that things started to get rough.

LTJG PORTER HALYBURTON: They decided they were going to get, uh, what they wanted - a list of, uh, missions that you had flown; a biography; a confession and apology to the Vietnamese people.

That's what they wanted, and, uh, I wasn't gonna...I wasn't gonna give him that.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: Things gradually got, uh, harsher and harsher.

LT MCGRATH: I remember they carried me in the front gate and then they carried me into a room.

And in the ceiling was a hook.

Well, this turned out to be the torture room.

CAPT MIKE CRONIN: So, I'm in this room, which you look up and it's all concrete and masonry, and there's a big hook hanging from the overhead.

In one corner, there is a pile of bloody rags, uh, and I know that this is gonna be the beginning of bad times.

LT MCGRATH: What the Vietnamese did was they tied your wrists together behind your back, they cinched up your elbows behind your back, and then two or three or four of these guys would lift your shoulders over the top this way, until your shoulder's dislocated.

LTCOL ORSON SWINDLE: They then took the cords and put 'em up over a rafter.

And then, pulled me up off the ground and beat the living hell outta me.

LT MCGRATH: Orson Swindle, there's Orson Swindle sitting on his chair.

22 days they had Orson Swindle sitting on a chair without sleep, trying to break him, the toughest Marine you've ever seen.

LCDR SHUMAKER: You know, I still suffer.

Uh, I don't have a lot of feeling in my thumbs right now.

And they shoved an iron bar down my throat to keep me from screaming.

And, and so I have trouble, uh, with my speech pattern.

They...they apparently caused some, um, some damage there.

(somber piano music) (metal door opens, hinges squeal) LT MCGRATH: Whenever you heard keys jingling in the middle of the night, somebody was gonna be taken out and tortured.

So, you know the psychological fear of somebody taking you out in the middle of the night and you're helpless - that was pretty powerful, pretty scary stuff.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: The first time they came after me, I resisted and it...it went for days and days.

They used the, uh, these big manacles that cut off the blood circulation and, and gave a lot of pain.

And, uh, after about a day of that, uh, I finally, I broke.

I had broken the bond.

I had, uh, betrayed my fellow POWs.

I just felt so bad.

LTJG HALYBURTON: I took it as long as I possibly could.

And I finally had to say, "I give."

It was the most devastating moment of my life.

LCDR SHUMAKER: I remember going back to my cell and, and just crying and crying about, uh, you know, I let my country down, my family down.

And, uh, even now it was a little hard talking about it.

LTCOL SWINDLE: I immediately, uh, suffered the common malady that all of us suffered from, notwithstanding the fact that I knew I had taken about as much punishment as I could take.

I felt terribly guilty.

And that guilt follows me even to today.

CAPT STRATTON: The only time I even thought of suicide was after I was broken, and what saved me.

I was lucky....I met a guy by the name of Paul Galanti, and he tapped up on the wall.

And he says, "When they torture you and you break, (pulsing music) (sound of tapping) (tapping continues).

"Don't feel bad.

It's happened to all of us."

And right away, that relieved the burden.

LTJG HALYBURTON: But it was not until I got back into the COMNET that I realized that Stockdale, Denton, Risner - all the people that I looked up to as our greatest, toughest leaders had been through the same thing and had reacted pretty much the same way that I had.

You know, they said, "We all...you know... we all make mistakes.

We all have weaknesses, and you need to forgive each other for those.

And you also need to forgive yourself."

So that was, uh, the healing.

And that was the wonderful guidance, uh, of our senior leaders.

LT MCGRATH: And, uh, once you talk this out, you can get out of it.

But sometimes, it can be pretty deep, especially the guys in solitary, you know, that they feel so bad, they don't want to communicate with anybody.

They don't want to have anybody around them 'cause they just feel like they failed.

So that was a pretty profound problem.

(trance-like music) * LTJG CHARLIE PLUMB: I was in this little prison of, of my mind that I can't let anybody know how badly I feel about myself.

The first guy I communicated with was Bob Shumaker.

He said, "What'd you do, Plumber?"

I said, "I broke.

I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be."

[laugh] Bob Shumaker said, "Hell, none of us was as strong as we wanted to be."

