what was it like being a pow in vietnam

Glory Denied: The Saga of Jim Thompson, America's Longest-Held Prisoner of War, Oral History: John Borling, Major General, Medal of Honor Recipient Jon Cavaiani Interview, American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day, Medal of Honor Recipient Leo K. Thorsness Interview, Vietnam POW John Borling on holidays endured at the "Hanoi Hilton", 2022 Pritzker Military Museum & Library. Vietnam Vet Pilot Tells His POW Story - Audacy Bringing citizens and soldiers together to explore military history, military affairs and national security. Then, two days before the U.S. election, four Americans were killed in an NLF shelling of Bien Hoa Air Base, with 76 more wounded, and five B-57 bombers destroyed. Then as of December 21, 2018, the number of U.S. military and civilian personnel still unaccounted for is 1,592. Part of the reason why the POW issue remains an enduring part of the Vietnam War Intended to combat the growth of communism in the country, President Nixon attempted to keep the existence of these raids secret from Congress and the American public, but word got out and resulted in widespread protests. When my German father-in-law asked me that question for the first time right after the news broke about abuses in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, I didnt have a good answer for him. The SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) shot down a bunch of planes on the third night, after they figured out the flight patterns, and one night they pulled up a deuce and a half and told us to crawl in the back. Chicago, IL 60603 His family now includes his two children, Megan and husband Mike, and Adam and his wife Anza. But in February 2008, McCain inexplicably failed to back another bill that would have restricted the Central Intelligence Agency to using only those techniques specified in the Army field manual. That brings us to the current U.S. presidential elections, where the treatment of prisoners in the so-called Global War on Terror is one of the issues, and that debate has been profoundly shaped by the experiences in Vietnam of the Republican Party candidate. I reserve that title for my wife, Shirley, who held our family together while I was rotting in a cell in the Hanoi Hilton for nearly seven years during the Vietnam War. We were ecstatic, Harker said. In this May 25, 1973, file photo, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. We must choose to keep a positive attitude. However, theLinebackeroperations in 1972 called for heavy bombing of North Vietnam, and therefore more planes were shot down. In one incident, a military judge advocate named Captain Edwin Glenn was actually court-martialed for his direct role in super vising the water torture of a Filipino prisoner. During World War II, with the fall of France to Nazi Germany, Vietnam became a possession of Japan, though was still administered by the French Vichy government. Unfortunately, all too many of those people have no real-world intelligence experience or have never spent a single day of their lives in uniform. After landing, I struggled to get to higher terrain and, while trudging through the jungle, was quickly found by a flood of North Vietnamese soldiers, who eventually took me to Hoa Lo Prison, the infamous Hanoi Hilton where I would spend the next almost seven years of my life held captive by the Vietcong. By 1939, 80% of the population was illiterate, and 45% of the land was owned by 3% of landowners, while half of Vietnam's population was landless. After being taken, Harker was left with a soldier with a sidearm who walked in front of him, leading him away from the creek. Today, the mistreatment of American POWs and the suffering they endured remains a powerful legacy of the Vietnam War. The majority of those on both lists are Vietnam veterans, and several of them have written for or been interviewed by Vietnam Magazine over the years. John McCain a 'Hanoi Hilton Songbird Tickets available upon arrival. And as with McCain, their understanding of armed human conflict is deeply rooted in their personal experiences in the war in Southeast Asia. He believes to this day that had he not been captured, he would have died there in Italy, as his own army did not have the medical resources necessary to save his life. In the end, we did not get anywhere near the reciprocity from the VC and North Vietnamese that we had hoped for; but as badly as American POWs were treated, it could have been much worse. On a human level, the war was disastrousan estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and over 1 million Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives. As a number of U.S. advisors watched a movie in the mess hall of the South Vietnamese Army's compound at Bien Hoa, six guerrillas infiltrated the facility and opened fire with automatic weapons. You may also like: 50 insights into the US military-industrial complex. I was led to a blue 1973 Corvette and handed the keys. This picture was taken on Nov. 10, 1967, shortly after he and his companions took part in Operation Wheeler a series of search and destroy missions aimed at weakening the Peoples Army of Vietnams 2nd Division. He led the way and showed us how to nurse and take care of men, and that became our goal to make people in their last hours and days as comfortable as