SADDAM’S SHERATON? Dave Hoffman says inner strength...

SADDAM’S SHERATON? Dave Hoffman says inner strength will help American POWS survive captivity. Hoffman, now a bank president from Huntington Beach, was shot down just after Christmas, 1971, and taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. It’s clear, he says, that Iraq’s prisoners are being forced to make the statements that are being broadcast. . . . To be a military pilot, he adds, you have to feel you’re one of the chosen few. As a result, pilots initially feel “very inadequate” when their planes are downed. After his release from the “Hanoi Hilton” in 1973, Hoffman became a Navy captain and commanded the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk before retiring.