(music builds in intensity) LCDR SHUMAKER: I can't remember the exact words, but, but I, I told him, "Uh, uh, Charlie, you gotta stop feeling sorry for yourself and just suck it up and get back on your feet and get ready for the next round."

LTJG PLUMB: That moment changed my life.

And so, I...I think it's true in life is that sometimes in our most defeated moments, when we are least apt to get further outside ourselves and communicate with anyone else and share our pain, that's the last thing in the world we wanna do.

And yet, it's the most important thing in the world we wanna do.

LCDR CRONIN: The key thing was the communication.

We're all were ready to obey the senior ranking officers, but you can't do that without communication.

Communication was everything.

CMDR MULLIGAN: The good leadership never asked those below them to do something that the leaders won't do.

We just said, "Listen, do the best you can.

And if they come tomorrow and hit you again, do the best you can.

Just don't roll over, okay?

You're an American.

We don't roll over that easy."

(somber piano music) LCDR SHUMAKER: What I hope you get out of this film is that, that, that you can overcome, uh, adversity.

What you have to learn to do, though, is be resilient.

SUPERINTENDENT BUCK: Resilience.

Those men in captivity were the epitome of resilience.

We want the midshipmen to learn how to be resilient.

DR. THOMAS: This is a story of grit and determination.

The POWs offer us classic examples of resilience in action.

(defiant piano music) CMDR MULLIGAN: We were military men.

We were professional warriors.

For us, the war did not end because we were prisoners.

We were just in a different phase of it.

DR. THOMAS: In May, 1966, it was the first time a POW communicated to leadership back home.

Jeremiah Denton blinks "torture" in Morse code.

Think about the risk involved to make his captors look foolish.

shot down on the 11th of July, 1966.

Rule number one in a prisoner's life - clean and neat.

LT GALANTI: The Clean and Neat room.

They put us, uh, in this cas, it was an old French film studio.

And so, the guy, he comes in.

He says, "You must have good attitude in your room."

Here comes this crew, they're speaking German.

And I went to, I went to school in Germany for a year.

I knew enough that I could understand them when they were talking.

DR. THOMAS: Paul Galanti shows a level of defiance that is so inspirational because he uses the old Bronx salute.

LT GALANTI: So, I just sat there, just slipped my middle fingers down in between my legs.

They never said anything.

They went out.

On the way out as they're leaving.

I said, "Wiedersehen, schweinekopf," and the light guy turned around and looked and, and uh, I figured that was probably gonna do it.

And they went out and never heard anything about it.

DR. THOMAS: The photo was given to Life magazine, but they airbrushed the middle fingers out.

LT GALANTI: Many of the things we got from, that kept us going, came from, uh, uh, CAG Stockdale.

LCDR SHUMAKER: In Stockdale's case, uh, he inspired us as prisoners by coming up with a slogan called B.A.C.K.

U.S. LT GALANTI: He thought way above us.

And when he did the creed B.A.C.K.

U.S., it made total sense.

No bowing in public.

Stay off the air.

Admit no crimes.

Don't kiss 'em goodbye with a statement.

And then the U.S. was unity over self.

DR. THOMAS: The thing that's so brilliant about B.A.C.K.

U.S. is that it's not just an acronym to help remind the POWs of their responsibilities, but it's a reminder to what the ultimate end state is.

And that is to get back to the United States and to return home with their honor intact.

CAPT STRATTON: You don't want to go as far and be blasphemous and say he is Christ-like, but damn near Christ-like.

The idea of Stockdale is stronger than Stockdale himself.

DR. THOMAS: There are a lot of ways to define leadership.

My personal way is to direct influence and inspire the efforts of others toward a common purpose.

Inspire is the highest of all bars.

Inspiration, the modern English word comes from the Latin origin of "to breathe life into" - inspirare - it's to animate something and great leaders do just that.

(fast-paced violin music) * MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: One of the traditions at the Naval Academy is that the Brigade Commander lives in the Stockdale room.

Moving out.

Tonight, I'm moving out and Sidney Barber's moving in.

NEWSCASTER: History is made at the United States Naval Academy.

For the first time ever, a Black woman will lead the brigade of midshipmen.

Her name is Sydney Barber.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: For the first time that I walked into this room, it was, it was very surreal.

That's when it hit that I was the Brigade Commander.

That from this point on, I have the ball.