possible it was our mission, and he was a big inspiration to us.. In the wake of the Vietnam War, families of American MIAs began organizing to demand an accounting. Rosaire Bushey is the public affairs officer at the Salem VA and an Air Force Veteran. My dads supervisor said he could get me in the National Guard, but I thought that would be shirking my responsibility. Experience shows that slow, methodical, long-term rapport-building interrogation tactics always produce better results. Harkers first prison was in Quang Nam Province, a difficult, mountainous country that made food scarce and meant deplorable living conditions for the POWs. I had recently left the Air Forces precision demonstration flying team, the Thunder Birds, and Chesley and I were flying low over the trees doing 700 knots on the deck. If there is any justification to that argument, we certainly could have applied it to the soldiers who served the Nazi and Japanese regimes. Robert E. Meyers during a burial service at Arlington National Cemetery on October 26, 2015. We were interrogated when we were captured, Harker said, but we knew the Code of Conduct and so wed give that information. Over 2.7 million Americans served in the war and 58,318 died, with thousands more going on to suffer from the lifelong impacts of post-traumatic stress disorder, a poorly understood affliction at the time. Captain Belcher had been in a province southwest of Saigon where we were providing security for elections, Harker said. Jessica Pearce Rotondi is the author ofWhat We Inherit: A Secret War and a Familys Search for Answers. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE AMERICA I KNEW AS A POW?. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. On a human level, the war was disastrousan estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and over 1 million Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives. South Vietnam offered an unconditional surrender, potentially preventing a bloody urban conflict. Last year, a prominent hysteria-monger on talk radio insisted that torture works, as proved conclusively by John McCains own admission that under relentless and brutal interrogation he finally broke and divulged more than his name, rank, service number and date of birth, as specified by the U.S. Armed Forces Code of Conduct. In doing so, youre agreeing to the below guidelines. Three days after the U.S. initiated the shelling of two North Vietnamese islands, North Vietnamese torpedo boats surprised the Maddox and engaged the destroyer in direct combat. Sponsor: U.S. That group included Naval aviators Jerry Denton and Jim Stockdale, the highest-ranking officer in the prison, who taught me the tap code on the prison walls so we could communicate to each other and other POWs. One such argument asserts that our enemies are a bunch of barbarians who launched a devastating surprise attack against us, do not adhere to even the basic rules of civilized human behavior and, therefore, do not deserve civilized treatment. Its amazing to think that we could even do it, but we did what we had to do. After recovering at a hospital prison in North Africa, my father-in-law was shipped to the United States, where he spent the rest of the war picking cotton in Mississippi. I was spared the device only because I was already so injured. ! My parents found out that a couple of those who were released were at Fort Jackson, and so they went there and got onto base and met with them and heard from them that I was alive. Having fought against the Viet Minh with the French in 1945, and taking part in the coup against Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963, Nguyen would lead South Vietnam for the remainder of the war. In December 2005, 33 retired professional intelligence experts and interrogators also signed a similar letter to McCain. I Spent Seven Years as a Vietnam POW. The Hanoi Hilton Thus began the First Indochina War, a conflict that would eventually morph and spiral into the Vietnam War. A photo taken in 1967 shows US Navy Airforce Maj. John McCain being examined by a Vietnamese doctor following his capture. You may also like: 30 iconic posters from World War II. The Vietnam Wars Great Lie When you have a rifle and youre in front of the enemy, its different. Part of the reason why the POW issue remains an enduring part of the Vietnam War has to do with the media. A newspaper clipping shows when David Harker returned home. Vietnam War veteran Bob Kakuk helped lead the fight to have government buildings fly the flag of prisoners of war and missing in action. In the subsequent March, the North Vietnamese began a massive offensive that would result in the full-scale retreat and ultimate defeat of South Vietnamese forces. We couldnt call him doc, but he was a big source of information and help to us. They kept him alive until a collecting party recovered all three of them, and then he and the two Americans were evacuated to a field aid station, side by side in the same ambulance. It ruins the subject, makes them useless for further interrogation. In 1979, Congress declared that the third Friday in September would be National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Once we compromise those values, we find ourselves on the slippery slope to being just the same as we think they are.

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