Tap Code: A Vietnam POW's Epic Survival Story and the Secret Code that Changed Everything

Bennett: This story should be read in all history classes. Thank you sir for being a true hero. May your actions be not forgotten.

United States on Sep 17, 2023

J. Moss: I’m a historian. A few years ago I worked on a project for which I read several (25+) personal accounts of American military POWs in Vietnam. I have also read several secondary accounts on this topic as well. In turns, those accounts were stark, difficult, emotional, compelling, horrifying, and inspiring reads. I had a visceral reaction. I felt the heat and the cold the POWs felt. I brushed away invisible insects. I felt thankful yet guilty for plentiful food and drink, hot showers, and my soft bed. I was angered at their captors and longed for tales of their comeuppance. I rejoiced at their homecoming. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for this book. I found Tap Code boring, repetitive, and superficial. Since I have the utmost respect and gratitude for the service and sacrifice of Harris and his fellows POWs this is more frustrating than anything else.

The title references a system of nonverbal communication Harris learned from another officer before his imprisonment. Harris then introduced the code to other American POWs and the book never lets the reader forget it. At the end of the book, when Harris and his wife go to visit a fellow POW who became a dear friend...

United States on Jan 15, 2021

Billy Still: Sara Berry has done what is most difficult to do. She has written someone else's story as if it were her own. Her telling of the dramatic, heartrending story of TAP CODE is a riveting tale that I simply had no desire to set aside. It caused me to think of Hampton Side's best seller GHOST SOLDIERS; the story of five men who survived the Bataan death march and years of imprisonment. Tap Code is that age old, horror story of war, told for a new generation of soldiers. Many of us, who stayed home in peace during Vietnam, have spent little time thinking of those who suffered as Smitty did. Indeed such suffering may be beyond our imaginations. However Sara Berry tells Smitty's story in a manner that allows us to wonder if, we, under similar circumstances, could rise to this level of character and courage. I am grateful that I am unlikely to find out. Thanks to Sara Berry for stimulating my often lazy imagination to remember that there are heroic folks all around us.
Read this book. You will be glad you did..

United States on Dec 16, 2019

Serenity...: Most veterans have heard of the Tap Code that was used by the Vietnam Prisoners of War. I did not realize the extent to which it was used and the messages of hope that it carried.

On 4 April 1965, Smitty, Captain Carlyle Harris, Air Force pilot, was shot down while on a bridge bombing mission in Thanh Roa, North Vietnam. He survived nearly 8 years of captivity and was transferred from prison to prison. His wife, Louise became a leader of the many wives that also had their husbands listed as POW. She had 3 young children that were entrusted to her care. This is their story told in alternating chapters from the first day until his return home...and later..

The Tap Code was initially used in WW II and Smitty remembered reading a book about it. It became his mission to teach others how to 'tap' and 'tap' they did. What was amazing for me to read was how many ways it was utilized. I initially thought it was the tapping on walls to convey a message. This went way beyond that sound...as it could be done while sweeping, coughing, wood chopping and even snapping a towel! Amazing when one thinks about that ...and, how it angered the guards when they discovered that...

United States on Nov 05, 2019