(door closing) COMMANDANT THOMAS "TR" BUCHANAN: All right, so, so Sydney, uh, as you balance, as you recognize, you know, all the demands of your time, and I know you're working through all of that, but don't pressurize yourself.

And it's lonely where you are.

Certainly, you have a great, uh, you have a great, um, teammate in Ashley.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Yeah.

Ashley and I are like this.

COMMANDANT THOMAS "TR" BUCHANAN: Yeah.

And, so with that, um, you know, just make sure you're supporting each other, right?

Because it is, it is kind of a lonely place that you, that you exist and can be, okay?

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Ashley Boddiford is my roommate.

She's a Brigade Executive Officer, which is the number two in command in the brigade.

- Ashley?

So this is what happened.

MIDSHIPMAN BODDIFORD: I can't even begin to even imagine the pressure that she's under, just because like, she is like breaking this huge barrier.

PROFESSOR: Uh, Midshipman Barber, I thought we said 1150.

Where did 1050 come from?

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Sir...we, we subtracted an hour for standard time.

PROFESSOR: That's correct.

MIDSHIPMAN BODDIFORD: So, a lesson that I, that I take is definitely the idea of Stockdale being a bigger idea than Stockdale the person himself.

It's similar that Sydney stands for things bigger than just Sydney.

TONY PENNAY: Today.

I am joined by Sydney Barber.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: I didn't embrace being an inspiration to others enough, but I said yes to it because I knew that it wasn't about me.

But, at the same time, it wasn't something that I always enjoyed and it was, it was very uncomfortable for me.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: Sydney should embrace being an inspiration because people will want to follow in her footsteps.

I don't look as at myself as a guy who quote "deserves to have the recognitions that I've had."

When I came home, I was thrown into the media spotlight.

I didn't know how to deal with it or how to handle all that.

This dear friend of mine, who, by the way, played football for the National Football League, Joe Kapp...he said, "I wanna take you, and we're gonna go to certain parts of the country where there's little Mexican kids, and they can see what a hero looks like."

He said, "Do you know how many people that influenced?"

That they say,"If he can be a Navy pilot, so can I."

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: It's like, it's an unrefined plan.

MIDSHIPMAN BODDIFORD: Yeah.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Like, so that they can feel like they helped process it.

MIDSHIPMAN BODDIFORD: Yeah.

For my, my entire Academy career, like, I've kind of been...not like self-absorbed, but worried about like my own grades or, like, my own, like, uniform and, like, making sure I get somewhere on time versus helping someone else.

And like, being able to like really like support someone.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: This is the plan.

These are the objectives.

This is what I expect from you.

This is what you can expect from me.

And these are our areas of work.

Like our areas where we can improve on.

MIDSHIPMAN BODDIFORD: My job is, like, to make sure that, like, everything is, like, put in place for, like, her to, like, be able to accomplish everything she wanted to accomplish this semester.

That's really what I got out of it.

It's just how much I could care and, like, be there for someone.

I don't know, like, I can't describe it.

I'm getting a little emotional, like, our, like, I've never had, like, a friendship like this.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: [laughs] [slaps knee] [laughs again] MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: We definitely had a special, very special relationship.

The most precious gems from that semester was a lifelong friendship that I got with Ashley.

The most important thing about that message is like, it's, it's good that we, that we got the message across, but it's important that we follow up and we follow through.

The last thing I would do would be to compare our experience to being a prisoner of war.

But, the Fred and Porter story, it does really resonate with me because of my relationship with Ashley.

We had a similar dynamic, in the same way that Fred and Porter supported each other and, and cared so deeply about each other.

LTJG HALYBURTON: My whole attitude about captivity and our responsibilities changed because of Fred Cherry.

(desperate music) In Heartbreak Hotel, they said, "If you continue to not talk to us, we're gonna move you to a worse place.

But, if you do talk to us, we'll move you to a better place."

So, I, I chose the worst place.

(music intensifies) So that night they blindfolded me and marched me up to another cell block and they opened this door and they took the blindfold off and shoved me into this room.

And they said, "You must care for Cherry."

I couldn't really see right away what the situation was, but I knew it was a bigger cell and someone was in there.

And they said, "You must care for him."

And, uh, they slammed the door.

(door slams) There was Fred Cherry, a Black man, an Air Force major.

