"On April 2, 1967, then-Captain John Dramesi's F-105D was shot down on a mission over North Vietnam, and from that day dates his extraordinary story of survival and resistance. For six years Dramesi was a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. He escaped twice, coloring his skin with iodine pills and fabricating disguises out of discarded bamboo mats, rags, and in one instance hair clippings. He was subjected to extreme physical and psychological torture. "Dramesi was a marked man because he followed to the letter the Code of Conduct (Executive Order #10631) which govern the behavior of captured American fighting men. He gave the enemy no military information and would accept no favors; he signed no confession or antiwar statements; he made no tape recordings which might be used as propaganda. "Dramesi explains in this book the tricks he used to keep body and mind together. He did hundreds of push-up and walked miles each day in the confines of his cell. He devised sophisticated mind games to cope with the days and weeks of isolation. For Dramesi, capture did not mean defeat, and whenever he was physically able and saw an opportunity, he would harass the guards, lay plans for escape, and help other prisoners develop means of resisting."

Autobiographical.