Replies

I went through Resistance Training at the POW school at Fairchild AFB. For those who don't know - this is a very realistic camp where you are actually captured, interrogated, and imprisoned for a few days to give you a realistic training experience of what it will be like as a hostage or POW. Of course, this is training, and there is education taking place and it is not as bad as the Hanoi Hilton - but it is pretty bad. I never wanted to go through it again.

But, it taught me a lot. They teach you how to resist.

I cannot imagine why these Brits succumbed so quickly. Mock executions? Some friends of mine went through that in Panama. They were captured before JUST CAUSE by Noreiga's thugs. They were taken out in the jungle, stripped, and empty pistols unloaded into their heads. Afterwards, none of them agreed to make a statement denouncing the US.

Did any of you read about how these soldiers were blindfolded in front of a firing squad? How their captors simulated the sounds of a throat being cut?

I’m not excusing them. But I think that part of the dynamic here had to do with the fact that there was a mother among them, and none could bear the idea that the Iranians would kill her.

Maybe this is an indictment of having women, or at least moms, in these situations.

I can’t imagine what the training is like. I’m lucky that I don’t have that requirement for my job. It probably wouldn’t hurt that everyone in the military be given some training because you never know when you might get grabbed. Just because you’re not on the front lines or a pilot doesn’t mean you couldn’t be grabbed. At least those that get the training are given some tools to help them resist. I would have to hope that I would be capable of resisting if I ever were captured.

In the hostage camp, how did you feel when you heard the American anthem and saw your flag being raised at the end?

Do they still do that part?

I worked with a former F14 Navigator who went through the same training.

Thank you for your service sir.

I too went through Fairchild, oh, 25 years ago. Intense. I was enlisted. I remember seeing on of my "captors" later in the Base Exchange and thinking, 'this guy seems so so small now.' It's a great experience. Tough. We linguists had heard all of the horror stories for an entire year leading up to it.

Then they sent 1/10 of us fliers to florida for "different" and "advanced" training. It was Fairchild without having to survive in the woods. When we arrived later at our duty station, most of our co-workers had never heard of this training and I distinctly remember a SSgt telling a CMSgt, "I can't tell you about it. You don't have a need to know." The Chief went ballistic until he was given the phone number of General if he had any questions about it... Yeah, those were the days.

It is easy to sit in the comfort of our homes and pass judgment on the Brits or the P-3 folks for what they did, should have done, didn't do, but we weren't there. I would like to think that I would do as I was trained, but when your entire world is turned topsy turvy and the Iranians are saying 7 years prison, things look a bit different.

Before going to Nam on Swift Boats, I went through SERE at Warner Springs in the desert east of San Diego. The pre-prison part of the program was a couple days of class sessions listening to debriefing tapes from POWs liberated after the Korean war. In fact, the poor performance of US captives during Korea was the reason for developing a formal SERE program. There was not one successful escape from a Korean POW camp.

The SERE program was very tough...physcologically and physically, and I came away with bruises and lost 5-pounds...and was not overweight. Good training, and apparently the Brits do not have such a program.
They should be embarrassed.