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Marc Leepson, Author of The Unlikely War Hero.
Episode 3237 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature an interview with Marc Leepson who talks about his book The Unlikely War Hero. Leepson is a journalist, historian and the author of eleven books including the afore mentioned title. He is a Vietnam Veteran and is still working today. He presently is a Senior Writer, Arts Editor, and columnist for the VVA Veteran, which is the magazine published by the Vietnam Veterans of America.
In the past Marc served as a staff writer the Congressional Quarterly and has written for many newspapers and magazines, including Preservation, Smithsonian, Military History, Civil War times, the Washington Post, New York Times, New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Triune, Dallas Morning News, New York Newsday and USA Today and for the Encyclopedia Britannica, The Encyclopedia Americana and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.
Obviously Marc is a well qualified historian. His demonstrates his expertise in this interview as he talks about the subject of his book The Unlikely War Hero, A Vietnam War POW’s Story of Courage and Resistance in the Hanoi Hilton.
The hero in Marc’s book is Doug Hegdahl. In 1967 Doug was serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Canberra that was at the time located three miles off the coast of North Vietnam when he was knocked overboard by what was believed to be a gun blast.
After a few hours of treading water, Doug was picked up by a Vietnamese fisherman and turned over to the North Vietnamese authorities. He was immediately taken to the “Hanoi Hilton” Prison for POW’s and checked in for a long stay. Upon his arrival at the prison, Doug used inborn wiliness to hoodwink his North Vietnamese captors into thinking he was mentally retarded. This opened the door to one of the most amazing stories of bravery and resourcefulness to come out of the Vietnam War.
Listen to Episode 3237 and discover more about Marc Leepson and his book The Unlikely War Hero.
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