Operation Thunderhead (23 page)

Along with their stash of food, these were the materials that Dramesi and Atterberry would use to make their escape from the Zoo Annex, Hanoi proper, and finally, North Vietnam. It was a daring idea and a dangerous one. Once they got out of the camp, the general plan was for the two men to make their way to the Red River, hopefully completing the trek while there were still a few hours of darkness left. Once at the river, they would steal a small boat and head off downstream. The plan to escape during a rainstorm would not only give the men cover, it would make the river run that much faster.

With everything working in their favor, the men hoped to be at least several miles downriver before first light. In case an alarm was raised about the stolen boat, they would abandon it, destroying it if necessary so as not to be spotted. Holing up in a hiding place during the day, they would either steal another boat or start swimming if they had to to continue their trip downriver.

The plan was anything but haphazard and nothing was based on a spur-of-the-moment idea. They were very serious about their attempt even though their chances were slim at best. But even a slim chance was worth taking in Dramesi's mind. And Atterberry agreed with him. There continued to be difficulties with the other prisoners in cell #6 regarding the escape preparations as Trautman considered what his decision should be.

Arguments grew more heated among the prisoners as time continued to pass. Having denied permission to escape during the Christmas holidays, ostensibly so as not to ruin any chances of prisoners receiving an early release, Trautman forced Dramesi to move the Party date back at least four months. Demands from the other prisoners that some of the escape supplies be used for everyone's comfort were strongly opposed by Dramesi. The improvised camouflage nets were taken out of hiding and reverted back to being blankets, rotated through the prisoner community for the use of all. And as Dramesi had predicted, as soon as the blankets were found during an inspection, they were taken by the guards. The only thing Dramesi had agreed to fairly easily was removal of the peanut food supplies. The nuts would have spoiled long before the winter was over and an escape would be attempted. A small feast was made of the food.

New food supplies were gathered as they could be over the months. After having cleaned out the bags that had held their nuts, Dramesi and Atterberry looked for other materials to fill them with. There was a small supply of sugar that they were able to put up for the escape. In their creation of clothing items, the hard work by the men had supplied them each with three extra pairs of Vietnamese-style sandals. The two iron bars and the spike were reserved to be used as tools and possibly weapons if necessary. And they eventually gathered enough of the iodine pills to fill two small vials.

In April, Dramesi decided the time for the Party was coming up. Final preparations were made in terms of gathering food. By April 30, the hoarding of perishable food was begun as the men put away some of the few bananas they were given as part of their food ration. Checklists were gone over to make sure nothing was forgotten. The escape would be made on a rainy Saturday night, to help cover the movement of Dramesi and Atterberry through the prison compound. The rain would also reduce the number of people they might come across outside of the camp's walls. On Sunday mornings, the guards tended to be more lax than usual, which could help keep the discovery of the escape being made for another precious few hours.

The first Saturday in May there was no rain and the attempt was put off for another week. The second Saturday of the month, the rain started up just before sunset. It was May 10, 1969.

ESCAPE FROM THE ANNEX

Glenn “Red” Wilson was the SRO of cell #6 after it was determined he had seniority of rank over Dramesi at the time of his shoot-down. His F-4C had been shot down on August 7, 1967, and he and Carl Chambers had been quickly picked up by the North Vietnamese Army after their landing. Both men had managed to escape their North Vietnamese captors while they were still within about fifty miles of the Demilitarized Zone. The men had managed to steal a couple of primitive boats, nothing more than hollowed-out logs, but when they climbed aboard them in the water, the nearly waterlogged craft had simply sunk under the weight of the Americans. They were soon after recaptured by the North Vietnamese. Their bid for freedom lasted about twelve hours.

It may have been his own experience that helped color Wilson's opinion on the chances of Dramesi and Atterberry making a successful escape. On the afternoon of May 10, Dramesi asked if he could go up and speak to Trautman about making the attempt that night. Wilson agreed, stating that if Trautman gave Dramesi permission to go, Wilson wouldn't stand in the way of the Party.

