Caged Heroes

About the Book

Caged Heroes - American POW Experiences from the American Revolution to the Present is snapshot of four hundred years of hostage and prisoner of war experiences.  Caged Heroes details prisoners’ experiences from the moment they are told to put their hands up, through their detentions, and culminating in their releases. It examines the successes and failures of the United States government to prepare its forces for prisoner events; discussing survival schools, rules on how prisoners are told to act while in captivity and glimpses of how being taken prisoner effects the prisoners and guards alike.  Using numerous personal interviews and diaries of former prisoners (and their spouses), the reader gets a rare look at the horrors these men and women experienced.  Containing an extensive bibliography and complete POW rosters from several conflicts, this book will add to any casual reader’s knowledge and serve as a top reference for those wanting to understand more about this misunderstood field.  

About the Author

Jon Couch has worked in the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) / POW mission area since first attending military jungle survival training in 1981. Since that time, Mr. Couch has attended several basic and advanced SERE courses, has worked as a SERE instructor for deploying forces, and since his medical retirement from the Marine Corps in 1999, has worked at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) as a PR Instructor, PR Observer – Trainer, Senior Intelligence Analyst, and most recently as a Personnel Recovery Operations Analyst. While with the JPRA, Mr. Couch has written government studies and analysis on PR related issues. Mr. Couch has also written graduate level work about POWs and has had some of his work published in SmallWarsJournal.com. Mr. Couch lives in Stafford, Virginia with his wife. Mr. Couch's hobbies include long range shooting and fishing.