Hurts So Good
Shuger, Scott
Hurts So Good At POW school the Navy locked me in a box. Here's why I'm grateful. by Scott Shuger This box I was locked in made me more uncomfortable than I'd ever been. Its dimensions had...
...Each time, the flat of my back hit the wall hard, winding me, but my head was going into that panel I'd noticed, which turned out to be much softer...
...I told him...
...We were marched into a bench-filled meeting room...
...One of them, "Here There Are Tigers," portrayed the capture of a downed American pilot by the North Vietnamese...
...We have the wreckage...
...asked a second voice...
...On command, he gave his war criminal number...
...In mid-afternoon, when I was stripped down to my underwear and put in the box, it had been in the mid-eighties and the cool darkness was welcome...
...Its dimensions had been calculated to prevent the average-sized man from lying down or sitting up...
...In the past 24 hours, I had experienced new dimensions of excitement, tension, concentration, anxiety, fear, cowardice, and regret...
...had some nerve I would have said something...
...I whispered to my right...
...I was asked to read over some materials to check the grammar and spelling...
...Rumor was that a doctor monitored the victim's vital signs all the way...
...We were joined by other captives as we went along...
...Waterboard," came the hoarse reply...
...Let's start again—what squadron are you with...
...We had a leisurely discussion about my hometown, my parents, and my education...
...At first the tone was amicable enough...
...The only man in the group wearing a dress uniform came around from behind his desk and started right in on me...
...But Che was ready for that one...
...Despite my destination, the minute-and-a-half walk felt incredibly good...
...To deliver supplies and mail!' Upon hearing this, the interrogator went back around to his desk...
...Below my groin My neighbor's worst times were probably over, but as for me—it was probably near midnight and nobody had laid a hand on me since my chat with Che...
...You will be the one to decide if this meeting gets unpleasant...
...The most lavishly dressed, a lean small man, took charge...
...The last thing I remember was being 50 miles off San Clemente"— a small island just off the San Diego coast—J`it was my first flight" Pleading incompetence and giving the story a benign local setting was a good stroke...
...Here and there guards and prisoners were shaking hands and even smiling...
...He probably knew what he was doing...
...But a shorter pause than I should have taken...
...In just two weekS and for very little money, the Navy taught us things that would make us better combatants, better people even—more capable of operating with:the men and material entrusted to us...
...It was amazing to rediscover how difficult everything becomes when you have absolutely no energy...
...The debriefing wasn't a what-l-did-on-myvacation session...
...So you are war criminals, not protected by the Geneva Convention ." We spent the next hour or so on our hands and knees pushing piles of gravel first to one side of the compound and then the other...
...At first I was very defensive...
...Our instructors turned to leave, telling us that the next people we'd see wouldn't be so nice...
...Now then . . . ." We danced through the Big Three Freebies...
...As the third evening fell, the instructors took account of the complete lack of food...
...We were told that our class was typical in containing many people who refused to give out significant information when pushed physically, but who gave it up quickly when they felt the pressure was off...
...Yes sir...
...If anything I was even more worried than my classmates, for I was the class's sole intelligence officer, which in the exercise—and in time of war—could make me an especially juicy target...
...The smells were another good reason to stay put...
...They were a little disorganized, spending as much time shouting at each other as they did shouting at us...
...The at-sea scenario exercises that the Navy depends on to ready its forces tend to lack realism...
...After each contact with the authorities, we had been sent off with some sort of summary statement...
...I was in this phone booth with four guys—I could see only two of them, but I felt the other two behind me, as the first hard question came: "Your squadron...
...A little exercise might relieve the tension...
...A lot of hands shot up...
...If a guard said that eventually you would come around to the right way of thinking, that wasn't as good, and so on...
...They weren't...
...I didn't know how to rearrange all those emotions on cue...
...system switched to "The Star Spangled Banner...
...Back in my box my concentration was slipping badly...
...You had to wonder how a guy could torture his own side for a living...
...It sure didn't sound that way...
...The rapidly filling base amphitheater showed no one was eager for that...
