Author and Historian Marc Leepson, Author of The Unlikely War Hero
The Unlikely War Hero tells the story of twenty-year-old U.S. Navy Seaman Apprentice, Doug Hegdahl, who in 1967 fell off his ship in the Gulf of Tonkin and soon found himself a prisoner in Hỏa Lò Prison, the notorious North Vietnamese POW camp that prisoners called the “Hanoi Hilton.” Publishers Weekly applauds Leepson’s chronicling of this incredibly journey stating, “Leepson paints a striking picture of a canny survivor nonetheless committed to his compatriots.”
When captured and held prisoner at Hỏa Lò Prison, Doug Hegdahl quickly used survival tactics to rouse guards to believe he was someone with low intelligence who could not read or write. However, Doug Hegdahl was far from stupid. Possessing a razor-sharp memory, during the next two years he memorized the names of 254 fellow prisoners and senior officers ordered him to accept an early release. After coming home in August 1969, Hegdahl shocked his debriefers by rattling off the names of the men. Hanoi had admitted holding only a few dozen, although the U.S. military had reliable intel on scores of others. With Hegdahl’s names, 63 missing servicemen were reclassified to Prisoners of War. Doug Hegdahl was the youngest and lowest-ranking American POW captured in North Vietnam, and for the first time his extraordinary efforts and survival story is shared in full.
Marc Leepson graduated from George Washington University with a history degree in 1967, served in the U.S. Army for the following two years, including a tour in Vietnam, and earned an MA in history from George Washington. He was a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly for ten years before becoming a full-time freelancer. His work has appeared in magazines and newspapers such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He is senior writer, arts editor, and columnist for The VVA Veteran (the magazine of Vietnam Veterans of America). His previous books are Ballad of the Green Beret: The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler from the Vietnam War and Pop Stardom to Murder and an Unsolved, Violent Death; What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, a Life; Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General; Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History; Flag: An American Biography; and Saving Monticello: The Levy Family’s Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built.
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