Medal of Honor - Stories of Courage

The transcript opens dramatically mid-action, describing an American prisoner on a German train in the Black Forest on July 6, 1918, plotting a desperate escape by diving headfirst through an open window while his guards were distracted. This sets the stage for the broader story of Edward Isaac, a U.S. Navy first lieutenant and the subject of this episode of 'Medal of Honor - Stories of Courage,' hosted by J.R. Martinez.

The episode then backtracks to May 31, 1918, when the USS President Lincoln, a naval transport ship returning from delivering American troops to France, was struck by three torpedoes fired by the German submarine U-90. Edward Isaac, 26 years old at the time, was eating breakfast when the attack occurred. The ship sank within half an hour, but nearly all crew members survived and gathered in lifeboats, remarkably singing 'Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here' while awaiting rescue.

When the U-90 resurfaced, its captain, Walter Remy, sought to take the Lincoln's captain prisoner per standing orders. Isaac, unwilling to betray his captain, lied and claimed the captain had gone down with the ship. As a result, Isaac himself was taken prisoner. Aboard the U-90, conditions were unexpectedly civil — Isaac dined with German officers, played bridge, and even adopted a pet lamb named Rona from a Scottish island.

Despite these relatively comfortable conditions, Isaac was consumed by frustration at being removed from the war effort. He resolved to use his captivity productively by studying the inner workings of the U-boat — Germany's most effective weapon — with the intention of escaping and delivering that intelligence to the Allies. The transcript establishes Isaac's stubborn, mission-driven character and foreshadows his seven escape attempts, framing his story as one of extraordinary persistence and patriotic sacrifice rather than battlefield heroism.