...Commander Smythe between them...
...I pictured some of the staff sitting on the other side of my door, clapping their hands together or grunting and looking through a hole in the wall to check our reactions...
...The central lesson of all this was that as a POW the pressure would never be off...
...But my reaction is more typical of SERE graduates: it was the best war training I got...
...Then I said, "I don't know...
...This time the blow was followed by a crashing sound—this one had knocked Stuart off his feet...
...We'd all heard about it—torture by controlled drowning...
...So I shut up, averting my eyes—as if that helped...
...Soon enough we were marching in formation away from the populated parts of the base...
...This is not a military area...
...So why were you flying a warplane against my country...
...You don't KNOW...
...Within five minutes we stopped at a clearing that served as a collection point...
...They were working him over when the sirens went off...
...They were gleefully describing their plans for the new shoot-downs when the all-clear sounded...
...system...
...But it had also been made clear to us that we were expected to resist as much as we thought we could...
...There was a long silence followed by, "My country does not permit me to give you that information ." Cringes all around, but no slap...
...Long, wailing, gasping groans that trailed off into crying...
...This view was shaken when the Chinese "brainwashed" some captured soldiers during the Korean War...
...I could hear forced exercise and some slapping and shoving...
...All he wanted for his troubles were the eyeballs...
...These dudes acted like they had all the time in the world...
...We'd been told not to be tricked into surrendering...
...No, they didn't take us into town for Big Macs...
...It was like a movie set...
...But in the front—which was much closer to this guy—I felt the pressure...
...Who likes the volleyball...
...Predictably, the guards found our work rather unsatisfactory...
...I will show you that this is not a game...
...What's going on...
...Uppermost in my mind was sticking to my cover story that I was just a regular air crewman, not an intelligence officer...
...Friendly stuff like helping us make tents out of our chutes and teaching us about edible vegetation...
...We spent the next three days in mountainous terrain unable to find food...
...Dressed in casual, civilian clothes, he flashed me a sincere-looking smile as he waved me to a chair right in front of a glowing space heater...
...Ensign Mike Stuart, sir...
...There's a round of barroom laughs after this and then a. menacing silence...
...Some threatening stares...
...If more of our military preparation were this focused and effective, our readiness would be improved exponentially...
...I was hoping they were blind...
...He forced me down to the ground...
...Thanks to me, he didn't...
...I'm with HS"— SMACK...
...And I run it...
...Let him go...
...Then I heard the groans...
...Wall bounce...
...If we could elude our pursuers and make it to "Freedom Village"—the objective point at the other end of the valley— before the hour allotted for evasion was up, we'd be rewarded with some food and a little rest...
...I felt like a spotlight had been turned on me when he asked Smythe who his political and intelligence officers were...
...I gave him the name of the West Coast E-2 training squadron rather than my own...
...About 40 officers and men trudged into the classroom at the North Island base in San Diego, most of us in a trance befitting the ungodly hour...
...I was floundering...
...On your feetings, pig...
...Ensign," I said finally...
...I wasn't back in the box too long this time...
...Especially after we had repeatedly reviewed the Code of Conduct...
...You need to change some of your ideas, but in time I think we will work well together...
...My country does not permit me to give you that information ." Again no bad noises...
...That's where the boxes were...
...An SH-3...
...We'll talk again, I'm sure...
...If senior, I will take command...
...You are not in your country...
...No, it's the software questions—questions about service members' thinking, judgment, and attitudeswhi* ihould be getting more attention...
...We ate greedily while the head guard explained what was coming next...
...A much braver guy in the front row—he was so close that the spewing water was darkening his fatigues—finally stood up and shouted, "Hey that's enough...
...His face was puffy and dirty...
...There were lectures about the Code of Conduct and about covert communications...
...SERE schML one of the very few places where the Defense Department faces that fact...
...This background led to the establishment in the mid-fifties of the American Fighting Man's Code of Conduct—the first explicit statement of requirements for captured American servicemen...
...As the rising sun warmed our backs, he started a speech...
...Please...
...Officer remarked, "I can have him kick higher...