Being boosted up through the ceiling opening, Dramesi moved along the attic to where he could quietly speak down to Trautman. It was anything but a private conversation. There was only a hole in the wall that separated the attic spaces of the two rooms where Dramesi could call down to Trautman's room. He had thrown bits of plaster toward the ventilation grid to get someone's attention down in cell #5. Finally, Trautman's voice answered his calls.

It was late in the afternoon and already getting dark as storm clouds gathered. The sound of thunder could be heard coming from the distance, along with the occasional flashes of lightning off on the horizon. It was going to be a serious storm.

The eight other prisoners in Trautman's room had discussed the possible escape attempt for long hours. The men all knew there would be repercussions from the North Vietnamese regarding any escape attempt by anyone. The conflict in the Code of Conduct, regarding the duty to escape and the other clause that stated to do no harm to fellow prisoners, were the fuel for many of the discussions.

An additional obstacle to an escape attempt had been put in place by a senior officer among the prisoners themselves. This obstacle was an order that had been put out by Lieutenant Colonel Robinson “Robbie” Reisner more than two years earlier. In 1966, Reisner had ordered that no POW should try to escape without outside help. It was an effective ban on any escape attempts, since getting help from the North Vietnamese people was considered impossible.

Colonel Reisner had been held away from the rest of the prisoners for an extended length of time. This had happened to most of the senior officers among the POWs, to limit their chances of leading the men by order or example. In the years since Reisner had issued his “outside assistance” order, nothing further had been heard from him by the men of the Zoo Annex. There was a real question as to whether or not his order was still in effect. It wasn't clear at all if an escape by Dramesi and Atterberry, or any other POWs, would be in direct violation of a senior officer's orders.

Dramesi's opinion was easy enough for everyone to understand: He felt that Reisner's order was no longer in effect. Dramesi made the assumption that Reisner's order had been issued for a specific situation at a specific time. He was definitely not of the opinion that Reisner had issued his instruction as a standing order for all POWs in North Vietnam.

All of this was on Trautman's mind as he considered the situation, long before Dramesi had called down from the ceiling above. All of the rationales for why the men shouldn't be allowed to escape had been voiced, over and over again: limited food, no water, no real plan of evasion, and no outside help. The very real possibility of retribution from the North Vietnamese was also a consideration. Given how vicious the torture of prisoners was as part of their normal interrogations and indoctrinations, the thoughts of what might be done as serious punishments was enough to frighten strong men.

There was really only one reason for Dramesi really having to escape, and being allowed to do so. It was their duty as American servicemen to escape, and the draw of even a slim possibility of freedom was a great motivation. In the final analysis, Trautman decided that Dramesi and Atterberry could not be denied their chance.

Calling up to the man waiting above the ceiling, Trautman asked if Dramesi really thought they could make it. The answer was simple enough: If Dramesi hadn't thought that escape was possible, he would not be asking to go.

Refusing to actually say yes, Trautman said that he could not deny Dramesi the chance. If he wanted to go, it would be up to him.

“We're going tonight,” was Dramesi's answer.

“God bless,” was all that Trautman could bring himself to say in return.

With the decision having been made, the other prisoners in cell #6 helped lift Atterberry up to where Dramesi waited. The men remaining in the room settled back onto their sleeping pallets and pulled their mosquito nets down around them. They all prepared for a long night, each man alone with his thoughts.

Up in the attic, Dramesi and Atterberry continued with their preparations. Smearing the brown paste they had prepared on one another, they darkened their skin. To complete the last items on the checklist they had, they drank water from the jugs they had pulled up from the room below. Dropping the water containers back down to the other prisoners, they completed the last item on the checklist when they secured the barbed-wire grid back into place.

It was now about 9 P.M. and both men decided the time was right to go. Lifting up four of the roofing tiles and bringing them down into the attic, Dramesi opened up their way out of the building. He climbed out onto the sloping roof, turned back, and Atterberry handed him the tiles he had removed, Once Atterberry was out of the building, all the tiles were replaced and the hole in the roof was covered once again.