That this was their idea of a worse place - to put me in with a Black man, a young Southern White boy in with a Black Air Force officer - they thought that was really going to, uh, turn us against each other and break us down in some way.

FRED CHERRY JR.: My father grew up in Suffolk, Virginia.

Dad grew up in the South where hard work was hard work.

He was lifting watermelons and bags of potatoes, and that made him physically tough.

But, also on that same truck, when he was delivering food, he was also exposed to the, the racial inequities in the country, which was prevalent back then.

And that toughened him up mentally.

And I think going in the military, he still felt some of that.

So, he just, he was tough in inside and out.

LTJG HALYBURTON: He was just such a tough guy and such a determined guy.

And he was determined that he was going to be a good example for his people.

And so, Fred was very inspirational to me in, in that way.

FRED CHERRY JR.: I look at it as not too much different than Jackie Robinson.

So, there was anything he could do to set the example of what was expected of them, not only as Black officers, but as military officers for the United States of America.

(uplifting piano music) LTJG HALYBURTON: It was just the opposite of what they thought was gonna happen.

I mean, I did take care of him and, in taking care of him, it gave me something really important to do.

Before that time, I had been concerned with two things - survival and doing my duty.

And now, I had something really important to do, was to help this man survive.

FRED CHERRY JR.: Porter, Dad would tell you, saved his life many a days when Dad was just unable to do anything.

And Porter would give him his food, would bathe him.

And they just became inseparable.

LTJG HALYBURTON: And, uh, he says that I saved his life and that might be true, but, but I always say that in a way, he saved my life because I was put into this situation.

And now, I had an entirely different outlook on captivity - that we were there to help one another, not just look out for yourself, you know, and do your duty, but you had other obligations.

And that, that was the way we were going to survive is if we all cared for one another in any way that we possibly could.

FRED CHERRY JR.: There was one thing Dad told me that the time came, when they moved Porter out of his cell, Dad will tell you it was the saddest day of his life.

And I think that, that, that hurt him more than anything, more than the torture was losing Porter.

* FRED CHERRY JR.: Only thing I would add was, um, I miss him...and the, um...just talking.

I get emotional when I talk about him like that.

But yeah, just miss him.

(Fred Cherry Jr. on recording): Yeah.

Just miss him.

LTJG HALYBURTON: Yep.

I feel that way, too.

You know, I...I miss him and, and I..I treasure the memories that I have of him, both of our time together and, uh, and in freedom.

MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: I think the Fred and Porter story resonates with the times in our nation.

NARRATOR: Thank you everybody, uh, for joining us this evening, uh, for our, uh, Football Players Council for Racial Equality, and obviously great discussion tonight.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: ...but still the death of George Floyd and so many others are just an indication that we still have a ways to go.

MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: Bolster courage.

We are all in this together.

MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: A task you do together, an ideal you believe in, can build a team despite religion, race, sex, gender, you name it.

Our team...unstoppable, when on the same page.

(gentle acoustic guitar music) MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Oh, hey.

[Both laugh] MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: What's up?

There is tradition to carve names into the Brigade Commander door, which is a cutout from the class of '97.

Oh yeah.

This, this is gonna work.

I think Syd and I...that was really special.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Oh, for some reason I, in my head, I was thinking you're gonna write Ryan [laugh] Oh, Ryan is one of my best friends.

He's, he's a friend for life.

Yeah.

Yeah, Ryan, he's like a brother to me.

(knife scratching on wood) MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: It's kind of crazy that our two names will probably be, like, put together for, like, a while.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Yeah.

MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: You know, I don't know.

Especially when your book comes out.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: I haven't done anything yet.

That's the thing, MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: Like, what do you mean, dude?

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: I don't, I don't feel like I've done any... MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: Trailblazer.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: I haven't done anything yet.

In a world where people are constantly being driven apart because of their race, their gender, political identity, a number of different societal constructs that we have that just cause us to, to think differently about each other and divide ourselves internally from those around us...but to be a leader, it's, it's being able to identify the value in every person and weaving those values together in a common thread.

And that's why I think it's the most important thing, in a leadership role, is to really, really know your people well.

At the end of the day, you're just someone holding a seat, sitting in a seat for a period of time.

MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: Okay.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: How does that look?

MIDSHIPMAN CHAPMAN: Do you wanna get a picture of us holding it up?