...military has gone stone haywire...
...And then the second-ranking prisoner's (the XO...
...My staff reports that you war criminals are malingering...
...Marching into Asia, Marching into Africa...
...Suddenly he dropped down to me and whispered in my ear in an unnervingly gentle voice, "Mister, if you do not answer my questions I will be forced to hurt you badly...
...This group assessment was undoubtedly the most important, because it had become obvious that for POWs, only coordinated action is effective—the bad guys were only too glad to have us off concentrating on our individual predicaments...
...Better combatants, better people Like everyone else, I slept through the bus ride back to San Diego...
...Quite unnecessarily, Mr...
...We were going to the office now, and I was given back a shirt and pants...
...Sure this stuff is scary, but how could he be so dense about the basics...
...On your feet...
...So let's be picking the teams and play!' Sitting there in the floodlights at two in the morning, it somehow made sense...
...Simultaneously, the P.A...
...Eventually a truck showed up, and as we rumbled down a dirt road aboard it we used its movements to steal glances at each other...
...The only conceivable chance for sleep was silence, but there was too much going on...
...Then they shoved us back in our boxes...
...After about 20 minutes, the phone rang...
...As we checked back into our classroom early on a bright Sunday morning we were advised that we'd eaten our last meal until the field phase was over...
...flag fluttering in a light breeze...
...Apparently this didn't give us a very even split...
...On the wall behind him there was a strange flag...
...I knew I was in a school, on an American military base, that my snarling captors were fellow members of the U.S...
...And, as the instructor now explained, these were encoded evaluations...
...Put on...
...Thankful for this surprising gift of peace, quiet, and comfort, I leaned back toward the heat and closed my eyes...
...Next we were told a little bit about the school...
...I don't know...
...But they were surely hurting him...
...At night we tried to find the driest ground we could, but after a few hours the earth would suck away all our heat and our shivering would keep us awake...
...The shakes started soon after a guard yanked open my door and then slammed it just as suddenly, spilling my piss-pot all over me...
...There were films...
...As a navy aviation officer, the last special training I attended before I got ready to deploy overseas with my squadron in 1980 was Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape—SEREschool...
...Smythe's limbs strained at the cuffs as ,if he was being shocked...
...I believe the People's Democratic Republic even graciously shared its precious harvest with you blackhearts ." Looking at a guard who responded with a nod, the commandant then revved up for a tongue-lashing...
...And what is its mission...
...It was the XO...
...I like that...
...Suddenly there's a bashing sound and my rightside neighbor was pulled out and up...
...I was less amused when we were each locked into one of the squat boxes that sat kennel-like at the far end of the compound...
...Up front were two smiling guys in their mid-twenties...
...I whispered to my right...
...Like the hideous manic voice singing over and over again, "Boots...
...The first week of SERE was all classroom...
...Among the soldiers confronting us were several wearing officers' uniforms complete with hammer and sickle insignia...
...Pause...
...Up pig ." "What sort of helicopter do you fly...
...Why do you tell me this, pig?'' "Because it doesn't seem very important" Another SMACK...
...That was the point of the political discussion section too...
...As a result, what is supposed to simulate an all-out war at sea with the Red Navy all too often ends up as just more routine...
...TWo guys were repeatedly throwing him against a sheet metal wall...
...So you are in the U.S...
...He had his men release the heaving, plum-faced Smythe and put him over on the side...
...Search and Rescue," Stuart wheezed...
...The next day I noticed that he had a lot more energy than I did...
...It was a gimmick, but effective...
...Yes ." "Then do...
...What is your squadron, then...
...This was the beginning of the evasion course...
...And the rest of us were just sitting there watching...
...So, this one tells us his rank even before we ask...
...Now what sports should we play...
...Waterboard" came the hoarse reply...
...Che turned his back to let loose some genuine laughter...
...After gorging myself on a fast food dinner, I crashed again at the North Island bachelor officers' quarters...
...The guards were constantly banging on boxes with rifle butts and dragging people out...
...Now Ensign, what is your squadron...
