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But this practice meant that Libby Prison, a large officers’ pen in Richmond, Va., at any one time found itself with 1,200 very smart guys as inmates, ranging from lieutenants to colonels (and one general), most of whom had recently been civilian doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers and others with a wide range of smarts. Why did we? Because contemporary research suggests it never happened.Īs ex-Army Ranger and helicopter pilot Kris Kristofferson famously wrote and sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” Though he certainly didn’t have POWs in mind, that timeless line could be the escapee’s anthem: If all you have to look forward to is beatings, hunger, loneliness and possible execution, what’s to lose by trying to escape?ĭuring the Civil War, Confederate forces sent Union officers and enlisted men to separate jails, feeling that officers might incite the ranks to all manner of malfeasance. Some may wonder why we have ignored the 4,000-mile Gulag-escapee trek across Siberia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas immortalized in the book The Long Walk (1955) and the recent film The Way Back (2010). Other famous “escapes” turn out to be fiction. The renowned World War II “Great Escape” from Stalag Luft III, immortalized in the eponymous 1963 film, actually resulted in the brutal execution of 50 of the 76 escapees, 73 of whom were recaptured. Some escapes have become legendary despite being failures. After all, it’s their job: To escape is part of the devotion to duty that got them captured in the first place.Ī true warrior never gives up, seeing imprisonment as a challenge that can drive him to seemingly impossible achievements-like those described in the following escape accounts. And prisoners of war, enemies as well as allies, are doubly admired for seeking freedom. In the civilian world even the nastiest criminal gets our grudging respect for busting out. Capture is an occupational hazard for soldiers and escape is a POW’s duty-some even succeed with imagination and style.Įveryone loves a great escape.