Lance Sijan was always a special kind of person: as a child growing up in the Midwest; as a cadet who made his mark in the Air Force Academy. But it took Vietnam to show how special he was - in an epic of jungle survival and prison-camp defiance. On the night of November 9th, 1967, Sijan was ejected from his crippled fighter-bobmer over the steep mountains of Laos. Although critically injured and virtually without supplies, he evaded capture in savage terrain for six weeks. Finally caught and placed in a holding camp, he overpowered his guards and escaped, only to be captured again. He resisted his interrogators until the end, and he died two weeks later in Hanoi. His courage was an inspiration to other American prisoners of war and he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honour.