POWs in Iraq: The "Official" Account of the POWs "serving in Baghdad."

[Matt Wiser]

Some of the Iraqis' measures at the new prison-such as putting them in compounds with high and thick walls-would meet with (North) Vietnamese approval. There are enough empty cells to act as "Circuit Breakers" to prevent tap code communication, and if the NVN were running things, they would do just that. But the Iraqis have not isolated anyone-especially the senior officers. The (North) Vietnamese would certainly raise objections to both of those.

I get the feeling that the NVN would happily torture someone caught trying to communicate to death, and be damned the international consequences…

They did at least twice: one POW was removed from his cell at Little Vegas (a compound in the Hilton) in August, '67 and never seen again. His three cellmates felt he had somehow angered the officer-in-charge of the whole compound and suffered a fatal beating.

Another one was part of a pair that went over the Wall at the Zoo Annex in May '69. Both were recaptured and their "disciplining" at the Zoo was so savage the shreiks POWs the equivalent of two blocks away could hear the screams. They were then taken to the Hilton. The one who survived said the NVN went at him for 38 days straight with beatings, fifteen sessions in the rope torture, one cup of water and a piece of bread twice a day, no washing or latrine, and so on. He said he heard his partner's screams abruptly stop one night... These two were on the "Died in Captivity" list released with the POWs in '73, and their remains were repatriated in 1974.

The NVN ultimately won, so there were zero international consequences.

[Matt Wiser]

Some of the Iraqis' measures at the new prison-such as putting them in compounds with high and thick walls-would meet with (North) Vietnamese approval. There are enough empty cells to act as "Circuit Breakers" to prevent tap code communication, and if the NVN were running things, they would do just that. But the Iraqis have not isolated anyone-especially the senior officers. The (North) Vietnamese would certainly raise objections to both of those.

I get the feeling that the NVN would happily torture someone caught trying to communicate to death, and be damned the international consequences…

A little bit of clarification: if you got caught communicating, the punishment depended a lot on various circumstances. If caught, say, in the early months-say, May-Oct '65? You got "Slapped around", put in leg stocks (the bunks at the Hilton had them) for a week or two, that sort of thing. From Oct'65 until after Ho's death in Sep '69? It could be vicious: trussed up in the ropes, the kneeling torture (on bare concrete-or they'd spread a few pebbles on the concrete and you'd have to kneel on those! Or they'd make you "hold the wall"-standing up with your arms extended and hands touching the cell wall-only one guy I know of beat that one, and only because the NVN called it off due to Christmas '66. Or the guards would keep it simple and just give a beating with their bamboo rods. If they hauled you off to the interrogation room and got physical, they wanted an apology, a promise not to do it again, and an anti-war statement-all of which they usually got.

After Ho's death, the NVN let up on communicating between cells, but drew the line on building-to-building. If you were caught, you'd get some solitary time from a few days to a few weeks, but that was it. (It's also when they stopped torture and otherwise improved conditions in their POW prisons a great deal)

[Matt Wiser]

A brief update:

While the new arrivals at Al-Taji were settling in, 20 May brought a trio of new arrivals into the system. The first was Commander Keith Chandler, the CO of VFA-147, whose F/A-18E was hit by flak on the squadron's last strike of morning on the Al Iskandiriyah New Airfield. Though hit, Chandler managed to coax the aircraft towards Hillah, and the end of the MEZ, but had to eject just west of the ruins of Babylon. As he came down in his chute, Chandler entertained thoughts of making it to the Euphrates, but he had been spotted, and just after landing, he was found by Iraqi soldiers. Though the Army wasn't as rough as the Fedayeen or the Al-Quds Militiamen, he still got a roughing-up before being taken to the Hillah Military Garrison, where he was interrogated and filmed. Chandler stuck to the “Big Four,” despite having his kneeboards shown to him, revealing he had been flying an F/A-18. He maintained his silence, and was soon on a truck for Baghdad.

After arriving at Al-Rashid's new interrogation center, the interrogators there also produced a photo of his wrecked aircraft, where not only the squadron name had survived, but also part of the cockpit area, where his name and the “CO” title were on the left side of the aircraft. He did admit that he was the CO of VFA-147, but drew the line at any military information or a propaganda statement. As was by now the usual, the interrogators were not pleased, and things got ugly.

A session in the ropes got things going, followed by a beating and some time hanging upside down from a meathook. Then came a prolonged kneeling, with another beating, this time with a rubber hose following that. A stint on the sawhorse came next, before the new version of the rope trick finally made him submit.

