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POW says captivity was a motivating experience
Over six years in a prison camp taught value of life
By GEORGE MOORE
There's no such thing as a bad day. At least not according to retired U.S. Air Force Col. Ed Hubbard. He spent 2,420 days as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and claims people have the ability to choose their attitude under any given set of circumstances.
Hubbard delivered a powerful motivational presentation Jan. 16 at the Quinlan Center, sponsored by Edward Jones Investments. His message was not designed to shock the audience with horrific stories of life as a POW during the Vietnam War. Instead, he chose to focus on the positive aspects of being a POW.
"One luxury was we had plenty of spare time," Hubbard joked. "It provided a rare opportunity to review my life, and I discovered everything I ever accomplished in my life I could have done better with just a little bit more effort. That's still true today, but I just understand it better."
Hubbard said he woke up at 2 a.m. on July 20, 1966, got himself some breakfast and attended a briefing for his mission that day. He was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over North Vietnam and was captured after spending eight hours in the jungle.
Hubbard said his bad attitude and feelings of self-pity during his first five months in captivity almost killed him. With Christmas approaching, a fellow prisoner helped him change his attitude. Hubbard said he was able to convince himself that 99.9 percent of the world's population were worse off, and he decided he was going to survive.
"It was a change in my perception--a conscious decision that I wasn't ready to die," Hubbard said.
He noted there were three categories the POWs in his encampment fell into--the largest group died in captivity; another group committed suicide while captive; and a small group left with smiles on their faces.
"It was up to us how we viewed our situation," Hubbard said. "I haven't had a bad day since changing my perception--35 years ago. It's the attitude you take at that moment which will determine how your day will be."
Hubbard said Americans believe that life is too difficult--that they're all overworked and underpaid. But he said no matter what we have accomplished, we haven't come close to our actual potential.
When Hubbard was released in 1973, he said he looked at the world with a different perspective. He was put in charge of the largest safety organization in the Air Force with no experience in leading people. Hubbard said he held the position for 10 years--each year making dramatic improvements and holding the title of "best organization in the Air Force."
Hubbard held a meeting on his first day on the job and said all he wanted each day was for everyone to do a little better than they did the day before.
"Of course no one wants to hear that there's room for improvement--they all thought they were doing their jobs to the best of their ability," Hubbard said.
So he said he handed everyone at the meeting a blank Post-It note, and he asked them to write down anything that they had done in their lives that they could not have improved on and give it back to him after lunch.
"Every Post-It I got back was blank," he said.
"Teamwork is under-utilized and underrated in this country," Hubbard added. "We have to quit talking about what we can't do and focus on what we have achieved."
Hubbard said the first 18 months spent in captivity were tough because he and the other prisoners lacked goals. However, one day someone started a push-up competition. Hubbard said competition is something we do every day--it gives our lives direction and enables us to focus and set goals, which lets us think we're being productive.
Hubbard said prisoners lived on 300 calories a day, but he was able to work his way up to doing 1,000 straight push-ups before breakfast.
"If you strive to do things a little better every day it gives you confidence," he said.
Eventually, the POWs thought they had to start raising their standards and asked other inmates to share any kind of knowledge or information. Hubbard said because they were held in solitary confinement they used a universal tap code to communicate, risking severe punishment if they were caught. He said he is convinced that everything we learn is stored in our memory for life. One prisoner had memorized a 46-verse poem as a child. It took several months, but he taught it to all the other prisoners. Hubbard learned to speak Spanish from one prisoner without hearing it spoken or seeing it written.
After his release, Hubbard said he earned five college degrees in seven years in the evenings while he continued his military career. He is the author of Escape From the Box: The Wonder of Human Potential, which discusses his years spent as a POW and what he learned from the experience.
Near the end of his presentation Hubbard asked the audience to rise and led them in the singing of "God Bless America," asking them afterward if they felt the hair stand up on the back of their necks.
"That was the kind of personal pride we felt every second of every minute of every hour of every day spent in captivity," he said.
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