Vietnam Hardship Tour, A POW's Incredible Odyssey

By 1970 the Vietnam War was winding down, but not for all U.S. military personnel. Private First Class Steve Roberts, a light weapons infantryman fresh out of Fort Polk, LA., was assigned to the 1st Brigade of the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division, located near Quang Tri, South Vietnam, very near the 17th parallel which separated North and South Vietnam. After several months in-country, he volunteered to help close down a firebase located near the Laotian border, in the aftermath, he and another soldier were inadvertently left behind and considered casualties of a helicopter crash. What follows -- in a fictionalized narrative -- is a tale of survival as a captive of first the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) then the Laotian Communist Pathet Lao, and then again the NVA, and finally a near impossible escape.