...say with a slight edge to his voice, "I'm sorry but I must cut this short...
...Silence...
...We were looking down a long, barren valley framed on three sides by rolling hills...
...Put him on the de-vice...
...We got lost !' "Your equipment is so wonderful—how did this happen...
...Everybody was okay...
...It has no use for message traffic, or viewgraphs, or computers...
...That wasn't so bad, but then I saw Lt...
...The perimeter was ringed with barbed wire and there were even guard towers overlooking it all...
...It's been clear to me ever since that we'd get a lot mote for our tax dollars if the Pentagon cut elsewhere and spent more money like this in all its tactical training—not on a fighter or a bomber, but oh a personal plane...
...He then asked me, "What kind of training squadron is it...
...Maybe the worst, most affecting part of the spectacle was all the laughter...
...Ensign," he said, forcing his smile off, "you need to do better when we speak again!' An hour later, when everybody had been rounded up and questioned, we were marched away from the field...
...This is your new home, war criminals...
...forces...
...military didn't have any explicit doctrine about how its members should behave once they were taken prisoner...
...So I started peeking...
...Air Raid...
...But— and this was certainly one of the most important lessons—like most SERE students, we had found the "soft-sell" approach harder to beat...
...Why were you flying a warplane against my country...
...cackled the commandant...
...Navy, and that this whole thing would be over a day from now...
...On your feet pig...
...The guard on my left pulled my hands down and made them grab my fatigues, at the same time spreading my legs somewhat...
...Every 20 seconds or so, the torturers would remove the cloth so the commandant could ask a question...
...Some of the details were reasonably authentic, but it was eerie to see the film's naive depiction of the relationship between the POW and the interrogator— strained at times but always absurdly "professional...
...No that won't work either!' If I'd...
...It was...
...When he hung up the phone, Joe College apologized for the interruption...
...Prisoners had been pouring in by the truckload then, and the militia was very disorganized...
...It was hot in the sun and unbelievably, my traitorous stomach was already growling...
...But they brought us a big rabbit...
...The method for this was quite ingenious...
...I admit it—against all reason, that scared the shit out of me...
...It was immensely worthwhile...
...But it had been forever since the slit in front of me had gone black—near midnight I bet—and I had been shivering for hours...
...I am your commandant I'm sure this seemed pretty funny to most of us, especially since the guy's uniform was so overdone—his hat seemed enormous...
...It was interesting to hear the different reactions of various class members...
...I hadn't had a lot of experience in cold weather in my underwear with my knees in my face...
...For some reason I noticed right away that there was a protruding panel ringing the walls of the room at head level...
...Until you no longer wish to insult my intelligence and that of my country!' Now, I didn't mind this...
...Scott Shuger is writing a book on the Navy...
...We were about to see why...
...Boots...
...Let's see if he is getting better at breathing the water...
...Who likes the football...
...Only a few hands...
...There were several low-lying buildings surrounding a sandy open area...
...Your airplanes fill the skies with bombs and yet it continues to fly...
...WhetY: e interviewer left after that "unexpected" phone'call, several POWs read the material on his desk...
...We huddled down while they promised new acts of terror against us in retribution for this latest American outrage...
...He dismissed my escorts with a nod and turned to me with a look of infinite annoyance...
...So Mr...
...But the main features of this new location were sounds...
...I nodded...
...A half dozen hands went up...
...They train student pilots for E-2s ." "And what kind of aircraft is that...
...Outside in the darkness, I felt bad about not having made a better stand towards the end of the interview but good about lying about the mission of my squadron's radar planes...
...We'd all heard about it—torture by controlled drowning...
...Back in the classroom they had explained to us that if at any time during the field portion a point of training was being missed, the staff would call "an academic"—sort of a time out-and clear things up...
...We're not going to have anything to do with the compound phase," they reassured us...
...For the first time he sounded angry...
...The groaning, gurgling sounds were like the awful noises I'd heard yesterday afternoon...
...I started taking long pauses after every question...
...It's academic As we'd been taught in class, my box-neighbors and I tried communicating by tapping signals and whispering, but we were quickly discovered...