The rain-covered roof was slippery and the men had to be very careful in slowly making their way up to the peak. In spite of the care they were taking, one of the roof tiles broke free. Hearts stopped within the chests of both men as the tile clattered down across the roof, shot out into space, and smashed down with a clatter as it struck the concrete floor of the outside washing area. The men were certain that everyone had heard the crash as the roofing tile shattered into a hundred pieces. Before their hearts had started beating with anything close to a normal rhythm again, there was more noise from the direction of the wall between the Zoo Annex and the Zoo itself. A group of North Vietnamese guards were coming.

Certain that the guards had been drawn to the noise of the shattering tile, Dramesi and Atterberry froze in place on the roof and waited to be caught. Readying a replacement camouflage net they had made, the men concealed themselves as best they could on the open roof. The group of guards walked into the central area of the Zoo Annex, several of them carrying bamboo poles or torches. Suspicious that the poles may be used to push them off the roof, Dramesi and Atterberry watched the guards walk across the compound. It became obvious as the group continued to move along that the guards weren't coming toward the building. Instead, they were heading over to the loathsome body of water that the prisoners called Lake Fester.

It was a North Vietnamese hunting party of sorts, not one looking for escaped prisoners. Standing about the pool of dark water, the guards stabbed down with their bamboo poles. Inside of a few moments, the North Vietnamese took their catch of five large frogs and hung them from their belts. Then the guards just walked back the way they had come. They never even looked up at where the escaping prisoners lay watching them.

The two prisoners regained their composure and started out across the peak of the roof. Not exactly the place to be in an electrical storm, they were heading toward a lightning rod, which stuck up from the otherwise relatively featureless roof. Reaching out to the rod, Dramesi quickly snatched back his hand. He had received a shock. There was so much electricity in the air from the storm that the rod was partially electrified. The men would not be escaping from the roof by sliding down the heavy ground wire of the lightning rod.

Barely slowed in his actions, Dramesi took up the length of handmade rope he was carrying and asked Atterberry for his. The ropes were another of his escape preparations that were quickly proving essential as Dramesi tied the two sections of rope together. Now the men had enough line that they could secure it to the lightning rod and still have enough to get down to the ground on. Removing a tile overhanging the edge of the roof, Dramesi made sure that the rope would be able to bear down on a section of wood rather than shatter another tile. He went down the rope and took cover at what the men called Station One on their escape route from the compound. He was quickly joined by Atterberry.

The two men now had to cross the single-largest open stretch of ground in their compound, a concrete walk through the garden area. Crawling up to the path, Dramesi stopped. Curled up underneath his camouflage net, he was lying down on his right side in the mud trying very hard to look like nothing more than a misshapen lump. This was Station Two on their planned escape route. As he lifted up the edge of the netting, Dramesi froze in place, scarcely daring to breathe. Not three feet away from his face was a pair of boots worn by a North Vietnamese guard. It would be nearly impossible for the man not to see the huddled prisoner where he lay in the mud literally almost at his feet.

Another consideration Dramesi had made in his escape plan proved incredibly valuable at this juncture. The impossible happened as the guard, wearing a raincoat and a wide-brimmed hat, missed seeing Dramesi. Too wrapped up in his own misery while in the rain, the guard continued on his path to the guard shack by the main gate. Waiting what he considered a safe length of time to allow the guard to join his fellow comrades, Dramesi got up and walked across the rest of the compound, only stopping when he had reached another station in the planned route. He rested next to the outhouse building up against the main outer wall, hidden by both walls and some tall weeds. That spot was Station Three, the last stop inside the Zoo Annex compound. Dramesi was startled when Atterberry plopped down next to him only a few minutes later. It seemed that the other escaping prisoner had been watching Dramesi. When he got up and just walked, Atterberry figured that the coast must be clear and he got up and also walked across the compound. He had never even seen the guard who had so badly startled Dramesi.