After he was captured and sent to the "Hanoi Hilton" in 1967, U.S. Navy sailor Doug Hegdahl played dumb to trick his captors and then spent the next two years gathering key information to relay to U.S. military officials upon his release.
Public DomainDoug Hegdahl, the “incredibly stupid” Navy sailor who became a Vietnam War hero.
On April 6, 1967, a 20-year-old U.S. Navy sailor named Doug Hegdahl was swept overboard in the Gulf of Tonkin. There, he was picked up by a fishing boat and turned over to North Vietnamese forces, who kept him as a prisoner of war at the infamous Hỏa Lò Prison.
Hegdahl’s captors first tried to use him for propaganda purposes, and in an attempt to buy some time, the young sailor pretended to be illiterate. To his surprise, his ruse worked. The North Vietnamese troops began referring to Hegdahl as “the incredibly stupid one,” and because they believed he was harmless, they gave him what was essentially free rein of the prison.
During his two years at Hỏa Lò, Hegdahl used his privileges to communicate with his fellow prisoners of war, secretly sabotage enemy vehicles, and gather information about conditions at the “Hanoi Hilton.” He also memorized the names of 256 other POWs, including some who had been listed as missing in action.
When Doug Hegdahl was released in 1969, this list of names provided relief to dozens of families who thought their loved ones were dead. What’s more, the intelligence he’d gathered while imprisoned at Hỏa Lò helped save the lives of countless POWs.
Doug Hegdahl’s Capture After Falling Into The Gulf Of Tonkin
Born on Sept. 3, 1946, in Clark, South Dakota, Doug Hegdahl was a typical Midwestern kid. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy even though he’d never seen the ocean, because his mother had suggested that he would fare better there than if he were drafted into the infantry.
As a Navy sailor, he was stationed on the USS Canberra, a guided missile cruiser patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin.
On April 6, 1967, at around 4:30 in the morning, Hegdahl found himself overboard. There are varying accounts as to how, exactly, this happened. Some say he was knocked off by the blast from a five-inch gun, while others suggest he may have simply lost his footing.
U.S. Information AgencyDoug Hegdahl was just 20 years old when he was captured by the North Vietnamese.
“I can’t tell you how I fell from my ship,” Hegdahl would later reflect, as reported by The Independent. “All I know is, I walked up on the deck. It was dark and they were firing, and the next thing I recall I was in the water.”
In either case, he had fallen into the Gulf of Tonkin — and the Canberra continued on, leaving Hegdahl behind.
He floated in the water for 12 hours before local fishermen spotted him and took them onto their boat. Of course, this was hardly the rescue an American sailor would have wanted. Hegdahl was handed over to North Vietnamese forces and taken prisoner at the infamous Hỏa Lò Prison, also known as the “Hanoi Hilton.”
Becoming ‘The Incredibly Stupid One’
Doug Hegdahl’s captors initially assumed he was a spy working for the CIA, as they thought his story about falling overboard was too unbelievable to be true. Hegdahl didn’t want to be tortured, but he also had no plans to willingly give up information. So, he decided to try a different tactic.
When the North Vietnamese soldiers asked Hegdahl to write an anti-war statement against the United States that they could use for propaganda, they were surprised when he eagerly agreed. Then, he pretended to be illiterate. To strengthen his ruse, he began talking about the similarities between farms in rural Vietnam and South Dakota. The captors assumed Hegdahl was a simple country boy with no education. His plan had worked.
Still, the North Vietnamese thought they might be able to teach him how to read and write and then trick him into publicly supporting their cause. They assigned him a tutor for this purpose, but Hegdahl was seemingly unable to follow even the most simple commands, and they soon gave up on him. His captors dubbed him “the incredibly stupid one” and assigned him to sweep the grounds of Hỏa Lò Prison. Because they assumed he was dumb and harmless, they essentially gave him free rein in the camp.
Lowell Milken Center for Unsung HeroesDoug Hegdahl sweeping the courtyard at Hỏa Lò Prison.
“I had probably the most embarrassing capture in the entire Vietnam War,” Hegdahl said in a 1997 interview. “I found that my defense posture was just to play dumb. Let’s face it, when you fall off your boat, you have a lot to work with.”
Hegdahl was anything but stupid, though. Playing dumb took the target off his back — and it gave him the opportunity to secretly sabotage North Vietnamese war efforts.
Doug Hegdahl’s Time At Hỏa Lò Prison
Doug Hegdahl continued his ruse for two years, which gave him plenty of time to undermine the North Vietnamese. Still determined to use Hegdahl for propaganda purposes, his captors took him out of the prison several times, which allowed him to memorize the exact location of the Hanoi Hilton.
Back at the camp, he used his sweeping job to his advantage by passing communications between prisoners. He also once put dirt, sand, and leaves in the gas tanks of five North Vietnamese army trucks, rendering them inoperable.
Public DomainA 1970 aerial surveillance photograph of the “Hanoi Hilton.”
As Lieutenant Commander Richard “Dick” Stratton, a Navy pilot who was imprisoned at Hỏa Lò, later wrote in an essay: “Doug Hegdahl, a high school graduate from the mess decks fell off a ship and has five enemy trucks to his credit. I am a World Famous Golden Dragon with two college degrees, 2,000 jet hours, 300 carrier landings and 22 combat missions. How many enemy trucks do I have to my credit? Zero.”
At one point, Hegdahl was assigned to a cell with Lieutenant Joseph Crecca of the U.S. Air Force. Crecca tasked “the incredibly stupid one” with memorizing the names of the 256 POWs at Hỏa Lò along with personal information that could verify their identities. Hegdahl did this by singing them to the tune of “Old McDonald.”
Then, in 1969, the North Vietnamese offered Doug Hegdahl early release. The prisoners had made a pact that no one would leave until every last man was freed, and anyone who broke that promise was deemed a traitor. However, Hegdahl’s superiors urged him to accept the deal so he could share the intelligence he’d gathered with U.S. officials.
Hegdahl didn’t realize then how valuable this information would be.
How ‘The Incredibly Stupid One’ Saved Countless Lives
Doug Hegdahl was released from Hỏa Lò Prison on August 5, 1969. Upon his return to the U.S., he recited the names of the 256 men he’d been imprisoned with and shared accounts of the horrific conditions that POWs faced with officials at the Pentagon.
This information helped the U.S. military reclassify 63 service members who had been listed as MIA to POW status. This provided great relief to their loved ones, many of whom had assumed the men were dead.
Stratton Family PhotoDoug Hegdahl (right) with Dick Stratton and his wife, Alice.
Having the names of prisoners also provided the U.S. with bargaining power. According to The Independent, Roger Shields, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/MIA Affairs, recalled that the U.S. government told the North Vietnamese, “‘You are responsible for the salvation and the survival of these particular men [on Hegdahl’s list],’ thereby putting the onus on the North Vietnamese in a way that had never been done before.”
What’s more, the information Hegdahl provided about conditions at Hỏa Lò Prison put international pressure on North Vietnam to stop brutally torturing war prisoners. This likely saved lives, and it was all thanks to Doug Hegdahl.
Hegdahl was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in July 1970, and he went on to teach survival skills at the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school in San Diego. He retired in 2001 and has maintained a fairly private life ever since, having already earned his place in the history books.
After learning about Doug Hegdahl’s remarkable Vietnam War survival story, read about Roy Benavidez, the Vietnam veteran who endured “six hours in Hell.” Or, explore the Vietnam War protests in 39 photos.
