Ed Leonard

Ed Leonard Recalls an Incident as a POW
(As told to an by Ron Yates)

This is a story related to me by Ed Leonard and is as I recall it. (any memory lapses and enhancements are accidental and are the result of the natural aging process)

Ed was imprisoned in a camp south of Hanoi. I believe that it was exclusively for prisoners captured in Laos. Ed was the senior ranking officer in the camp which was comprised mostly of enlisted Army soldiers. His prison cell was stark. The only furnishings were a honey bucket, a broom, and a sleeping mat. The cell had solid walls (cement?) My impression was that they were quite high as Ed could not see outside . . . so maybe 10-12 feet high. There was a thatched roof and an air space between the roof and the walls. I think the space was about a foot high. The floor was probably cement. The locked door was the only access to the outside.

Ed said that he had always had a fear of snakes and was afraid that one could get on the roof and then into his cell through the air space. One night while he was asleep, he was awoken by a “thud” in the cell. He KNEW that his worst fear had materialized and that the dreaded snake invasion had occurred. He considered his options to deal with the venomous insurgent and decided that the best course of action was to go on offense and attack the snake before it attacked him. His only weapon was the bucket. So, in pitch-black darkness, he found the bucket and crept towards the location of the aforementioned “thud”. When he was within range, he struck out with the bucket! His guess of the snake’s position was uncannily accurate, and he felt the heft of the snake under the bucket. He then rotated the bucket back and forth until he felt the cement floor and knew he had cut the reptile into two pieces. Assured that his life was no longer in danger, he retreated to a neutral corner for the remainder of the night.

He was so full of adrenalin that he was unable to sleep the remainder of the night. But as the night faded and the first light appeared, he saw the results of his courageous encounter . . . he had cut his fallen broom in half! Apparently, the broom fell over during the night making a “thud,” and Ed’s imagination did the rest. It’s a good thing that the North Vietnamese did not learn of his snake phobia, or they surely would have used it against him. Ed Leonard was a man of great courage who fought for his country against all enemies . . . real and imagined. God rest his soul.
--Ron Yates