Before you react to hastily, read the last
couple of lines.

I wasn't a combat veteran of Viet Nam.
I wasn't in Viet Nam. I worked with a
lot of people who were and they were fine
professionals. We trained South
Vietnamese pilots at my base and I found
them to be as polite and considerate as
we were to them.

As stories of atrocities filtered back
from Viet Nam there were a few carried
out by our side and when confirmed up the
chain of command they were prosecuted.
The other atrocities, and there were many,
were committed by the Communist North.

The odds of being subjected to barbarism
and torture up North was 100% if you
found yourself in prison there. It would
be hard for an American to concieve of
such methods of torture much less carry
them out.

Senator Denton from Alabama was a U S Navy
pilot shot down over the North and he was
a "guest" of the famous Hanoi Hilton for
something like six years. Almost every
day of that time he was "interrogated" by
his captors for the purpose of extracting
a few words of confession that he was a
war criminal. He would resist until he
could resist no more on each occasion and
then admit to their accusations. The
North Vietnamese would have a tiny bit of
political fodder on tape or in writing to
include in their propaganda. Denton would
have the physical pain and the mental
anguish of having been broken to deal with
until they came for him again.

To their surprise the would get to start
over from scratch each time. They never
understood the heart of a free man. I
learned of his ordeal by reading his book
"When Hell Was In Session."

Let me give you a small preview in
paraphrase of a torture session that is
written about by Mr. Denton in his book.

One of their methods was to sit the
prisoner down on a concrete floor, legs
straight out and spread with a steel bar
shakled to each ankle and the knees flat
on the floor. The arms were bound behind
his back with rope starting at the wrist
and then cinching the arms together all
the way up with the elbows together.
Once in this configuration the
"interrogation" would begin.

The American POW was trained to give the
minimum information to questioning: Name,
Rank, Serial Number. None of them were
or considered themselves to be war
criminals. As a matter of fact the
reason most of these men were there in
prison was due to the fact that the
United States military prosecuted the war
on the North with precision stikes using
mostly fighter bombers to limit
collateral damage.

We could have chosen to use the B-52
instead and flatened North Viet Nam's
cities, military, and industrial complexes
from altitudes out of harms way and box
car loads at a drop. We chose to pick
away at them and a lot of good men like
Mr. Denton got shot down.

When we did finally begin to show our
resolve to use increased force the North
scheduled the peace negotiations
immediately.

That's in the book too, written by someone
who witnessed first hand the "attitude
adjustment" in Hanoi.

But back to the "interrogation".

The prisoner would be confined in this
predicament until he broke. To help him
make up his mind a steel pipe about three
inches in diameter and filled with
concrete would be rolled up and down the
shins and dropped on the shins.

Sometimes the guards would elect to jump
up and down on the pipe for good measure.
The rope that bound the arms and wrists
would be used to hoist the prisoner off
of the floor where he would be left to
dangle for hours while being questioned
and subjected to beatings. This would
usually dislocate the shoulders and when
the ropes would finally come off the arms
would be black from the lack of circulation.

Another variant on this was to unshakle
the ankles and perch the prisoner on two
stacked bar stools with the arms still
tied and blindfolded. (This is one you
might try out for yourself at home on the
garage floor. You might stay up there for thirty minutes if you are good, but sooner or
later you will fall. Try not to land on
your head. I'm told it hurts.

You will need a couple of good strong
backs to lift you up for another try and
if you really want to go for realism have
them beat you severely with a broom handle
for having fallen off.)

By the way, all you have to do to end the
session for today is admit to being a war
criminal and you get off the hook for
about twelve hours.

If you would make a sufficient accusation
and confession they might even let you go
home early. Mr. Denton was in the care of
these monsters for about 2200 days and we
haven't gotten through the first one yet.

Try to endure this with almost no medical
help, no communication with your fellow
prisoners outside of taping on the wall
in code (risking being tortured for that
if caught), eating less than 5 star food
(pumpkin was the soup de jour for those
of you who are inclined to like French
cooking). You'll enjoy a good night sleep
on your very own mat in a private flea
infested cell while you dream of the
exciting activities planned for your next
day. I am certain that none of those
responsible for these atrocities were
ever punished except for those who were
not up to the brutality demanded of them.

I understand Jane Fonda visited and just
fell in love with the staff. I'm thankful
I missed the experience.

I'm not sure that I would have been strong
enough to endure what our good men did and
come back to write books and run for the
U S Senate. I wish I could have voted for
Senator Denton.

The whole country has a right to be proud
of him and his fellow warriors. If you
haven't hit delete already, thanks.
I needed to get that load off my chest.

Here's a news tip for modern day America. The

American military did not lose the war in
Viet Nam. The North Vietnamese were
brought to the table and signed a peace
agreement which they had no intention of
honoring without enforcement. The
American people bought into a well
orchestrated web of of half truths and
untruths that caused us to lose our
resolve to support and complete the
effort to bring liberty and freedom to
the people of Viet Nam.

We turned our collective backs on those
people and for that I am ashamed.
Yes, we lost 50,000 fine men and women in
Viet Nam. Millions of South East Asians
died at the hands of the Communists
because we went weak in the knees right
when we should have gotten stronger.

When I say we, I am not talking about the
American military. I am talking about
the American people and the Congressmen
they chose to represent them.

I truly believe that the soul of America
was ashamed and rightly so.

We are better than that.

Their shame was dumped on the heads and
hearts of 500,000 veterans of that war
that came home to live with it and 50,000
that didn't.

It looks to me like some Americans want
us to believe that the Viet Nam war gave
us only one hero.

That hero stayed 4 months, got three
Purple Hearts, and ran back to the
safety of home to do something voluntarily
that better men did not do after six and
seven years of torture.

Admit they were war criminals.

If they had it would have been a lie and
it still is.

I have had it up to my ears with thirty
plus years of liars trying to make liars,
and criminals out of honorable Americans
who understood the words Duty, Honor,
Country.

They knew and lived the meaning of each
word and I believe that they would tell
you almost to the man that the only thing
that got them through was the belief in
the God that demands and deserves Honor
of us all.

I suggest we get down to it.

I've got a good mad on right now and I
wouldn't be opposed to a good fight to
put it to use.

If somebody wants to explain to me today
just how the President of this good
country is a liar and it would be a good
thing to vote him out of office so a liar
can get to be president

I hope they get an early start because
they are going to need all the time they
can get.

I hope for their sake that they are
wearing a set of cast iron underwear
because if they aren't they won't be
sitting down for a few days.

Sincerely,

Wayne Jones
USAF 1968-1973