Experience 2008:

A World Apart

Main Stage

Main Stage Featured Speaker
Thursday, February 14, 2008
9:00 am - 10:30 am

Main Stage Featured Speaker : Charlie Plumb
"Tough Choices in Challenging Times

After he graduated from the US Naval Academy, Captain Charles Plumb flew 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam. On his 75th mission, with only five days before he was to return home, Plumb was shot down.

He was captured, tortured, and imprisoned in an 8' x 8' cell. During his 2,103 days as a prisoner of war, Charlie served his fellow prisoners as an underground communications expert and camp chaplain.

Charlie endured the most extreme hardship and used the experience to transform his life in a profound way. Today he is a sought-after public speaker—sincere, straightforward, and surprisingly funny. Audiences are spellbound as he creates meaningful lessons about the challenges of everyday living from his experiences in captivity.

Having overcome loneliness, fear, pain, and depression, he puts his listeners’ difficulties into perspective and inspires them to meet their own obstacles head-on. Plumb is a living example of how overcoming adversity can propel us beyond self-imposed limits, making us stronger and more confident. He motivates audiences to see the opportunities in the challenges they face and to tap into their inner strength to live life to the fullest.

His Experience 2008 presentation is about challenges: his and yours. Charlie draws upon his POW experience to demonstrate how to turn adversity into assets and how to break free of prisons created by blaming others, fear of failure and self-pity.

Captain Plumb’s military honors include two Purple Hearts, the Legion of Merit, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the P.O.W. Medal. He has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, Larry King Live, and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. He is the author of the inspiring autobiography, I’m No Hero.