This Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox program features conversations with three former prisoners of war from three branches of military service, sharing their harrowing experiences. --The late William Paty, former Director of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources, was 23 when he parachuted into Normandy with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division on D-Day and fell into enemy hands. --Retired Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court Associate Justice Frank Padgett (center) was a World War II Air Force pilot whose B-24 bomber was shot down. He was held prisoner for eight months by the feared Japanese Kempetai. --During the Vietnam War, Navy pilot Jerry Coffee (right) was on a combat mission over North Vietnam when his jet took enemy anti-aircraft fire. One of the longest-held Vietnam POWs, he spent more than seven years in captivity, much of it in the infamous prison nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton.” The men’s POW stories, told matter-of-factly, are a testament to the strength of the human spirit, even in the darkest of times.

In an instant, Lieutenant Jerry Coffee went from flying his plane over North Vietnam to being a prisoner of war. What followed was seven years of torture and isolation in a Communist prison. But he never gave up hope. Jerry Coffee tells his story of imprisonment, survival and faith.