...This was the one part that was worse than the real thing...
...he ordered...
...With hearty laughter the guards then grabbed the XO and strapped him in...
...We were due back that morning for the SERE debriefing, considered so important that absentees were required to repeat the entire school...
...Bring me the SRO...
...We just want to explain to you the feelings of our country...
...Oh, not enough to play football...
...I think pig, that you finally understand...
...Before I knew it though, tempers were flaring on both sides and we were hotly dismissed...
...At SERE school, the Navy teaches it to aviation personnel, SEAL commandos, and others whose jobs make them most liable to be captured...
...Off to one side, the ground swelled, indicating a bunker...
...No sir, I am interviewing now...
...For a second I honestly didn't know what he was talking about...
...Incredibly, one guard handed out mess kit pans and spoons while another glopped out hot oatmeal...
...Lots of enforced calisthenics...
...Before I could advance a third time, the silence of the valley was shattered by automatic weapons fire...
...Instead of either of those luxurious postures, the box forced you into a miserable muscle-straining compromise that made sleep impossible...
...Soon we came to a roadside and our adversaries told us to lie face down...
...I needed a breather...
...I distracted myself with the notion that all this apparent abuse was simulated...
...But compared to the low teens outside, that space heater felt fantastic...
...I had the feeling we were taking a circular route, but I couldn't be sure because we were ordered to keep our heads down...
...For another, aboard a ship underway, there is no safe way to set off explosives, fill compartments with smoke and sparks, or set up catastrophic power failures...
...It seemed to last forever...
...So that was the strange racket I'd heard since I got here...
...Officer interrupted, screaming in my ear...
...In the back of my head, I knew this was makebelieve...
...Look"—he pointed at the top of the flagpole behind him, a camp feature that I hadn't noticed until now—"at our flag...
...The toe of his boot hit the wall just below my groin...
...Back outside, the guards—who hadn't been allowed in—got wind of this sour turn of events and ordered us to strip down to our underwear...
...As Smythe struggled, one of the guards by his head pulled out a bandanna and covered his face with it...
...Search and what...
...I saw one of my classmates about 20 feet away doing push-ups...
...Seeing that we were rigid on our benches and instinctively keeping our heads down, he was quick to reassure us...
...Ensign Stuart, sir, what squadron are you with...
...I kept silent until Che put a big paw on my shoulder...
...Instead, its pivotal learning tools are nature's greatest teachers and combat's only constants—pain and fear...
...It sure didn't sound that way...
...Well good, now you are ready Our class was typical in containing many people who refused to give out significant information when pushed physically but who gave it up quickly when they felt the pressure was off...
...As we came out into the sunlight, the commandant motioned for us to sit...
...Before I could wonder too much about it all, I was pulled off the truck...
...Once more, we were gathered at his feet...
...I hadn't realized that Smythe hadn't been out with us before...
...The damage was done...
...As chaotic as this place was, I figured I had a shot to drop through the cracks...
...Relax...
...They "had no choice" but to summon the commandant to speak to us again...
...Fortunately, Stuart's bulb finally switched on...
...But it was obvious those sounds could only have come from real pain...
...And as I already knew, the business of choosing teams was a similar gambit...
...After all, we were in the business of taking prisoners, not making them...
...Now, what is your aircraft, Stuart...
...When the go siren sounded, I crawled a few feet into the center of the thickest bushes I could find...
...The one with the moustache started the talking...
...Well criminals, I trust you all had a restful night...
...Some of my fell.: • r; risoners were much more aggressive...
...We were headed to the barracks building near the gate we had first come through...
...I was pretty bounced out...
...I was taken across the field to a huge, swarthy, Hispanic-looking bruiser dressed all in black—a Che Guevara type...
...Later, in thinking about the debriefing, I realized why SERE school was so good...
...But I just couldn't get into the cast party atmosphere...
...Next a boot between the shoulder blades forced me down for "more of the push-push" When I couldn't even hold myself off the ground any longer, I was ordered to my feet...
