EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, March 24, 2021
POW CAMP
-Continued from PAGE ONE
The capturing. And I
just had to have a look
around. I lifted my head,
just for a little peek, and at
the same moment an enemy
soldier looked at the briar
patch. He saw my eyes and
came flying in, yelling at his
buddies to drag me out at
gunpoint. I was caught. The
only consolation was being
the last one in our compa-
ny caught the enemy gave
me a baloney sandwich as
reward. Everyone else: off
with the clothes, and a roll
in the mud. We were then
released and off we went.
Little did we know the most
difficult and mind-bending
part of our training experi-
ence was yet to come.
The POW Camp
pick up a dead rabbit. I
wondered why, and later I
would find out.
We marched for several
miles until arriving at the
most despicable place I
had ever seen in my life, a
prisoner of war camp in the
middle of the woods. By
then it had started raining
and mud was everywhere.
We were told to take off our
boots and pants. The only
way for prisoners to get
into or out of the camp was
on their stomachs crawling
through a two-foot-high
barb wire opening next to
the ground. I got down,
crawled through the mud
and was then inside a very
real looking prisoner of war
camp. But how was I to
A mock POW camp similar to the one at Little Creek ,Virginia.
By now we had been
up for three days and two
nights with no sleep and
lots of hiking and evading.
Everyone was very tired,
so when the late afternoon
came and we stopped in a
grassy area, it was not long
before everyone was sound
asleep, including me. The
next thing I knew it was
dark, and I awoke to find
jeeps with bright lights and
enemy soldiers everywhere.
We were captured!
The enemy rounded
us up and off we marched
down the road, to where
we did not know. I was out
front and along the way
I saw one of our captors
know what a “real” POW
camp looked like? This
place was bad news though.
I knew that.
It was now pouring
down rain and probably
around 2 a.m. our company
was ordered to stand in the
middle of the camp, in the
dark, in the rain, no pants,
no shoes, in just shirts and
underwear. It was cold and
we tried huddling closer
together to keep warm. The
guards caught on and forced
us apart. I was shivering
and shaking in that cold
rain.
When the sun finally
came up and I was able
to survey my surround-
ings I saw I was in an en-
campment surrounded by
a 10-foot-high barbed wire
fence topped with coils of
concertina wire.
In the front was a tall
guard tower flying the North
Vietnamese flag. Off to the
side was a fire pit, and in
the back of the yard a nasty
looking mud hole full of
water the purpose of which
I would learn later on. Out-
side the wire were several
small hootches, a wooden
box with a lid buried in the
ground, which I would soon
know intimately, and a large
open latrine pit.
As it got lighter several
of us enlisted men were
approached by guards and
told to begin cutting up
potatoes. I then learned
why they had picked up the
rabbit on the march, as we
were told to gut, skin and
cut it up for the stew we
were making.
We chopped up all the
potatoes and cut up the rab-
bit while some other prison-
ers started a fire in the pit
with a large pot of boiling
water for the rabbit stew. By
then it had been days since
anyone had eaten. The stew
smelled good, and we were
all very hungry and looking
forward to a meal. Little did
we know.
Finally, the stew was
done, and the guards lined
everyone up. The officers
were told to eat first, then
the enlisted men would get
theirs. The officers went
through with their bowls,
got their stew, and ate while
the enlisted men hungrily
watched and waited. When
the officers were done the
enlisted men lined up; it
was our turn to eat. As the
first man approached, how-
ever, a guard walked up, and
kicking over the pot, spilled
the stew on the ground.
“See, your officers eat and
care nothing for you!” he
yelled. Even though I knew
it was a training exercise, I
was mad at the officers for
eating while I got nothing,
which was exactly what our
captors wanted, to turn us
against one another.
During the day we were
subjected to three different
levels of interrogations. In
the first I was taken into
one of the hootches, and
three guards, which were
of course Navy SEALs
dressed in strange uniforms
and talking in a phony ac-
cent, beat me with fists and
kicked me with their boots.
As they slapped my face
they screamed into my ear:
“What is your mother’s
maiden name?” We were
told previously to give only
our name, rank and service
number, but they never
asked for that. The next in-
terrogation was the wooden
box buried in the ground.
The guards put me in it
and shut the lid. My knees
were up to my face and this
interrogation was especially
hard on me, not because I
was claustrophobic, but be-
cause I was taller than a lot
of other guys and it was just
a tight fit. I stayed in there
about a half hour with the
guards beating and pound-
ing on the lid demanding
to know my information,
which I did not give up.
The next technique, I hate
to admit, I failed, and will
remember for the rest of my
life. A man dressed in the
uniform of a chaplain sat
with me alone in a hootch.
He spoke English and told
me in a soft comforting
voice he was working with
the Red Cross to get us
some food into the camp.
He said if I told him my
mother’s maiden name, he
could help me. I told him.
Later my friend made fun
asking how I could be so
easily duped. I have never
forgotten how I failed and
was conned by the phony
Red Cross chaplain.
Being without food
and sleep does play tricks
on one’s mind, and after
listening to the strange
sounding accents and going
through all the different
interrogations, a person can
have weird things happen to
their thinking. Some of our
guys mentally broke down
and several crossed over to
the other side.
