# POWs feigning madness to get repatriated **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880 "2012-09-06T18:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880/1 "2012-09-06T18:13:18Z")
I’ve found lots of vague references to this online but I can’t find any actual examples. During the second world war and other conflicts POWs would do things like taking their pet brick for a walk to try to be declared mad - and occasionally it actually worked and they were repatriated in wounded prisoner swaps! Does anyone know of some specific examples and what was done? ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880/2 "2012-09-07T00:41:52Z")
oi ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880/3 "2012-09-07T00:55:30Z")
wibble ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880/4 "2012-09-07T03:55:26Z")
Not World War II, but Doug Hegdahl faked being incredibly stupid during the Vietnam War. His captors even nicknamed him “the incredibly stupid one”. Figuring that he was too stupid do do any harm, they let him roam around freely. In actuality, he sabotaged vehicles, gathered all kinds of intelligence, and even memorized the name of every POW in the camp by singing it to a song (Old MacDonald). His “stupidity” put him on the list for an early prisoner exchange. He was then able to give all of the information that he had learned to his superiors, and was even sent to the Paris Peace Talks where he was able to give real first-hand accounts of the true treatment of prisoners. > **[Doug Hegdahl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Hegdahl)** > > Douglas Brent Hegdahl III (born September 3, 1946) is a former United States Navy petty officer second class (E-5) who was held as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. After an early release, he was able to provide the names and personal information of about 256 fellow POWs, as well as reveal the conditions of the prisoner-of-war camp. > Hegdahl was born on September 3, 1946, and graduated from Clark High School in Clark, South Dakota on May 24, 1966. > On April 6, 1967, 20-year-old Hegdahl wa... ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880/5 "2012-09-07T07:47:56Z")
Can’t speak for POWs in general, but I remember from a book on Colditz Castle it was known as ‘working your ticket’. Generally speaking it was frowned upon as it cried wolf and potentially made it harder for genuine cases to be repatriated. There is a specific case I can remember; a prisoner faked hanging himself in the toilets, arranging for an orderly to come and cut him down. Instead of sending him home straight away they sent him to an institution for observation. Needless to say, a Nazi German mental institution turned out to be not the safest place - he recalls seeing barbed wire outside his cell, listless skinny inmates in striped uniforms wandering around aimlessly and a man in a straight jacket in the cell next to him writhing around on the floor trying to eat raw potatoes off the floor. He quickly decided that this place was far more dangerous than Colditz and dropped the pretence to make a ‘miraculous recovery’. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880/6 "2012-09-08T01:32:57Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > wibble go on… ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pows-feigning-madness-to-get-repatriated/633880/7 "2012-09-08T02:20:54Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Not World War II, but Doug Hegdahl faked being incredibly stupid during the Vietnam War. > > [Doug Hegdahl - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Hegdahl) Thanks for that note and link. Hell of a story.