It is difficult to relate to a man like Porter Halyburton whose experiences overshadow your own.
He is a man who carries himself well. He chooses his words well. He is obviously an educated man who thinks deeply. From that perspective he immediately commands your attention. You listen closely as he speaks. You expect to hear something profound, a bit of wisdom that will stimulate your own thoughts and provide you with a nugget of truth on which you may build.
And, indeed, he does deliver. But you don’t expect how he says he learned what he shares about service, duty, leadership, and ethics. There is a sense that prison doesn’t seem like a place where one learns these things. But seven years in a North Viet Nam prison infamously called the “Heartbreak Hotel” quite obviously presented Halyburton with living examples of those who served and led with unwavering devotion to duty and ethics under the most despicable and humiliating conditions.
For instance, he told about a black Air Force officer, Fred Cherry, who was moved in with him after he prayed for companionship. Cherry’s courage and patriotism inspired Halyburton who viewed Cherry as an “excellent role model” to follow. And there was an officer named Percy who at the risk of torture and death performed a remarkable feat of feeding two other men who were being deliberately starved to death in solitary confinement.
It was courageous acts by men like these that helped Halyburton and others entering the North Viet Nam prison system to realize that the one freedom his captors could not take from them was “choosing your attitude.” Their lives were determined by this realization and so they made choices that, in spite of their captivity, gave them some control of their lives through the choices they made.
Choosing your attitude is one freedom people cannot take from you. This means that when others try to rob your joy, you can choose to remain joyous. If they try debasing and humiliation, you can think of yourself as being wonderfully and beautifully made. You can choose to think on good and pleasant things, to remain positive when circumstances are bad. This sustains a healthy self-image and forward-thinking attitude – the stuff of life and of success in any “trial by fire” circumstance!
“To give up this choice,” said Halyburton, “means that somebody else has control of your life, but if you choose your attitude you will not become a victim. You can survive with honor. And that is the ultimate goal. That was ours as prisoners in Heartbreak Hotel.”
Halyburton then made a rather profound statement, “The most important lesson I learned from the seven years I spent in Heartbreak Hotel is that choice lies in the essence of leadership.”
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