One of the rules of the
camp was if you went out
to use the bathroom pit,
you had to go with a part-
ner and hold hands. Yes, it
was a strange sight at the
latrine, but if one was able
to get outside without a
partner it was considered
an “escape”, and my friend
escaped.
After he was captured
and given a baloney sand-
wich (the standard reward),
I watched as the guards
took him behind a hootch,
punched him in the stomach
and he threw it up. How-
ever, they had even more
in mind for my escapee
friend. Outside the wire
they tied his hands behind
him around a tree, then
lined us all up to watch
what happens when pris-
oners attempt to escape.
They brought out one of
the guys whose mind had
snapped and crossed over to
the enemy. He wore a fresh
clean enemy uniform, was
given baloney sandwiches
to eat in front of us and had
a rifle to walk guard duty
around the camp perimeter.
The guards then or-
dered the turncoat to shoot
the escapee. They yelled
at him to do it. The traitor
pulled up the rifle, aimed
and pulled the trigger. A
round went off. The guards
yelled “again”. He fired
again. My friend slumped
over as if dead. The shoot-
er began crying and broke
down screaming “I killed
him, I killed him.” Some
of the other prisoners who
were having mental stress
problems also thought he
had been killed. They were
very, very distraught. My
friend and I later laughed at
his good acting job.
Meantime other bad
things were happening in
the camp. The ranking offi-
cer, who I think was a Com-
mander, had been stripped
Boardman renews development COVID vaccines
available
incentives, issues general
obligation bonds
In an effort to encour-
age new construction in
Boardman, at their March
2, 2021 meeting, the Board-
man city council passed a
resolution to temporarily
waive water and sewer sys-
tem development (SDC’s).
The resolution waives the
water and sewer System
Development Charges
(SDC’s) on a sliding scaled
based upon the number of
equivalent dwelling units
built. The waivers are for a
twelve-month period begin-
ning January 1, 2021 and
runs through December 31,
2021. All property owners
or developers of residential
or commercial property
within the city limits are
eligible for the waivers.
This incentive was first
passed in 2011 for residen-
tial customers only, and
since then the council has
passed a resolution each
year approving the waiver
of SDC’s for all construc-
tion within the residential
or commercial districts.
The council also passed a
resolution to increase the
fees for water and sewer
SDC’s, the first increase
since its inception in 2000.
In other city business,
the council passed a reso-
lution authorizing the is-
suance and sale of General
Obligation and Refund-
ing Bonds in the amount
of $20,320,000 that was
passed by the voters in May
2020. David Ulbricht, Spe-
cial Districts Associate of
Oregon Advisory Services
Director gave a presenta-
tion and was available for
questions in regard to the
General Obligation Bond
sale. The bond will provide
funds for purchase of prop-
erty and improvements to
the city’s water and waste-
water facilities, including
a 13-acre wastewater la-
goon, a water booster pump
station, an approximately
one-million-gallon water
reservoir, a new water col-
lector well, constructing
wastewater lift stations,
acquiring land, refinancing
outstanding debt and pay-
ing costs of issuance of the
bonds.
The next Boardman
city council meeting will
be Tuesday, April 6, 2021
at 7 p.m. at Boardman City
Hall.
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COVID-19 vaccines
will be available for farm
and food processing work-
ers at the Sage Center
in Boardman March 24
through March 27. Ap-
pointments should be made
by calling 541-481-4200.
Health insurance is not
required, but those who
do have insurance should
bring their insurance card.
Vaccinations without an
appointment will be subject
to availability.
Appointments will be
available from 1-8 p.m.
Wednesday, March 24;
noon to 7 p.m. Thursday,
March 25; 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday March 26 and 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Saturday, March
27. Second doses will be
provided April 14-17.
DEADLINE:
MONDAYS
AT 5PM
down to his underwear and
placed in that awful looking
mud hole. Filled with water
up to his chest, and with his
hands tied to a pole in front
of him, he was blindfolded
and stayed in the mud hole
that way all day. I felt sorry
for him.
However, as the sun
began to sink low below the
trees, and the day was com-
ing to an end, so was our
ordeal. The guards lined up
all the prisoners. Pantless,
barefoot, tired, hungry and
dirty we looked up at the
guard tower with the North
Vietnamese flag flying on
top. The sound of that coun-
try’s national anthem was
playing over the loudspeak-
ers. The guards ordered
everyone to turn around.
The music stopped. We
were then ordered to turn
back around. The American
flag had been raised up the
flagpole. The Star-Spangled
Banner was playing over
the loudspeakers.
I looked around. Men
were falling to their knees.
The lieutenant to my right
had tears streaming down
his cheeks. I felt good. It
was over.
Epilogue: A curious
aspect to this training was
when I got to Vietnam and
joined my small boat unit,
I had the opportunity to
ask many of the guys how
they did at S.E.R.E training.
None of the ones I talked to
had been. I found it odd that
I was the only one who had
gone through the training.
Years later I read an article
by a reporter for the New
York Times who himself
had been through the train-
ing. He had done extensive
research on S.E.R.E. and
according to him, at the
Little Creek facility, the
military was not so much
interested in training people
to survive, evade, resist,
and escape, as to learn
what a person’s mental and
physical limits and reac-
tions were, in a survival and
capture situation.
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is available or for large
events if there is state or
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