P.O.W. TREATMENT NOT NEW

by DarrelWhitewolf, Thursday, May 06, 2004, 10:04

I remember the training back in 1969 for Marine boot leutenents fresh out of officers training school. They were taken out on training manuevers in the woods. Once settled in to their tents for the night, we would sneak in and unload a magazine of blank rounds from an M16 into their tent while our interrogation officers screamed Vietnamese at them.

Our unit, wearing black pajamas and Viet Cong uniforms would then round them up at gun point, order them into a single file line with their shirts over their heads and their hands on the guys shoulder in front of them.

They were marched for a few miles to a mock up POW camp that would impress even Universal Studios. It became very, very real for them at this point as Hanoi Hanna and propaganda was playing over loud speakers along with Vietnamese music.

These guys were stripped down except for their underpants and stuffed into wooden crates for two weeks. All they could see was a big red flag with a hammer and cicle on it (that's right). They had to crawl to the toilet in the mud while being screamed at all the way.

They had no idea what was going on. They were kept awake all day and night, every night by pounding rifle butts on top of the boxes and screaming at them. Rifle shots and explosions in the distance made it authenic sounding. The noise was 24/7 and after about two or three days of that they would think they had somehow gone from California to an actual POW camp in Nam.
They were treated pretty rough and some were even beaten til bloody because they balked. This was what they had to learn because a boot loui stood out like a sore thumb in Nam and if actually captured, they would suffer a fate much, much worse.

The Viet Cong were known for shoving bamboo slivers up the fingernails of US troops that were captured. They would tape a rice bowl to the stomach with a rat inside. The rat would eat it's way out through the soldiers bodies. They were masters of torture.

These guys tried to escape as they were taught to do but it was made impossible for them.

I was part of that excercise not of my own choice and by the time the first few days went by, I was beginning to think it was real myself. I was never so glad as I was when it was over.
This was training that would save these guys lives because we knew what the enemy was capable of. They were tough, hardened and damn good Marines. We were the best of the best of the 1st Marine Division and were the first in the history of the Marine Corp to graduate as a full series honour batalion.

But while in Viet Nam, I can tell you that the enemy prisoners taken there that I saw were treated well and there was none of the crap going on like what is being shown to the world today in the photos of Iraqi prisoners. Those are not Marines in those photos and the whole damn thing is a set up. That little twerp girl in the photos is sure as hell not a Marine and you can take that to the bank. I smell C.I.A. rats so don't blame the US Marines Corp. My guess is Rummy went there to cover his ass.

What do you think?