Amy Hawk
AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF COURAGE AND SURVIVAL IN VIETNAM
In 1967, US Air Force fighter pilot James Shively was shot down over North Vietnam. After ejecting from his F-105 Thunderchief aircraft, he landed in a rice paddy and was captured by the North Vietnamese Army. For the next six years, Shively endured brutal treatment at the hands of the enemy in Hanoi prison camps. Back home, his beloved girlfriend Nancy eventually moved on and married another man. Bound in iron stocks at the Hanoi Hilton, unable to get home to his loved ones, Shively contemplated suicide. Yet somehow he found hope - and he became determined to help his fellow POWs survive.
​
​
In a newspaper interview several years after his release, Shively said, "I had the opportunity to be captured, the opportunity to be interrogated, the opportunity to be tortured and the experience of answering questions under torture. It was an extremely humiliating experience. I felt sorry for myself. But I learned the hard way life isn't fair. Life is only what you make of it."
​
​
What The Readers Are Saying
CAPTAIN GUY G. GRUTERS
POW SPEAKER
I have not read any other book on the POW experience that impressed me to the same extent. I believe the reader will be greatly pleased and blessed by the absolutely wonderful rendition and research by Amy.
DEBORAH WILDE
FORMER NEWS ANCHOR & JOUNALIST
I couldn't put this book down. In ten hours I cried through a box of Kleenex, laughed out loud, inwardly smiled, felt very nauseous, became extremely angry, then was filled with awe and gratitude.
KEN HOPKINS
PROGRAM DIRECTOR & MORNING CO-HOST OF DAVE,KEN, AND MOLLY SHOW
Amy has taken an extraordinary amount of history and detail and with wonderful storytelling has presented us the life of Jim Shively with a great deal of humanness and humor.
4.6 Star Rating on Amazon
Author's Inspiration
I WROTE THIS BOOK AS A TRIBUTE TO MY PERSONAL HERO, MY DAD.
I wanted my children to understand the personal sacrifice their grandfather made for their freedom. Inspired by Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, I felt his story of heartbreak and courage could inspire others who have been in dark places and survived the unthinkable.