“My dear friend Jerry Coffee is a man I’ve become as close to as practically anyone I’ve ever known. It would be very difficult for me to describe all Jerry’s achievements from the Cuban Missile Crisis to his bravery and courage in the Vietnam conflict. I will just say that in prison after the treatment had improved rather dramatically I had the great fun and privilege of living in the same cell with him for a couple of years. I think I found his company a lot more agreeable than he found mine, given my always even-tempered, unemotional approach to things. And although Jerry is a lousy bridge player, I have never known a more kind and generous American. I am very proud that for so many years he has traveled the country giving inspirational talks to people from all walks of life and every strata of America - not only because he has a compelling story but because of his particular fashion of describing the attributes associated with duty, honor, and our country.” (John McCain, captain, US Navy (ret.); Vietnam POW 10/26/67-3/14/73; US senator, Arizona, 1986-2018)

“Jerry and I lived in the same cell for the last 31/2 years we were in prison.... Jerry was a joy to live with. I never met a more even tempered individual or bigger optimist than Jerry. He was also somewhat of a visionary with a Bohemian streak.... Every once in a while Jerry would sit back against the wall and come back to the same theme about the future. He’d say, 'Ev, you know someday we’re going to go home and people back home aren’t going to understand what we’ve been through. It’s going to be so hard to conceive. And there’s a message here, a message we need to tell.' I didn’t grasp the full meaning of what he was saying for a long while, but it finally came. Jerry has mastered the ability to articulate the essence of the experience and those values and principles that are our legacy: honor, commitment, sacrifice, integrity, and faith. Nobody tells this story better than Jerry Coffee. I can’t tell you how many times - all over the country - I run into people who say, 'Do you know this fellow Jerry Coffee?', because they’ve just been somewhere and heard him speak. And I say, sure I know him, and they go 'Wow! Boy, he blew our socks off. He’s tremendous.'” (Everett Alvarez, commander, US Navy (ret.), longest held Vietnam POW 8/5/64-2/12/73; deputy director, Peace Corps; deputy director, Veterans Administration; founder, Alvarez and Associates)