# When Survival Becomes a Choice: Leadership Forged in Captivity | Mike Penn

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-naval-aviation-ready-room-podcast-with-legends-and-leaders-7414536/when-survival-becomes-a-choice-leadership-forged-in-captivity-mike-penn
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-naval-aviation-ready-room-podcast-with-legends-and-leaders-7414536/when-survival-becomes-a-choice-leadership-forged-in-captivity-mike-penn.md
Podcast: [The Naval Aviation Ready Room Podcast with Legends and Leaders](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-naval-aviation-ready-room-podcast-with-legends-and-leaders-7414536)
Published: 2026-02-17T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.com/podcasts/the-naval-aviation-podcast/2838649
Audio file: https://content.rss.com/episodes/387278/2838649/the-naval-aviation-podcast/2026_05_19_09_05_19_9a23e198-1695-4a68-b2f8-4c328d4f591b.mp3
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Duration seconds: 3759

## Resource

In this episode of The Naval Aviation Ready Room Podcast, host Ryan Keys speaks with Captain Mike Penn, USN (Ret.), a Vietnam War naval aviator, former prisoner of war, airline captain, and chief pilot whose life was defined by a single decision made under extreme adversity: to live. Shot down over North Vietnam in 1972, Penn survived an ejection that defied physics, endured capture and imprisonment, and returned with a renewed sense of purpose that shaped decades of service to others.

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## Transcript

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