Prisoner at the “Hanoi Hilton” Is Saved by An Angel

Navy flier, Lt. Paul Galanti, is pictured on the front of “Life” magazine on Oct. 20, 1967.  He sat on a bench in a cement room with a light bulb suspended over his head.

On Feb. 26, 1973, Lt. Galanti and his wife are happily embracing on the cover of “Newsweek.”  In the seven intervening years, Lt. Galanti was imprisoned in the “Hanoi Hilton,” a torture camp where Senator John McCain and other prisoners were detained.

What saved the lieutenant’s life is incredible.  An angel appeared to him and spoke with him.

Galanti was on his seventh Vietnam combat mission.  After ejecting from his crippled Navy Skyhawk and while dangling from his parachute, he was shot in the neck. After capture he marched for 12 days to the prison in Hanoi.  Two and ½ years into his captivity in which “I was brutally beaten and tortured,” Galanti says, he still refused to sign a piece of paper, admitting guilt to “war crimes.”

Galanti was taken to a room for another “process of breaking me down.”  He was kept awake for 10 days and tortured intermittently.  Food consisted of an occasional can of gruel.  With his hands tied behind his back, the only way to eat was to tip his chair over and lick the food from the can.   Then the rats came to lick food from his lips.  Galanti decided that the next time food was brought to him, he would not tip over his chair.  Rather he would die.  That’s when his life was changed forever.

In his own words, “At that instant of spiritual and psychological checkmate, slumped on my stool, I experienced something so powerful that it still affects my life to this day.   With complete clarity I realized I was not alone in that desolate room…I saw clearly a figure standing near me.  He wore a white robe more vivid than any earthly garment I have ever seen.

“Though I could not make out his features, I could tell he was bearded.  Then, in a voice I heard with my whole being, he told me ‘Paul, you are going to be all right.  I am always with you.’…Suddenly my companion was no longer visible.”

Peace filled Galanti and suddenly the gruel on the floor seemed like a feast.  “I tipped over the stool and ate gratefully,” he said.  Galanti was tortured for two more weeks and released about four years later.

I emailed Paul Galanti to confirm his story.  Galanti emailed me back, giving me permission to share and telling me that the Virginia War Memorial was naming its new education center after him and his wife.

I’ve found that at the point of our greatest need, that’s often where God reveals Himself in the most profound ways.  When you think you can’t go on, you can.  God will help you.  Usually, we have to ASK, but our Creator is a God of great mercy.  He certainly had mercy on a helpless, desperate prisoner at the Hanoi Hilton.

Galanti told his story in “Angels on Earth.”  After the miracle appearance he made a sincere confession of faith: “My life was saved, not just once but forever.”