Part 1: Resilience as a POW with Wayne Smith

In this powerful episode of Icons of Naples, Host Kristen Wearden sits down with Wayne Smith, a decorated veteran, F-4 fighter pilot, and former prisoner of war whose story of resilience began long before he arrived in Naples, Florida. Wayne takes us back to his humble beginnings on a small farm in Kentucky and shares the journey that led him from the brand-new Air Force Academy to the cockpit of an F-4 Phantom over Vietnam. Wayne provides a rare, firsthand account of life as a POW, describing the ingenious ways prisoners used "tap codes" to maintain their sanity and community while in solitary confinement. From the moment of his ejection to his eventual release after over 5 years of captivity, Wayne’s story is a profound testament to the strength of the human spirit. “All of a sudden, the guy gets on the horn and he says, 'Gentlemen, feet wet.' And that meant the ocean was there. And then you should have heard us then. We were just cheering up. We were going to make it.” — Wayne Smith. Thank you to our technology sponsor, Robert of Philadelphia, for making this podcast possible.