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: And then, I'm just a name on a wall or a carving on a board.

(digital camera clicks) CAMERAMAN: Got it.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Awesome.

Now, passing the baton on as Brigade Commander, my final act is ensuring that we have a good turnover.

(lively inspirational string music) GUNNERY SEARGENT: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Probably, the most important responsibility that you have is to turn over.

GUNNERY SEARGENT: We welcome you to the United States Naval Academy's Class of 2021 Change of Command and Turnover Formation.

The Change of Command is a time-honored tradition that formally symbolizes the continuity of authority, as the command is passed from one individual to another.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: Brigade, a-ten-hut.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: The turnover is critical.

The same way that you talk about the POWs.

You've had those experiences and you've learned lessons, and the point of undergoing those challenges is to draw lessons from them to carry on to future generations.

There's a lot of things that we learned about life and leadership that would be beneficial for the next staff.

I turned over to Jackie Booker.

MIDSHIPMAN JACKIE BOOKER: Brigade.

VOICES IN CROWD: [undistinguishable] MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: Forward march.

(military drumming) DR. THOMAS: For anyone who's not familiar with what a turnover is, it's a process by which information...wisdom is passed down from one to another.

But turnovers occur well in advance of that ceremony.

That's where wisdom is shared.

(military drumming) One of the most cliched ways to think about leadership is leadership by example, but what's implied in leadership by example is leaders will lift the harshest burden first and set it down last.

And this is exactly the type of leadership exercised by the senior leaders across the board in Hoa Lo prison.

(somber piano music) LTCDR CRONIN: All the senior leaders had at least one major disadvantage.

Because they were senior, the Vietnamese focused on them to keep them away from us, prevent them from exercising leadership.

And they made serious effort to try and undermine the leadership in every way that they could.

LCDR SHUMAKER: You know, about 1967, they, they thought they knew who the leaders were.

They got 11 guys and they decided to give them special treatment.

And by special, I mean especially bad treatment.

And so, we were put in this, uh, solitary confinement and we called ourselves the Alcatraz 11.

LCDR SHUMAKER: When the Vietnamese would start a torture campaign, they would start with a senior guy.

And you knew it was gonna eventually wind up, uh, in your lap.

And, and eventually in George Jr., George Coker's lap.

LT COKER: They finally dragged me out, got the daylights beaten out of me, worked over and, at that time, I'd been out there for over two weeks and I was done.

In my mind, I was done.

I got one more "No," and they pull it off, they were all ready to do it, and I said, "No."

And all of a sudden, he said, "You must go back to your room and think seriously about this."

And of course, my mind just goes bananas.

What, what hell are you talking about?

You know, I'm about 30 seconds away from being spread eagle and getting the hell beat out of me...now you tell me I'm going back to my room to think about my evil doings.

Well, as I found out, Ho Chi Minh died that day, and they stopped all the torture.

TV ANNOUNCER: This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

WALTER CRONKITE: Good evening.

North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh is dead.

CMDR RED MCDANIEL: When the torture stopped after Ho Chi Minh's death in 1969, not only because of Ho Chi Minh's death, because the wives in this country were organized into a very strong political force, perhaps became the strongest force this country's ever known, apolitical because when a wife can get up and says, "I haven't heard my husband for seven years," they have great impact.

LTJG HALYBURTON: So, they quit torturing us.

They let people write and receive letters, and receive packages, put us in larger groups, and, and so all of a sudden we're in groups of 40 or 50.

LT MCGRATH: The last three years they didn't torture us.

They backed off and they left us alone and we waited out the end of the...the war.

So, this wasn't hard times.

It was really waiting out the war.

(metal door creaks) LT BUTLER: I personally made up my mind that if I ever was able to leave that place, I was not going to walk out of there hating the Vietnamese for what had happened to me.

To lay the sins of an individual on a group is something that no one should ever do.

Never blame a group for the, for the sins of one or two individuals.

(inspiring piano music) * RABBIT: Everett Alvarez Jr. - Robert Harper Shumaker.

HARRY REASONER: Today, the largest contingence of re...of repatriated prisoners so far.

Sixty men were flown from Clark to Travis Air Force Base, California.

* LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: Our story is that we made it through that experience together.

Use our story as an example.

So, when you face life's challenges, don't make it difficult by thinking you can handle it yourself.

