Not forgotten

On November 7, 1967, Air Force 1st Lt. Leon “Lee” Ellis was on his 53rd combat mission over North Vietnam when his F-4C Phantom jet exploded over enemy territory. The aircraft lurched violently and began tumbling end over end, leaving Ellis only moments to pull the ejection handle.
For an instant, relief washed over him. Miraculously, he was alive with no major injuries, though his powerful warplane was shredded into three unrecognizable pieces.
Suspended beneath his parachute, Ellis descended onto Communist-controlled soil, where gunshots and chaotic shouting erupted throughout the countryside. His mission had changed. No longer fighting from the cockpit, Ellis was now fighting for survival.
His immediate goal was to evade capture, but North Vietnamese militia surrounded him in less than 60 seconds once his feet touched the ground. They stripped him of his survival vest, anti-G suit, flight suit, pistol, and boots. The experienced fighter pilot who had confidently launched that morning was left exposed, vulnerable, and alone.
Yet there were two things his captors could not take from him: his faith in God and the Military Code of Conduct. Both would sustain him through the next 1,955 days as a prisoner of war (POW).

Living the dream
“I knew I wanted to be a pilot at 5 years old,” Ellis told The Stand. “My family attended a picnic in a park where a WWII fighter plane was displayed. My father picked me up and let me look in the cockpit, and from that moment on, flying was my dream.”
Growing up in Georgia, he invested time in building model airplanes and studying them. In the eighth grade, his homeroom class met in the library, where he was seated by the “A” section. For 15 minutes every single day, he researched aerospace, airplanes, altitude – anything dealing with aviation.
As he worked on the family farm during the Korean War era, his desire to fly only intensified as formations of airplanes flew overhead.
Ellis joined the ROTC while attending the University of Georgia. Three days after graduation, he reported to flight school. Fifty-three weeks later, his wings were pinned on, and after months of combat training, he deployed to Southeast Asia in the summer of 1967. His boyhood dream had become a reality.

Enduring a nightmare
Four months later, that dream came crashing down over North Vietnam. Led with a rope around his neck, 24-year-old Ellis was blindfolded and bound as he was transported from the southern panhandle of North Vietnam to Hanoi.
Over the course of his incarceration, from 1967-1973, Ellis endured isolation, indoctrination, deplorable living conditions, limited food, and unbearable torture sessions with no medical care. The militiamen diligently sought to humiliate and break the resolve of the American prisoners through pain, deprivation, and psychological pressure.
During interrogations, the North Vietnamese prison authorities demanded military information and propaganda statements [such as false confessions of wrongdoing] by using torture to force compliance. Prisoners resisted as long as humanly possible, giving only their name, rank, service number, and date of birth.
“The hardest thing I’ve ever done was to say no to their requests, knowing they held the power of life and death in their hands,” said Ellis. “But our primary objective was to resist, survive, and return with honor. Returning in shame was an unthinkable option.”

Living by the Code
Throughout his years in training, Ellis and his comrades studied and memorized the Military Code of Conduct without realizing they would one day be called upon to live every line of it. The Code was created in 1955 during the Cold War. Later Dwight D. Eisenhower approved it to establish a clear moral and behavioral framework for any American service members who might be captured.
“The Code gave us a standard,” Ellis said. “It told us who we were and what our responsibility was.”
Under the Code, the American POWs established their rank, held each other accountable, and found the strength to persevere and even thrive.
“We made the most of our time, and our belief in freedom gave us resiliency,” recalled Ellis. “Once we were finally consolidated into crowded cells, we had courage to hold church services, form a choir, memorize Scripture, and conduct classes. I became fluent in Spanish, French, and obtained a 2,000-word vocabulary in Russian.”
Ellis stated in his book Leading with Honor, “Faith was also a primary source of strength, dignity, and hope. We had faith in each other, in our leaders, in our country, in our families, and especially [in] God.”

Embarking on a new mission
After five years, four months, and two weeks of captivity, on February 12, 1973, Ellis was released during Operation Homecoming. He continued serving in the Air Force before retiring as a colonel.
Instead of allowing his years of imprisonment to shape him with bitterness, Ellis forgave his captors and devoted his life to developing principled leaders. Drawing from his experiences as a POW, Ellis now teaches lessons rooted in integrity, honor, and faith, sharing them through his books, speaking engagements, and podcasts.
Although the North Vietnamese stole nearly six years of his freedom, his faith in God was deepened, and his dedication to America and the Military Code of Conduct was strengthened.