Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam
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 Cherry’s cellmate. Their captors hoped close...
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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 Cherry’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. Publishers Weekly Dozens of men held prisoner by the North Vietnamese were brutally tortured physically and emotionally for years on end. Among them were Fred Cherry, an air force F-104 fighter-bomber pilot and the highest-ranking black POW, and Porter Halyburton, a white navy F-4 Phantom jet navigator from North Carolina. Cherry, who was severely wounded when he was shot down near Hanoi in October 1965, was tortured as his captors tried, without success, to coerce him into signing antiwar statements urging black servicemen to give up the fight. Cherry would not have survived his ordeal without the care he received from Halyburton, whom the North Vietnamese placed in Cherry's cell in an effort to foster enmity between the two. Halyburton cleaned Cherry's wounds, bathed him when Cherry was too weak to move and did other yeoman, life-saving work for nearly eight months. This amazing story of courage, friendship and dedication to ideals was told briefly in Wallace Terry's excellent oral history, Bloods (1984). It is related here in depth and exceptionally well by Hirsch (Hurricane), a former Wall Street Journal and New York Times reporter. Hirsch has crafted a well-researched, cleanly and clearly written account that chronicles Cherry and Halyburton's lives before and after the war, but concentrates on their day-to-day struggles in Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton, from 1965 to 1973. This is a compelling story told compellingly well. Agent, Todd Shuster. Author tour. (May 10) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
1"Better Place, Worse Place"12One More Round113On Target214Hanoi's Welcome305The Independence456"No Chutes Observed"537Strangers in the Cell738No Ordinary Prisoner1019The Hanoi March13410The Home Front14511"Unspeakable Agony of the Soul"15412Change in Status17913The Good Life19014Divergent Paths at Home20715Operation Homecoming221Epilogue246Sources255Acknowledgments260Index263
