Doug Hegdahl was born in 1946 in Clark, South Dakota. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on October 25, 1966, and was trained as a gunners mate. While serving aboard the USS Canberra, Hegdahl was blown overboard off the deck of the ship in the Gulf of Tonkin and was taken as a Prisoner of War by the North Vietnamese on April 6, 1967. While being held prisoner in Hanoi, he memorized hundreds of names of prisoners and was later ordered by his Senior Ranking Officer to take an early release in order to report those names to the State Department, as well as to tell about the horrible conditions and torture that our POWs were going through. After spending 852 days in captivity, Hegdahl was released on August 5, 1969. He later confronted the North Vietnamese about the POWs at the Paris Peace Talks. Doug received an honorable discharge from the Navy on July 1, 1970, and remained in the inactive reserves until October 24, 1972. He later served an outstanding career with the U.S. Navy SERE School, teaching escape, evasion, and survival techniques to Navy personnel. For his service as a Prisoner of War, Doug was nominated for a number of medals, including the Navy & Marine Corps Medal, the Bronze Star Medal (with Valor Device), the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Navy Commendation Medal (with Valor Device), but the Navy never approved any of those awards.