Former POW Says He Was Beaten While in Captivity in Iraq

AP ^ | 5/1/03

[Jean S]

LITHIA SPRINGS, Ga. (AP) - An Army helicopter pilot who was captured in Iraq said he was beaten with a stick during his captivity, but the most terrifying part of his experience was right after his helicopter went down.

Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young Jr. said the Iraqis kept firing at him and co-pilot David Williams after their helicopter went down in central Iraq on March 23. To try to escape, they dived into a canal and swam about a half-mile. Then they ran toward a stand of trees, but farmers with rifles captured them, Young said.

The Iraqis held Young and Williams with five other soldiers who were captured after their maintenance convoy drove into an ambush in southern Iraq. They were moved to different prisons about a half-dozen times. Young said he lost 23 pounds.

Marines found the Americans near the city of Tikrit on April 13. When they arrived, Young said he told everyone to get down on the ground, including the Iraqi guards.

"It was pretty cool to see them in the fetal position for once," he said.

Young said the POWs forged a close relationship and he spoke with the others by telephone in the last week. He returned to Georgia on April 22, but spoke with reporters Wednesday.

His mother, Kaye Young, said her son told her that he thought he would be killed during his captivity.

"He told me that by the third day he really felt that he was going to die," Kaye Young said. "He said 'I repented of my sins.'"

AP-ES-05-01-03 1716EDT

[mass55th]

Has anything come out yet as to whether the copter was shot down or had mechanical problems.

[Onelifetogive]

"He told me that by the third day he really felt that he was going to die," Kaye Young said. "He said 'I repented of my sins.'"

Given that most of us don't know whether we are going to die today or not, this is not a bad thing to do!

[wideawake]

"He told me that by the third day he really felt that he was going to die," Kaye Young said. "He said 'I repented of my sins.'"

I can't wait to see how that sentiment is going to be twisted by the Leftist and Muslim media.

[wastoute]

"No atheists in foxholes..." Praise the Lord they were recovered safely.

[GBA]

I'm glad they both survived! But...does anyone know what happened to the AH-64 they were flying? What about the weapons? It looked like it was fully loaded in the first pictures, then looked stripped in the last pictures I had seen. Were the weapons and Apache every found?

[kcvl]

26th MEU (SOC) Marines recover downed CH-46E in Northern Iraq
Submitted by: 26th MEU
Story Identification Number: 200342713546
Story by Capt. Edward R. Fergus



MOSUL, Iraq(April 27, 2003) -- *Editor's Note - Capt. Edward R. Fergus is the Air Officer for Battalion Landing Team 1/8, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), and is currently deployed in Mosul. Much of this article is his first-hand account of a rescue mission that he and 11 other Marines of BLT 1/8 conducted April 22 to retrieve a downed CH-46E in Northern Iraq following a mechanical failure on that aircraft.

"Around 7:30 p.m., April 22, I was preparing to assume the duties as the Battalion Watch Officer when an urgent message was passed over the Battalion Tactical radio. The message said that a CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron-264 (Reinforced) had made an emergency landing a few miles east of the small town of Makhmur, Iraq due to a hydraulic system failure," Fergus said.



http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/F6B4097CE4D084F685256D1500625631?opendocument

[GBA]

The article you linked to says Marine helicopter (CH-46E). Interesting article! But...these POWs were Army and I thought that they might have been flying that Apache that Iraq had claimed to have been brought down by a bunch of farmers with rifles. The last pictures I saw of it was when it was stripped of wearpons and being transported on the back of a flat bed semi.

[hoosierham]

NOT to lessen our military's sacrifice, but some of these comments are kind of dumb.

Why be surprised if the people you have been shooting at try to kill you ? It's SURVIVAL instinct to fight or flee ! Not everyone flees. Besides, they think you are the bad guy.

The opinion of yourself that the enemy is evil doesn't change little things like that. If the people who KNEW Hitler was wrong would have stopped fighting I bet that war would have wrapped up a LOT sooner.

[tiamat]

And WHERE is the UN? Where are the loud denunciations by Amnesty International>

I'm listening and all i hear is crickets!

Tia

[sauropod]

Good to see ya around! haven't seen u in a dog's age!

[piasa]

- Source : "Freed POWs Heading Straight To U.S.," CBS, April 14, 2003

(snippets)

... A day later, the Apache was brought down outside Baghdad when a cannon round split the leather of Williams' boot and burned his foot, forcing him to land.

Williams and Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young jumped in a canal and swam a quarter-mile but were caught by armed farmers who spotted them in the moonlight when they tried to run for cover in a stand of trees, Williams recalled.

The villagers "beat us a little, one of them with a stick," he said. Then the two men were thrown in the back of an open truck and driven around "to show all the other people that they had captured Americans," he said. "We got a couple of more punches and sticks."

They were kept in separate cells at first, with no talking allowed. They were interrogated separately, sometimes with blindfolds on, and were asked about such things as the disposition of U.S. military units. They were also subjected to political diatribes.

At one point, the Iraqis moved an artillery gun inside the prison — making it a target. Allied bombing came closer and closer, and one blast opened up a crack in the prison. One of the POWs reached through a crack and unlatched his cell door. But their guards prevented them escaping.

Young said it was probably just as well that they were not able to break out and venture into Baghdad. "There were a lot of Republican Guard around us," he said. "If we had made it outside, we could have been killed."

As the Americans troops advanced, "we could feel that the whole thing was collapsing," Young said. "We were the bastard children of Iraq. Nobody wanted to hold us."

Then, on Sunday, the Marines broke down the door.

(/snippets)

[piasa]

Where did you see any of them say they were "surprised?"

[hoosierham]

Actually , it is the tone of the article, not a specific word.

Too bad the foot wound kept him from just flying away ; but then I have no idea how difficult it is too fly a chopper, just know some make it look easy. ( Have been told if you can pat your head, rub your tummy, AND carry on a conversation at the same time, you too can be a chopper pilot.)

[Happy2BMe]

It's The Soldier

It's the soldier not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the press.

It's the soldier not the poet who gives you the freedom of speech.

It's the soldier not the campus organizer who allows you to demonstrate.

It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!!!

"Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen."