On March 23, 1961, Lawrence R. Bailey Jr, then a major serving as assistant Army attache in Laos, became America's first prisoner of war in Southeast Asia when the unarmed C-47 in which he was riding was shot down over the Plain of Jars. Of the eight men on the aircraft, Bailey was the only one to survive. Suffering from crippling injuries, he was captured by the Pathet Lao and held in solitary confinement in an unlit cell for 17 months. Of the more than 600 Americans captured or unaccounted for in Laos during the war in Southeast Asia, only 15 escaped or were released. This book provides a look at a different aspect of the war - the very early days in Laos - and describes how one man overcame the most physically demeaning and mentally challenging of circumstances.