Uh...it's, it's...you can't.

RABBIT: James Bond Stockdale.

LTJG ALVAREZ: You have to have friends.

You have to have a team with the same goal.

And, uh, in our case, our goal was to come home.

But we were gonna come home, uh, with our honor, uh, return with honor.

CMDR JAMES STOCKDALE: We're quite excited today as we proceed on east and we'll soon be reunited with our families.

(cheer from crowd) And I thank you all here.

DR. THOMAS: Commander Stockdale and the POWs had a mantra - "return with honor."

The country was going through a lot in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

It was as divided as it had been since the American Civil War.

And, as a result, it needed something to rally around.

This is where the inspiration of the POWs, I think, serves as a model for all of us, even until today.

(foreboding dramatic music) * NEWSREEL NARRATOR: On April 24th, 1971, the National Peace Action Coalition marched from the White House to the Capitol.

The demonstrators came their positions on the war, racial discrimination and other political issues were made known.

PROTESTOR (through megaphone): No justice...

CROWD: No peace!

NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Final Mayday action called for a massive siege of the United States Capitol to hold Congress hostage until it ratified a People's Peace Treaty with the North Vietnamese.

CROWD VOICE: Yeah!

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: And if you think about today's society and the divisiveness, if you consider our story, there were, across the board, all kinds of guys.

There were those who were strictly by the book to what's rational here and there.

I mean, we even had our own political views.

We had the Hawks and we had the Doves.

And then, when it came to resist...physically resist...there were, uh, different levels of resistance, but we still took care of each other.

LCDR SHUMAKER: And so I, I just asked you to have faith in us.

And I'd like to state here that in my eight years of captivity, I was loyal in every respect to the United States, to our president and his policies.

LCDR SHUMAKER: You know, over in Vietnam, you think all these ex-POW's were strong and unyielding, but the truth of the matter is...there were vast differences among us in, some people resisted near the point of death; others gave the Vietnamese some information without a whole lot of resistance.

Nonetheless, we bonded together in the common goal of coming back and return with honor, and...and not condemn those who, uh, were, were weaker than others.

(indistinguishable shouting in crowd) Carrying that analogy over to the present situation, we have differences in this nation of ours.

CROWD: [chanting] Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

LCDR SHUMAKER: And I...I think Americans could realize that we have the strength to overcome those differences and...and emphasize the fact that if...if we prisoners could overcome our differences, the American 330 million of us can get together.

Uh, we can become one.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: And if you think about today's society and the divisiveness, if you don't come together, maybe then what we will experience is the breakdown of our society...uh, the breakdown of, of our nation.

(tense violin music) COMPETITION JUDGE 1: Welcome back to the National Ethics Bowl.

COMPETITION JUDGE 2: Right?

Navy is up.

MIDSHIPMAN JACKIE BOOKER: The debate team is one of the, like, best things I've ever done here.

MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: Hello everyone.

Good afternoon.

I am Midshipman First Class Jackie Booker.

MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: I enjoy thinking through things.

I love to wrestle with questions...um...both sides of them...forces you to think.

COMPETITION JUDGE 3: The case for the final round is what do you believe are the main competing interests in the debates surrounding the teaching of critical race theory in schools?

MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: In 2020, with all the issues that we've been facing - societal unrest, political unrest, gender, race - and when it comes to leading through all of this division, the thing that we really have to remember and focus on is how we talk to each other and talk with each other.

Because at this point, we do less of talking to each other and more of talking past each other.

And now, to move on to more of an analysis of what, um, I think you failed to bring up, uh, in terms of ethical paradigms, I think the big one is Mill's Marketplace of Ideas.

So, in, in terms of where we are today, do I see it as an existential problem?

No, but it is an issue, if we don't recognize it as a problem, that could have potential to get worse.

That we need to continue working and focusing on the things that we share, rather than just focusing on the differences that we have.

Like, that just makes the most sense to me.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: People who are chosen to be leaders - as an example, in the Academy, midshipmen - they should have the capability to see what's happening, and they always be on guard against those inherent forces, you might say, that are there to...to do...to divide you rather than keep you a, a united, uh, group.

COMPETITION JUDGE 2: There was a consensus that Team B (slamming of laptop case) - United States Naval Academy won.

