On January 23rd, 1967, Lt. Colonel Barry Bridger and his copilot, Dave Grey, launched a mission over Vietnam in a Phantom F-4 fighter jet. It was Bridger’s 75th mission — and the only one he had attempted in daylight hours. Mid-flight, his plane was split in half by a ground-to-air missile. He and Grey ejected at 600 miles per hour. When Bridger finally landed on the ground, the North Vietnamese army was waiting.
What followed was six years inside the Hanoi Hilton — a place designed to break the spirit of every man who entered.
Bridger didn’t just survive. He thrived. And he says it was his values — held deeply, lived consistently, refused to be bargained away — that saved him and the men around him. The Spirit to Soar is the story of how that worked, and what it has to teach the rest of us about character, resilience, and the inner life that decides whether we make it through the hardest seasons of our own.
What This Book Is About
The Spirit to Soar is a Vietnam POW memoir, a leadership book, and a meditation on character — all in one. It’s the captivity story you’d read for the history alone. But the lessons sit with you long after the last page.
Bridger walks readers through capture, interrogation, torture, the years of confinement, the small rituals and large convictions that held him together, the camaraderie of fellow POWs, and the long return home. Throughout, he names the values that compelled — the deeply held commitments that made surrender impossible, even when surrender was the rational choice. The book asks a question every reader has to sit with:
Are your values compelling enough, ingrained deeply enough, to carry you through if the worst day of your life turns into six years?
Who This Book Is For
- Veterans and military families
- Leaders who want a candid look at character under maximum pressure
- Coaches, mentors, and counselors guiding others through hard seasons
- History readers drawn to first-person accounts of the Vietnam War
- Anyone facing a stretch of life that demands more from them than they thought they had
- Reading-list selections for leadership development programs and military academies
What You’ll Take Away
- A first-person account of one of the most demanding ordeals an American military officer has survived
- A practical understanding of how character is built before the test arrives
- A reframe of resilience that goes beyond grit — into faith, brotherhood, and meaning
- Lessons in leadership that translate directly to civilian life, business, and family
- A standard against which to measure your own worst day
Why This Book Endures
POW memoirs rarely become leadership texts. The Spirit to Soar is the exception. Bridger’s account works at three levels at once: as living history, as a study of character formation, and as a manual for anyone who suspects their own values may not yet be deep enough to carry them through what’s coming. It’s a book that audiences pass down through generations — from veterans to children to grandchildren, from coaches to athletes, from leaders to the next class of leaders.
Where This Book Fits in the Petersen Library
Within the Petersen Leadership Triangle, The Spirit to Soar anchors the Character dimension — the foundation of the model. It pairs with Who Let the Dogs Lead? (Style) and The Facts Don’t Matter (Judgment) to complete the framework Jim Petersen brings to every keynote and every program.
About the Authors
Lt. Colonel Barry Bridger is a Vietnam War POW, former North Carolina state legislator, and a sought-after speaker on character, leadership, and resilience. He spent six years in captivity at the Hanoi Hilton and emerged with a story that has shaped audiences for decades.
Jim Petersen, PhD — a Navy submarine veteran, executive coach, and founder of the Professional Business Coaches Alliance — curated and edited Bridger’s account, framing it within the Character dimension of the Petersen Leadership Triangle.
This is the book leaders give other leaders when words like “hard” and “impossible” need a new reference point.
