Posted: 7/25/06
Hoedown grand marshal Bob Flynn
has an incredible story to tell
He survived 5-1/2 years in solitary confinement as POW
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Itís a long way from Houston Minnesota to Peking, China.
Yet Bob Flynn, 68, travelled that distance, in his mind at least, many times during his confinement at a prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War.
The grand marshal of the Houston Hoedown parade will talk about it this Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Hoedown Jamboree in the city park in Houston.
Flynn, the son of Thomas and Mildred Flynn, grew up in Houston and graduated from high school there in 1955.
He had an almost unbelievable ordeal from 1967 to 1973. The A-6 bomber that he and pilot Jimmy Buckley were flying was shot down on August 21, 1967 about 15 miles from the Chinese border in North Vietnam.
Flynn, a commander in the Navy, parachuted safely to the ground. Buckley was killed in the shoot-down.
Flynn was captured by North Vietnamese soldiers and taken to Peking, China, where he spent 2,032 days in prison, including 2,030 consecutive days of solitary confinement. Thatís more than 5-1/2 years. It is believed to be the longest for any military man in our nationís history.
He was released on March 15, 1973. He medically retired as a Naval Commander in 1985 after 27 years of service, and now lives in Pensacola, Florida.
Flynn was fortunate to even survive the airplane crash. The flight, his 71st mission, was part of a major bombing strike with two other waves of Navy planes and four waves of Air Force bombers from a base in Thailand.
Flynnís plane dropped its bombs and returned toward the USS Constellation in the Gulf of Tonkin. The fighter jets went ahead to cover the first two waves of planes. Flynn and three other planes were in a third wave.
But a huge wave of missiles were launched against the bombers. Eight MIGs attacked what was left of their formation. A MIG missile hit their plane. ìWe were at 10,000 feet when the attack began,î Flynn told a newspaper reporter in 1985. ìAt one point in the dog fight we were flying at 50-100 feet following the terrain up and down the mountain range. The MIG pilot was so close that if heíd taken his oxygen mask off, I could have told if heíd shaved. Then we were hit.î
Extensive injuries
The plane was travelling about 600 MPH when Flynn and Buckley ejected. ìMy back was broken and every movable joint was strained ñ even my hair hurt. I couldnít walk. I couldnít even lift a cup of water,î Flynn said.
He had suffered severe spinal compression fractures, and wrenched all of his muscle and skeletal joints during ejection. Yet his first journey was in the back of a truck about 100 miles to Peking.
Flynn spent most of his confinement in a 12'x16' cell. His bed was a door set on two sawhorses. He also had a desk and wooden chair in the room.
The political prison held other Americans, including two civilians who had been there since the Korean War, John T. Downey and Richard Fecteau.
Flynn had no warm clothes his first year, and his only reading material during that time was a 1914 edition of the Oxford Dictionary.
Eventually he was allowed to write one two-page letter a month, and a list of what he wanted in his Red Cross box. His wife, Kathy, could send him two 11-pound boxes a month.
He endured three separate incidents of extended handcuff torture, one lasting seven days, one 30 days, and one 60 days.
Flynn is a strong-willed man, as is apparent to anyone who meets and hears him. That trait came out in the prison camp. For example, he was punished once by not being allowed to write. After three months he was told he could begin to write again. ìI told them that now that I could write, I wouldnít. I didnít write for almost a year. I felt I had to show them that they couldnít use anything against me,î he said.
He held that stubbornness even up to the day he was released, when he was asked to sign a document admitting his wrongs. ìI refused and went back to my cell. I told them I wouldnít go home if I had to sign the document. That surprised them,î Flynn recalled in 1985.
Houston connection
Maintaining his sanity was paramount in the prison, and his upbringing in Houston helped with that. ìI relived every incident in my life while I was in my cell,î he said in 1985. ìWhen I was released, people in my hometown of Houston, Minnesota were amazed because I could remember them all. I knew every nickname of everyone Iíd ever known in town. I replayed every football game. Iíd been a catcher in high school and so when I got a softball in a Red Cross box, I would take it out to the exercise yard and there, by myself, I taught myself to fast pitch. Iíd pitch at a broom in the corner and Iíd play whole games with myself, working on strategy, thinking about the best ways to pitch for different batters.î
Two Houston people were especially important to him, Father Michael J. Quislie of St. Maryís Church, and Frederic Haver, a football coach and history teacher at Houston High School.
Flynn will talk about how these and other individuals from Houston helped him survive in solitary confinement on Sunday. ìI really think tthat I got more from the town of Houston than they got from me,î Flynn told The Argus on July 20.
When he returned to the U.S. after his release from prison, he was both bewildered and hyperenergetic. ìKathy could last for about a day and a half and then she had to drop out to get some sleep. For about a month I got by on two hours of sleep a night,î he said in 1985.
There were tough adjustments for everyone. ìIt was so good to have him home but it was hard too,î his wife, Kathy, said in another 1985 newspaper article. ìHe came back to Colorado Springs, a place heíd never been. It wasnít a familiar place. In his cell everything had a specific place. At home he followed me around picking things up, every toy in the box sort of things. He wasnít used to kids either. Robbie wasnít too thrilled about him. Beth remembered him and they would play but he also yelled a lot. He was so wired and I remember being tired a lot. We had a life style that I had worked so hard to develop. He was used to another way of living.î
Flynn also had bad physical effects from his experience. Kathy, had this recollection in 1985. ìHis arthritis is very bad. He has an ankle with no cartilage left in it where the bones just rub on the bones. Heíll need surgery on that soon. Every winter that he was in prison he came down with pneumonia and bronchitis. He still has bronchitis attacks. Heís stooped from his broken back. He lost two inches in height. Itís difficult for him to sit for long in one place, and he canít do too much physical work. All of thatís on the inside. The exterior thing that reminds you every day of what happened to him is the crud on his feet. He was kept handcuffed for over 60 days with his hands behind his back. Urinating and physical functions just had to take place as they could. When they took the cuffs off and the swelling on his hands went down enough where he could take off his boots, they had rotted to his feet. The skin peeled away from his socks. His feet have never looked the same since.î
Bob Flynn returned to school and studied International Relations - China and the Far East, in 1976-77. He served as a squadron aircraft maintenance officer, a squadron commander, the executive officer of a major shore base, and finally as the Director of Aviation Warfare Training at the Naval Education and Training Command Headquarters in Pensacola, Florida, where he was medically retired in 1985.
His awards include the Legion of Merit (with Combat V), the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars (with Combat Vís), two Purple Hearts, six Air Medals (with Combat Vís), the POW medal, two Navy Commendation Medals (with Combat Vís) and the Combat Action Ribbon, as well as various other service and campaign awards.
Bob married the former Mary Kathryn Michels of Pipestone, Minnesota in 1963. They reside in Pensacola, Florida and have two children, Elizabeth Anne Cruz in Walla Walla, Washington; and Robert J. Flynn, Jr. in Pensacola.
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