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I heard Oliver North say on Fox News that the Marines he's embedded with have vowed never to be taken, that they will fight to the death.

I'd feel the same way. Better that than be shot like a stray dog.

Sister of Captured GI Dies of Disorder

Saturday March 29, 2003 1:00 AM

PENNSAUKEN, N.J. (AP) - The sister of an Army sergeant captured by Iraqi forces died Friday of a rare neurological disorder.

The parents of captured U.S. Army Sgt. James Riley stood silently outside their suburban Philadelphia home as a military spokesman confirmed the death of Mary Riley, 29. She died at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, where she had been in a coma since Jan. 23.

The family, in a written statement, said they hope their son keeps his ``faith in God, his nation and himself'' if he finds out about his sister's death before they are able to contact him.

James Riley, 31, of Pennsauken, was one of five U.S. soldiers captured when Iraqi forces attacked an army supply convoy around An Nasiriyah. He was seen Sunday on Iraqi television broadcasts.

Riley was with the 507th Maintenance Co., part of the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, based at Fort Bliss, Texas. He enlisted in the Army after graduating Pennsauken High School in 1990.

Riley's parents, Athol and Jane, scheduled a private funeral for Mary, who would have turned 30 on April 23.

I heard Oliver North say on Fox News that the Marines he's embedded with have vowed never to be taken, that they will fight to the death.

My uncle, who was in the German Army during WW2 once told me the following story. While fighting in the Soviet Union in 1943 his infantry company came upon 2 of their comrades who had been captured by Communist partisans. Both dead soldiers had been crucified and their bodies horribly mutilated. After seeing this every member of his company vowed never to be taken alive and under no circumstances would they ever surrender. In the beginning the German army in Russia as a matter of course shot any partisans they captured since at that time partisans were not entitled to the protection of the Geneva conventions. Atrocities like these only cause soldiers to fight harder.