(Team cheers) (sound of carriage and horse clops) BURIAL OFFICIAL: We welcome you to Arlington National Cemetery (rifle fire) for the burial of Michael Paul Cronin.

(rifle fire) CHAPLAIN: Mike set an example that few could equal and none surpass.

("Amazing Grace" on bagpipes) LCDR SHUMAKER: Yeah, you think a lot, a lot about death as you approach my age, because a lot of my friends are peeling off now and flying west.

As you get older, you think about what your legacy is.

LT MCGRATH: 662 of us came out alive.

Since, we've re...repatriated in early 73, uh, over 150 have died.

And now, we're dying at about the rate of one per week, so it's getting pretty sad.

LT COKER: We've lost our family, one by one, and like losing any family, it's sad, it's heartbreaking, but it's also part of life.

So, we are very accepting of it, but we also miss them dearly.

LCDR SHUMAKER: Yeah.

It's uh...you realize that the curtain's about to fall, uh, one of these days.

And, uh, and...and you hope that what you did and how you influenced other people, uh, was for the better.

("Amazing Grace" concludes) (jets pass overhead) (sad piano music) * SUPERINTENDENT BUCK: We're here to celebrate and to express our gratitude and our absolute respect to Captain Jerry Coffee.

MIDSHIPMAN BARBER: So, when I think about the POW stories, uh, we have the obligation to, to carry those lessons on, um, and, and apply them to our leadership styles, um, and, and make sure that their, their story lives on, that they're not forgotten.

I just have nothing but respect, and, um, in many ways, I feel a responsibility to carry on that legacy.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: I first met Jerry summer of 1970, and I found myself being led into a, a cell.

And there was Jerry.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: Jerry was my cellmate for many years, became a very close friend.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: He was very sensitive, concerned about others.

He was the first to come to the support and aid of someone who was in need.

And I benefited from this concern he had for others one year when I received devastating news from home.

And I have to tell you that I was in the dumps for weeks.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: What happened to my wife and our relationship, I think is a tragedy 'cause, uh, she basically gave up waiting for me after, after so many years and without hope.

And so, she divorced me.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: And Jerry never left my side.

He walked with me, he talked to me, consoled me.

LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: I can't blame anybody.

I can understand.

It was just something...I didn't wanna talk about it publicly.

Uh, those are personal stories.

There's a lot of them.

That's a tragedy of war.

(rifle fire) LTJG ALVAREZ JR.: He had such an optimistic nature.

He would not let me lose hope, but he felt my pain and he proved himself to be a true friend.

Because Jerry, you were my friend.

You always will be.

And, so the story is...the legacy is to carry this experience on and tell it to others, so that they can use it in their achievement and in their, in their challenges of life.

(uplifting piano music) MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: Forward, march.

DR. THOMAS: One of the most solemn responsibilities of leadership is to turn over hard-earned wisdom to those who follow behind.

MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: Staff, halt.

DR. THOMAS: Maybe, we should think of the turnover as a metaphor for the POW story.

COL JAMES MCDONOUGH: The change of command is a time-honored tradition that formally symbolizes the continuity of authority, as the command is passed from one individual to another.

DR. THOMAS: They are turning over hard-earned wisdom to generations of midshipmen who follow on behind them.

And there may be some valuable lessons for all of us.

COL MCDONOUGH: Attention to orders.

To off-going commanders - you stand relieved from your signed billet and are directed to report to your follow-on roles within the brigade of midshipmen.

MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: The biggest question I always wondered is whether or not I could do the same thing that, that they went through.

The Admiral Shumaker said something that I never forget for rest of my life, which is that they were just following the orders, doing their duty and that they aren't anyone special.

They aren't extraordinary.

They're just a normal human being just like, just like me.

I'm no different than you.

If I can do it then so can you.

And that just spoke volumes to me 'cause that's something I believe in, in my life is that anybody's capable of doing something amazing.

* I think the ending is the hardest to write.

I guess the question is: should there ever be an ending?

Especially, like when we've been talking especially about like - timeless lessons, uh, isn't the whole point is that the lesson never really ends and it's something that can continues on and on for everyone else to experience?

* COL MCDONOUGH: You are directed to assume command in your leadership role.

MIDSHIPMAN BOOKER: Congratulations.

I'm so happy for you.

(sound of footsteps walking away)