...Ensign, you are stubborn, you will have to be more cooperative if you expect your lot to improve...
...Could it possibly wait...
...But after a few bars, the flag suddenly shot down the pole, and the American flag was run up in its place...
...Then I recognized Lt...
...What's going on...
...That's how I ended up practically bare-assed, shivering, and worrying about the "hard-sell" interrogation to come...
...A few stole pencils and paper...
...Before I was completely upright I was helped along by a rifle butt between the shoulder blades...
...I had done okay when they were threatening me, but although I avoided some tricks, when they put me in front of a space heater I gave them a pretty good picture of myself...
...Even though I had forgotten to set my alarm, the next morning I woke up in plenty of time...
...But naturally, we were more intensely interested in our personal evaluations...
...The heavies were getting some extra attention...
...And where did they find guys whocould act like that...
...For one thing, they don't involve much live weapons firing (too expensive—the F-14's chief weapon, the Phoenix missile, goes for $1 million a copy...
...Whenever we asked the instructors to fill us in on our future tormentors, they'd just smile and say, "Don't worry, you won't have to guess about who the bad guys are...
...When he repeated the question, I gave the reply that had worked so well for Stuart—"My country does not allow me to answer that question . . . ." "Your country...
...In the prison camps of Vietnam the Code went to war for the first time...
...For example, if the questioners said you were stubborn and would only find grief until you changed your ways, that was good...
...Like everyone, I didn't relish the prospect...
...By day, it was boiling...
...Air Raid...
...So he tried something else...
...Everybody knew that the Geneva Convention required POWs to give captors only their name, rank, and serial number...
...We would have been kept there longer if we hadn't...
...The Manchurian Candidate For all that, SERE started off mundanely enough...
...Immediately, the neck grip tightened while the fourth guy who was standing behind the interrogating officer exploded past him and kicked toward my midsection...
...Now why are you committing acts of air piracy against my peaceloving country...
...Silence...
...Others were being led out of my sight...
...Most of us had come out as reasonably active resisters during the "hard-sell" sessions...
...But the guard said, "Oh, too many rich guys with the sportscars!' Hmmm . . . this is leading somewhere and it ain't baseball...
...Most of the hands went up...
...There was great confusion in the compound as the guards led us into a hollowed-out hill on one side...
...After that there was an awkward period when everyone just milled around...
...Yes sir, I'll come over immediately...
...With that, the field-goal kicker came forward, grabbed me by the lapels, and shoved me into the wall several times...
...You need to show respect for it...
...The wet bandanna Fed and duped, we were boxed again until first light...
...My own case bore that out...
...All through this, my host was working on a steaming hero sandwich...
...I tried to remind myself how I handled Che...
...a voice on top of me grunted...
...By whom...
...I don't know how long it was before I heard J.C...
...You will have to learn," concluded the once-genial Professor Moustache, "that we don't need words to correct your thinking...
...After a bit, we trudged through some sort of gate and were halted...
...We feel sure that once you understand the P.D.R.—oh, excuse please, the People's Democratic Republic" (he said it loud and slow, the way you always talk to foreigners)you will see that there is no grievance between us!' This was the start of an hour-long bull session—an historical overview of the P.D.R., including comparisons with the American Revolution...
...How about the baseball...
...Commander Smythe's voice...
...I understand...
...The instructor reported that we had been somewhat disorganized, but we had pulled together nicely at the end...
...Every ear in the compound was sure they were about to call an academic right here on Stuart...
...Turning to some of his comrades, he bellowed, "These American slobs, they are so weak...
...At the end of that week, we'd be captured, imprisoned, and interrogated...
...Although defense boosters and critics alike tend to focus on hardware, even the briefest review of military history reveals that for every battle decided by superiority of weapons, there are ten in which the outcome depended on differences in intelligence, planning, tactics, communications, logistics, or resolve...
...The poster on the wall by my seat quoted the key words—"If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available...
...He walked away and with his back to me, started interrogating someone else...
...With that, I was taken away...
...It's a carrier-based propeller plane...
