A lesson in "torture" from Colonel Bud Day. This was sent to me by a fellow Vietnam veteran:
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The prelude to the comments below, from Colonel Bud Day, Medal of Honor recipient - prisoner of war survivor:
"I didn't expect to be reminded of my treatment some 36 years ago on this holiday weekend but our politicians find it worthy to ignore what some have tried to recount to them, who have actually been there."
I was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967...a squadron commander.
After I returned in 1973, I published two books that dealt a lot with "real torture" in Hanoi. Our make believe president is branding our country as a bunch of torturers when he has no idea what torture is.
As for me..put thru a mock execution because I would not respond...pistol whipped on the head...same event. Couple of days later...hung by my feet all day. I escaped and got recaptured a couple of weeks later...I got shot and recaptured. Shot was okay...what happened after was not.
They marched me to Vinh...put me in the rope trick, trick...almost pulled my arms out of the sockets. Beat me on the head with a little wooden rod until my eyes were swelled shut, and my unshot, unbroken hand a pulp.
Next day hung me by the arms...rebroke my right wrist...wiped out the nerves in my arms that control the hands..rolled my fingers up into a ball. Only left the slightest movement of my left forefinger. So I started answering with some incredible lies.
Sent me to Hanoi strapped to a barrel of gas in the back of a truck.
Hanoi...on my knees...rope trick again. Beaten by a big fool.
Into leg irons on a bed in Heartbreak Hotel.
Much kneeling--hands up at Zoo.
Really bad beating for refusing to condemn Lyndon Johnson.
Several more kneeling events. I could see my knee bone thru kneeling holes.
There was an escape from the annex to the Zoo. I was the Senior Officer of a large building because of escape...they started a mass torture of all commanders.
I think it was July 7, 1969...they started beating me with a car fan belt. In first two days I took over 300 strokes...then stopped counting because I never thought I would live thru it.
They continued day-night torture to get me to confess to a non-existent part in the escape. This went on for at least 3 days. On my knees...fan belting...cut open my scrotum with fan belt stroke...opened up both knee holes again. My fanny looked like hamburger...I could not lie on my back.
They tortured me into admitting that I was in on the escape...and that my two room-mates knew about it.
The next day I denied the lie.
They commenced torturing me again with 3, 6, or 9 strokes of the fan belt every day from about July 11 or 12th...to 14 October 1969. I continued to refuse to lie about my roommates again.
Now, the point of this is that our make-believe president has declared to the world that we ( U.S. ) are a bunch of torturers. Thus it will be okay to torture us next time when they catch us...because that is what the U.S. does.
Our make-believe president is a know nothing fool who thinks that pouring a little water on some one's face, or hanging a pair of womens pants over an Arabs head is TORTURE. He is a meathead.
I just talked to MOH holder Leo Thorsness who was also in my squad in jail...as was John McCain...and we agree that McCain does not speak for the POW group when he claims that Al Gharib was torture...or that "water boarding" is torture.
Our president and those fools around him who keep bad mouthing our great country are a disgrace to the United States. Please pass this info on to Sean Hannity. He is free to use it to point out the stupidity of the claims that water boarding...which has no after effect...is torture. If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on the twin towers in NYC...hurrah for the guy who poured the water.
BUD DAY, MOH
George Everett "Bud" Day (born February 24, 1925) is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and Command Pilot who served during the Vietnam War. He is often cited as being the most decorated U.S. service member since General Douglas MacArthur, having received some seventy decorations, a majority for actions in combat. Day is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
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It's always nice to hear someone tell it like it is; especially when that person has "been there, done that".
By the way, the same people who did this to Bud Day are still in charge in Hanoi, Vietnam. Yet there are those who want to be "pals" with these animals. I still can't understand why any war veteran would want to visit Vietnam and break bread with such scumbags.
Charles M. Grist
www.TheCobraTeam.com
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com
Well said by Bud Day. I was with USS O'Callahan on the Gunline at the DMZ at the end of the war and was still in the "Gulf" when these POWs were released. They are icons whose voices are strong and clear for a reason. They have been there. McCain is a politician ... so that pretty much explains why he went soft to try to gain votes on the left - which was an impossibility this last election. I've posted this link at http://www.incountry.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeletethey're is a huge difference going through physical torture and psychological torture psychological torture will make the person beleive they are going to be harmed when they're not it's like keeping one up all night and marching from a cell putting in a bag over his head marhing him up a set of stairs opeing a door with street sounds & the wind blowing walking them too the edge of a building making them step onto the edge and telling them that they don't tell you the information or answer the questions you ask reminding you that they've been up all night and haven't been fed could possibly fall from bening in a weakened state and then taking the bag off their head realizing they've been standing on a footstool in a hallway with a fan blowing on them What they're really afraid of is their agents unaware been captured here in the United States and been put through the same might givem up
ReplyDeleteDear Col. Day,
ReplyDeleteThank you for fighting for me and my family and all Americans and for enduring such horrible torture and still being able to share your story for the next generations. I will pass your story on to my grandchildren so that they, too, may be inspired to stand up and sacrifice for our freedoms when and if need be. www.HelpSaveAmerica.com
Evelyn
To All of our Military but Especially Bud.. God Bless you and Thank You for your service and sacrifice for Me, My children and Grandchildren.. Let's hope we have a country after this president and Democratic party is done with it!
ReplyDeleteGood point there - we were brought up to believe communist terrorists (CTs) were bad guys, but now we're doing business with them!
ReplyDelete