Chandler gave some unclassified information on his plane, and the ship-right out of Jane's or any other reference book-facts that he figured the Iraqis already knew. When pressed for target information, he stated that only the air wing operations people knew targets, and that he and his pilots and other aircrews were informed only in the premission briefings. Commander Chandler also read a prepared anti-war statement for an Iraqi Army cameraman, before being taken over to the Men's block and allowed to clean up. There, he was issued his prison gear, and then tossed into what had been Airman Curt Schnider's cell. It didn't take long for him to find out he was the only occupant of the cell block, and Chandler settled down to wait.

Later that morning, two more arrivals added to the prison population at Al-Rashid. The first came from an F-15F shot down by an SA-8 SAM during an Air Force strike on Shayka Mazar Airfield. The pilot, Maj. Keith Randall, was killed, but the EWO, Capt. John Meehan, managed to eject from the stricken aircraft before it exploded in midair. No one on the strike-or a Navy one going in at almost the same time into Salman Pak-saw a chute, though a beeper was heard. With no definite information, both were classed as MIAs.

Meehan, though, was quite alive and uninjured on the bailout, though he did twist a knee on landing, and that would have impeded any effort to evade, if the crowd of Iraqis who watched him come down hadn't gone after him. Instead, Meehan had barely gotten out of his chute when the crowd of civilians came on him, beating and kicking him, until soldiers arrived to restore order. After being taken to the same base he had been attacking, Meehan was questioned by IrAF Intelligence Officers, who asked him about his aircraft, the base he had been flying, and so on. Sticking to “the big four”, he managed to dodge the questions, and said that he had only been flying his first combat mission (a lie, but there was no way for the Iraqis there to know that). After the interrogation, he was filmed by a TV crew, before being put on a truck for Al-Rashid Prison.

There, the interrogators were more firm and less willing to listen to his cover story. “They got ugly fast”, Meehan said after being repatriated. A beating, followed by a prolonged kneeling got things underway, and when he refused to answer, a session in the ropes was next. More time on his knees, and two more sessions in the ropes came after that, with occasional beatings with a rubber hose mixed in, before that second session forced him to yield.

Meehan then gave some unclassified information on the aircraft, admitted that he was flying an F-15F, but maintained that this was his first combat mission of the war, and said the squadron was flying from Dhahran when they were really out of Al-Udaid in Qatar. With his knee injury not serious enough to send him to the Military Hospital's POW Ward, a medic simply wrapped the knee in tape, before being issued his prison gear. The guards then took him to the Men's Block and threw him into a cell formerly occupied by RAF Flight Lt. Peter Johns. However, he was unable to establish communications with Chandler, as several empty cells served as “circuit-breakers,” preventing the tap code and its variations from being used.

With what some called “The Mother of All Sandstorms” coming into Central and Southern Iraq, air operations were being curtailed, before the weather grounded everyone on both sides, but a final strike in the Tikrit area by the USAF and RAF would add to the prison population.

The first shootdown was Capt. Ashley Morgan from the 309th TFS. Her F-16 was hit by 57-mm flak while doing flak-suppression on a site between Tikrit and Al-Sahra AB, and to her squadron mates, it didn't appear as if she had survived, for the aircraft “just fireballed” as her flight leader said, and no one heard a beeper. However, she was very much alive, as Morgan fired her ejection seat almost by reflex.

She came down in her chute, and saw a crowd converging on her, and knew right away she was going to be captured. As Morgan landed, the crowd descended, and she “got thrashed around” before soldiers arrived to take custody of her. The strike was still going in, and Morgan's captors took her into a bunker while strike aircraft, both American and British, were coming in and going off target. A few minutes later, a cheer rose, and she guessed that another aircraft had been hit.

Morgan was right, for an RAF Tornado GR4A reconnaissance bird had been hit by two SA-3 SAMs. The pilot, Squadron Leader Brian Davies, managed to hold the aircraft long enough to get clear of the Tikrit area before ejecting, and both he and his backseater, Flight Lt. Susan Riley, managed to punch out. Fortunately for her, Riley managed to land and evade capture, finding a culvert in a road to hide in (and checking regularly for scorpions and snakes), before she could call in rescue forces. However, due to the sandstorm, a rescue was not immediately possible, and she managed to evade capture for the next three days. Another strike into the area was laid on as cover for her rescue, and she was successfully extracted by a USAF CV-22.

Davies, however, was not so fortunate. He was spotted soon after landing by an Iraqi Army patrol, and was quickly captured. Like so many others, he got a “good beating” from his captors, before being taken to Al-Sahra AB. There, he was interrogated, and after giving some false answers about his base and the target, he was joined by Capt. Morgan.