...This time Stuart hit the deck so hard he bounced up against my box, blowing a big puff of dust under my door...
...I was still frozen in the up position when Che's big black boots reappeared right under my chin...
...We will not tolerate this...
...Now go back to your box and think about what was happening here tonight ." Now I knew why they needed SERE school...
...With this command, two guards appeared from some sort of bunker dragging Lt...
...In light of that, I kept my true job to myself...
...What's your name...
...The central lesson of all this was that as a POW the pressure would never be off...
...I tried to imagine that they were fake too—on tape maybe...
...to do a good day's work...
...When I stood up again, I saw about 15 of my classmates...
...It was oddly reassuring to hear his regular American accent and grammar as he began asking me questions...
...I wanted to be alone...
...Even when I was lucky enough to daydream—about my family or food or some other good thing—I was cut short by the periodic pounding of a rifle butt on my door...
...What else was there to learn...
...Let's try it again...
...But after about an hour I was hauled to a different office and left alone with the man behind the desk...
...As a jangly martial tune blared from the P.A., we all stood stupidly looking at the P.D.R...
...At this point my eyelids were getting restless and I was getting a little suspicious...
...I think I lost vigilance...
...Boots...
...Well, raise your hand if you are the pilot ." I saw a few pilots unwittingly identify themselves...
...When the guards weren't having fun with us, there was always some drivel coming out of the P.A...
...Then we got to the pressure point...
...Getting assigned individual "war criminal numbers" was laughable too...
...But, when prisoners disputed P.D.R...
...After this week of lectures, we would spend a week in the field, living off the land as if we'd been shot down...
...Being shouted at in pidgin English was apparently designed to be disorienting...
...I decided that unless there was more rough stuff, I was going to do what I could to prolong my stay right in this spot...
...When you see them, there won't be a doubt in your mind...
...He waved to a soldier to take me away...
...I was making them earn me...
...TWo guys held rifles on me while a third, who seemed to be in charge, pointed at the path in front of me...
...The existence of such a school probably strikes life-long civilians as intolerably barbaric—yet another proof that the U.S...
...A couple took bites from the sandwich...
...But none of that was worth a thing to me shaking in the dark...
...The acronym is pronounced "sear," and for me it always conjures up an image of being shoved on a spit and slowly turned over an open flame...
...Rumor was that a doctor monitored the victim's vital signs all the way...
...Some of my classmates were already laying face down on the ground...
...Why dwell on getting captured...
...He left the room through a back door...
...Momentarily, I thought I would simply bore him with a prodigious amount of push-ups...
...Okay, it be baseball...
...I kept quiet until I was positive things were going to get ugly again...
...An enlisted guy came forward and quickly throttled the animal...
...I'm still in flight school...
...Oh, we have a hero in our midst...
...Now, I knew they weren't going to kill Smythe...
...You must remember you are not prisoners of war...
...But just the initial mention of that phrase kept my imagination going all afternoon...
...He looked it...
...If the Joint Chiefs ever have to brief the president about an incoming wave of Soviet ICBMs, they'll still have Petty Officer Flaherty come up first and explain the JCS Coffee Mess...
...For most of its history, the U.S...
...Che exploded right in my ear...
...There we were confronted by the commandant, standing on some high ground looking down at us...
...And with the respect too...
...There were a number of questioning sessions going on...
...We know what you're doing...
...With more calm than usual, he began another diatribe...
...I don't know...
...We do Search and"—SMACK/PLOP again...
...Guards swarmed over Smythe and pushed him down on a board, cuffing his arms and legs to it...
...The near-drowning/ questioning continued...
...One guy escaped...
...I will make every effort to escape and to aid others to escape...
...You know what is the push-push...
...Strictly Richard Loo and Stalag 17 stuff...
...We had been taught in class that no one is required to John Wayne it—to hold out even trivial military information in the face of abuse...
...Then the whole class was dragged out and over to the main compound area...
...After that, I just stiff-armed the ground trying to rest while I took in the scene...
...Please...
...Into the shelter...
...This went beyond the Big Three Freebies—name, rank, serial number— but it was obvious and harmless...
