Halyburton ‘63 Reflects on Time in Vietnam

“His arm had been almost ripped off his body. He had a broken foot. He had all kinds of other injuries that weren’t life threatening, but he couldn’t do a lot for himself,” Halyburton said.

The injured man was Major Fred Cherry, the first and highest ranking Black officer among the American POWs of the Vietnam War. Halyburton’s Vietnamese captors supposed that a southern white man would resist and be made miserable by servitude to a Black man. But rather than an enemy, Halyburton gained a lifelong bond in Cherry. Tending to his injuries and forging a relationship with Cherry also gave Halyburton much needed perspective on enduring captivity.

“Prior to that, I’d been worried about survival, doing my duty, staying healthy. And after that, I was given something extremely important to do: taking care of another human being,” Halyburton said. “That changed my whole attitude to ‘if we’re gonna get out of this together, we have to be together.’ We have to care for each other. We have to come together as a military unit and as a family, and that’s what we did.”

Enlivened by this attitude of comradery, Halyburton developed a phrase called ‘long-term non-specific optimism.’

“I decided I am not going to worry at all about anything that I have no control over. I want to concentrate on the things that I can. That’s when I said ‘I’m still optimistic, but long term.’ That really allowed me to not be so anxious,” Halyburton said.

After his separation from Cherry, Halyburton lived in a group of eight other POWs. They played games, laughed, educated and entertained each other, which further shifted his attitude and made imprisonment bearable.

“This environment offered opportunities to learn, to teach and have fun. By the end we were learning languages. I was learning how to play a guitar, I learned how to do chords on the piano. The things we were able to do were pretty amazing,” Halyburton said. “We proved to ourselves that we could do an awful lot even though we didn’t have much. I had become adapted because I needed to. I couldn’t think ‘I may not go home.’ I needed to think ‘If the war lasts another 10 years, then okay, I can make it;”

Sixteen months into his captivity, Admiral James Stockdale sent Halyburton and 40 others’ names to American leadership using invisible carbon paper. Halyburton, unaware that his family thought he was dead, was then forced to confront the fact that they had been grieving. Similarly, Marty, previously comforted by the knowledge that at least her husband wasn’t suffering as a POW, had to adjust to a life of unknowns as the wife of a prisoner.

“I always had confidence that she was a strong person. I knew it’d be traumatic for her, but I certainly didn’t know I had been declared KIA (killed in action). I found out I was dead at about the same time she found out that I was alive,” Halyburton said. “I said ‘What’s happened? Has she gotten remarried?’ That was a tough period. I had to assume an attitude that everything was going to be okay. There’s nothing I can do. There was no way to communicate with her.”

After 2,675 days of captivity, Halyburton was released during Operation Homecoming on Feb. 12, 1973. He underwent medical examination at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, before flying to San Francisco and finally Jacksonville. After reuniting with Marty at the hospital, they traveled to reunite with Dabney, their eight-year-old daughter.

“Dabney came running out and she says, ‘Daddy, can I sit in your lap?’ So we got off to a really good start,” Halyburton said. “I was very fortunate.”

The recipient of a Silver Star for valor, Halyburton then studied journalism at the University of Georgia before serving at Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island from 1978 until retiring from the Navy in 1984. He continued to teach there until April 2006. Along the way, the Halyburtons grew to a family of five.

Marty and Halyburton returned to Vietnam in 1998 years later, and they were amazed at the people’s warmth and forgiveness.

“I had chosen to forgive as I left Vietnam. I couldn’t take the hatred home. When we went back, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how we would be received,” Halyburton said. “Their country had been bombed more heavily than any other place. So much was destroyed of their lives and so many killed. We had not suffered anything like that at home. I was just blown away by the fact that they could forgive, they could move on.”

The couple continued to make trips back, and Marty has worked as an English teacher at a hospitality training center in Vietnam and on the board of Children of Vietnam. In addition to volunteering at relief organizations, the Halyburtons have sponsored Vietnamese families that immigrated to the United States.

They now reside in Greensboro, North Carolina. Halyburton recently published a book, Reflections on Captivity: A Tapestry of Stories by a Vietnam War POW, chronicling his experience in Vietnam. Halyburton, who grew up in Davidson in addition to attending the College, valued his time at Davidson greatly. Ultimately, he hopes the College community understands the importance of making the most of their education and, ultimately the value of forgiveness.

“My education at Davidson was extremely important in my life. I am such a firm believer in the liberal arts in one’s life, no matter what you do,” Halyburton said. “Make the most of this incredible opportunity. To learn, to learn about yourself and about others at Davidson. And of course, forgiveness. Getting rid of hatred from your life frees you up so much time. The quality of life is determined by the quality of the choices that you make as you