EARLY EPISODE: Doug Hegdahl, The Incredibly Stupid One
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Once upon a time a POW pretended to be so stupid that his captors assumed he wasn't a threat. It turned into one of the largest North Vietnamese intelligence failures of the Vietnam War.
Sources:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.usni.org/sites/default/files/users/rsmith/Poor%20Peasant.pdf
https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/holy-cow-history-17880270.php
https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/amazing-pow-douglas-hegdahl/
https://web.archive.org/web/20091024130127/http://geocities.com/talesofseasia/doug.html
Cutler, Thomas. A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy
Comments (47)
This episode is classic! My sleep is messed up and I listened to this at 3 am shaking with laughter trying not to wake my husband up.
I don’t think I have ever enjoyed one of your podcasts more than this one. What a true hero. Absolutely incredible. He deserves a National Holiday, a true everyday hero.
I met Doug at SERE school in 1983 when he was an instructor. Also saw a presentation by Dick Stratton, really entertaining.
I am dying for the "Weird Guys of the Belle Epoque" podcast
I think Tom missed a golden opportunity not to reference Bayonetta with the Armenian hair jokes
Do you think Doug taught the other POWs and the NVA guards “How to Dougie”? I need answers
Gah damn, he should have.
I visited Vietnam in April and it was great, but I went to the Hanoi Hilton when I was there and there were whole exhibits about how they always treated POWs super great. One of the exhibits had a copy of a letter a pilot had written home to his wife in a way that was definitely clear the pilot just wrote what he was told. For instance, it started with “To Dear Wife”.
" what's hanoi-ing my hilllltonnnssss !"
Robert Evans is gonna sue you now
I'm not sure if it's what you were referencing, but around 2017 there was a guy on a cruiser stationed in Japan who hid in the ship's bilge for something like 2 months. He first went into hiding while the ship was doing an exercise with both Japanese and South Korean warships, resulting in a 3-day multinational search-and-resuce operation. The guy was eventually caught and immediately sent stateside, and an investigation launched. Turns out the guy had made multiple attempts to seek help for his mental health from medical, all or which had been denied by his chain of command, including the ship's CO. This led to the chain of command getting investigated, which revealed A BUNCH of shit. Turns out the CO of the ship wad running things WAY more brutally than he allowed to, including sentencing sailors to bread-and-water rations and locking them in a jail cell he had some of the machinists build.
Every Russian, British and American military episode is just amazing
If they made a movie about a beer run in Vietnam they definitely could off of this guy, have Jack Black play him.
Perfect casting choice!
New theme song is: - uhh, a choice - good
Two things - did Joe take Boonta's intro bit? (No shade, love that format). Second, I hope there's a screenwriter here who can make that movie at least a possible reality
Why have I heard about the Mighty Mighty Bosstones twice in under one hour both here and on Behind The Bastards?
This is the funniest fucking shit
I'm digging the return of interstitial music at the top of the episode
I love the idea of a Vietnamese village domesticating a feral American himbo like they found a stray cat
The Hanoi Hilton sounded like Robert Evans opening a podcast
What's Hanoi-ing my Hiltoooooons?!
I was listening to this episode on my morning commute and totally missed the guest introduction so the entire time I was wondering why Tom was dubbing in on a completely different mic in an American accent throughout the show.
Tom is 100% correct about Tropic Thunder, the Jack Black heroin arc is phenominal
Oooh, got the pronunciation soooo close. Canberra is "kan-bah-rah" or "kan-brah"
The classic Australian pronounced word. One consonant and then sound like Texas British person.
The Red Rising series has been one of my favs the past 2 years, I’m a big fan of the full cast audiobook versions. Only gripe with it is the tendency for fairly important characters to just completely vanish (Lyria in particular)
im on book 3 now. still enjoying it. I know this is the end of the first trilogy, but does it have some form of closure or does everything just keep rolling into the new ones?
The Monks>The Doors
Joe you need to check out the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The Napoleonic Wars.... WITH DRAGONS.
I just finished book 1 of His Majesty's Dragon. It was a unique angle on the whole dragons concept. I felt the ending was kind of rushed though. I know she wrote several other books in the series but I think it was a little too much the protagonist saves the day at the last minute. It was decent enough read though that I may give the sequel a read.
I live an hour from Clark SoDak and I’ve never heard of this guy lol
That Austrailian backpacker quip was stellar.
NHL 05 was an amazing soundtrack
Was immediately confused by there being intro music, then only became more confused.
Also somebody needs to get this guy to record the song and put it on YouTube for posterity.
Aw my parents nickname for me!
There has only been one Armenian in space, James Bagian, who did two missions for NASA.
Carson city mention raaaaaa
What a boss.
I thought this was some elaborate joke on Beau Bergdahl.
I thought I was the only one who had that nickname
Glad I’m not the only one who immediately thought of Simple Jack. And how I envision him talking to his cell mate https://youtu.be/X6WHBO_Qc-Q?si=hBvCFREpaRlcS2Ye
Meow
Intro music 🔥
Like the new intro
Never forget John McCain, who died in prison in North Vietnam in 1968.