...I wanted to protest, but not as much as I didn't want the waterboard...
...Now Ensign, will you answer me truthfully...
...Be walking...
...Commander Smythe, who had the unfortunate distinction of being the senior ranking prisoner...
...Boots...
...It's a helicopter squadron at North Is .. !' Suddenly there was a sharp noise—SMACK...
...But the kicker, the part that we just couldn't stop worrying and wondering about, went well beyond that...
...The question came again, but before I could say anything, I was grabbed around my neck from behind...
...Raise your hand if you have the Secret clearance...
...But SERE school was an example of how the mayhem of combat can be re-created on land...
...Long pauses and incomplete answers...
...While he made some notes, he looked up at me...
...Yes ." "Now, what was your mission today...
...But there were no distractions now...
...And this ratio has become still more imbalanced in modern warfare because the growth of technology shrinks the time one can maintain any given technical advantage...
...dogma—and several did, especially a couple of junior enlisted guys who seemed to be discovering the pleasures of debate for the first time—our discussion leaders would reel off statistics about the number of black people in jail or on welfare in the U.S...
...The compound phase was over...
...The next morning, after changing into schoolissued green fatigues, the class worked its way to an X on the map, which was the drop-off point...
...There was yelling and loud metallic banging...
...Between deep sobs, the SRO said he didn't know...
...Oh, this one flops like a fish, haw, haw," chuckled a bearded guard at the foot of the waterboard...
...With their longish hair and their jeans, they looked like young profs...
...Don't waste my time...
...So pig, what is your name...
...I had just arrived at the point that every person contemplating capture wonders about...
...Then another guard started pouring water over the cloth...
...I wasn't flying a warplane...
...This was one of those situations where what you knew didn't matter much in light of what you felt...
...My strategy would stay the same...
...When I first lifted my head I scanned the area, spotting a few familiar weary faces in the process...
...Your Congress has not declared war on our peace-loving country...
...We were taken over to the center of the compound and told to sit down...
...shrieked the commandant...
...It wasn't quite like The Manchurian Candidate, but American officers, psychologists, and political scientists were startled to learn that "normal" troops could be trained, often in a relatively brief period of confinement, to identify and collaborate with the enemy—even to the point of refusing peacetime repatriation...
...An .d we know Americans love the team sports...
...We know that besides the hunger of you, you also have want for the exercise...
...Such sessions would be used to identify the talkers and the well-read...
...And your rank...
...I don't think you understand the point of our questions, pig...
...someone shouted at me...
...These American slobs ", "Oh, here is another of the pigs...
...Now close your eyes so we can pick fairly the teams:'' Once our eyes were closed, the guard told us, "Raise your hand if you from East Coast America...
...I felt even worse on the next round...
...After about two hours of boxdom, I was grabbed out along with about half my classmates...
...I kept still...
...SERE stands out from the great gray routine of the hundreds of hours of canned drills, exercises, lectures, and briefs now bemiring U.S...
...Since they were all politically loaded and there had been some whispered box scuttlebutt about hidden tape recorders, I passed on that...
...I kept doing push-ups until my arms were completely numb, like they used to get at Officer Candidate's School...
...I'm with HS-6!' "And what is that...
...I shut up, much more from fright than cool...
...Every man there, guards as well as prisoners, snapped to attention and saluted...
...After several minutes, I repeated the maneuver...
...But it wouldn't work here...
...We'll just be leading you through the land survival phase of the exercise," our instructors smiled...
...I ignored the question and repeated my name...
...We were given the usual "Welcome Aboard" by various instructors—including the always-popular Coffee Mess rules and base traffic regulations...
...Why you stop the push-push...
...Raise your hand if you have the sportscar...
...I was led to a small office overcrowded with guards...
...Intimidated, I tried to convince myself that I had already made this crew waste time on trivia...
...I wondered if they'd been bouncing him around all this time...
...I thought I saw about half the hands up...
...The interrupted inters an opportunity I missed...
Vol. 20 • May 1988 • No. 4
