Learn how very convincing Vietnam War POW Doug Hegdahl was at acting his “stupidly stupid” character while at the hands of his Vietnamese captors leading them to give him an almost free run of the POW camp he was in. To top that, he was able to memorize the names, personal information as well as the capture dates and methods of capture of another 256 POWs in the camp. Man Overboard 20-year-old Doug Hegdahl only wanted to see the world that was why he signed up for the US Navy but then, fate had other plans. A few months after joining, Doug found himself on the gun line of USS Canberra off North Vietnam. The night of April 6, 1967 saw the cruiser shelling North Vietnam and in a bid to get a clearer view of the bombardment, Doug went above deck and was blown overboard by a 5-inch gun mount blast. He stayed afloat South China Sea for about 12 hours until some Cambodian fishermen spotted him and fished him out of the water. The fishermen who found him treated him kindly but when he was turned over to Vietnamese militiamen, they clubbed him repeatedly with their rifles before taking him to the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison camp. Meanwhile, his shipmates failed to report him going missing for two days in a bid to cover him. Because their commanding officer was left in the dark about Doug Hegdahl going overboard, nobody looked for him. The Incredibly Stupid One Initially, his Vietnamese captors
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