The USAF Captain had been taken to the base after the strike had ended, and she, too, was interrogated. Morgan said she had been flying with the 4th TFS, instead of the 309th, and told the interrogator she was flying from Bahrain instead of her actual base at Dhahran. She also told the interrogators that she had been flying a MIGCAP, instead of flak suppression, and given that several MiGs had managed to scramble from Al-Sahra, the interrogators believed her.

After joining Davies, the two were filmed by an Iraqi TV Crew before being bound, blindfolded, and put on a truck for Baghdad. Both were taken to Al-Rashid's Interrogation Center, and there, as Davies said, “things got ugly.”

Davies was taken into an interrogation room, and the interrogators wanted to know about the Tornado's reconnaissance capabilities, for he was shown his kneeboards, which had been recovered from the crash site. They also wanted to know his base, and also future targets. He demurred, and the interrogators got rough.

A beating followed his final refusal, then came a session in the ropes. Some time hanging upside down from the interrogation room's meathook, then a prolonged kneeling was next, with occasional swats with a rubber hose or a bamboo switch, before the new version of the rope trick got him to submit.

Davies gave some unclassified information about the Tornado, facts that the Iraqis likely already knew from Jane's, but when asked about the reconnaissance systems, he managed to deflect those, telling the interrogators that the backseater operated those, and he just flew the aircraft. He also managed to mislead the interrogators, telling them the RAF was flying from Bahrain (where the RAF had flown from during the Gulf War), when they were based at Al-Udaid in Qatar. The interrogators were satisfied with those answers, and after pressing him for an anti-war statement-a prepared one which he was filmed reading, Davies was taken to the Men's Compound, allowed to clean up, and was then thrown into a cell. He did see the two Americans who had arrived before him, but he was unable to communicate with them, due to their being in one building and he in another. And the sandstorm that now engulfed Baghdad didn't help.

Meanwhile, Morgan was going through her own trials in another interrogation room. The Iraqis wanted to know her squadron, where it was based, and so on, along with the anti-war statement that was by now standard. Though she did admit to flying an F-16, and repeated the answers that she had given at Al-Sahra, the interrogators pressed for information on her actual mission, for the Iraqis had found the wreckage of her aircraft, and a HARM missile, still on its pylon, had been recovered. Morgan refused to give further details, and also declined to give an anti-war statement, and the interrogators had had enough.

Morgan was trussed up in the ropes, and after that, got a session with the bedframe and car battery. She then spent several hours on her knees, before then being put on the sawhorse. An assault followed, before another stint in the ropes finally made her give in.

After yielding, she, too, gave some unclassified information on her aircraft, but reaffirmed what she had initially said about her base and mission. Morgan did admit she had been carrying an antiradar missile, but said it was for self-defense, not going out and hunting for SAM sites. After giving the anti-war statement-again on camera, she was taken to the Women's Compound. There, she was allowed to clean up before being tossed into a cell-which had been PFC Lynch's. She soon discovered that she was the only prisoner in the block, and despite what she had gone through, girded herself for what might come next.

At Al-Taji, the day had started out normally, with the POWs in both compounds having settled in, with both SROs having passed the word to the other prisoners to expect to be there for the long haul. Though the Iraqis had started to try and suppress prisoner communications, those efforts were infrequent. However, when caught, a beating was the least of the punishment that could be inflicted, for time in rear cuffs and “on the knees” often followed, and in more severe cases-such as communicating between buildings, a full-blown session in an interrogation room usually followed.

When the sandstorm came in, the POWs actually welcomed it, for the guards did not want to be outside in a blizzard of sand, and only went into the compounds only when necessary, such as mealtime and the two minimum work details for the prisoners-namely dishwashing and dumping waste buckets. Though the sand got into everything-their food, water, hair, clothes, and bedding, some of the prisoners in both compounds actually welcomed the sandstorm. For harassment by the guards had ceased, a development, even if temporary, that was gratefully accepted.

[jemhouston]

Even allowing for the sandstorm, evading three days is impressive.

[Jotun]

Even allowing for the sandstorm, evading three days is impressive.

Smells like a gong^^

[Bernard Woolley]

Great to read this again.

[Wolfman]

Glad to see this updated!

[Matt Wiser]

Even allowing for the sandstorm, evading three days is impressive.

The only reason she was successful in that evasion was because of the sandstorm: Any would-be searchers were hunkered down in that blizzard of sand.