Five Years to Freedom: The True Story of a Vietnam POW by James N. Rowe

Author:James N. Rowe [Rowe, James N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-78169-7
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2011-03-08T23:00:00+00:00

6

ON MARCH 4, 1967 WE WERE TAKEN FROM THE CAMP WE called “Hanoi II,” leaving behind the physical reminders of that period of imprisonment, but each of us bore the mental scars that, though invisible, would ache in the long nights ahead. The short boat ride brought us back to the No-K Corral, where we found relatively sophisticated new construction had altered the old layout.

We four Americans were placed in a single, low-ceilinged cage, barred on all sides, top and bottom. There was barely enough room for our individual mosquito nets to fit side by side and our sleeping mats overlapped partially, creating the feeling of total restriction. The pole flooring was unusually uneven and we piled strips of bark under our mats in an effort to gain some sort of minimal comfort. The barred ceiling was perhaps three and a half feet above the floor, forcing us to crouch when entering the cage and limiting our movement. It was a terrific relief to be able to leave this cage in the mornings and stretch, after the leg irons were unlocked.

The guards were still at work completing the camp and we found ourselves forced to carry logs and peel the bark from them as the guards used hundreds of the poles in construction of their kitchen, a guard mess hall, two guard huts, a small POW kitchen and a long hut to be used by the Americans as a mess hall and school hut. It was exhausting work and we found our strength quickly draining, although the guards gave no indication that they noticed. The baking hot sun seemed to sap our energy as soon as we stepped out of the shadowy tree line and there never was enough water to satisfy our punishing thirst. Only at night, when we accepted the restriction of the cage, was there relief from the heat.

I noticed the reappearance of older guards. Thanh was back, as were Porky and Base, each of them evidencing changes in their attitudes and manner. Thanh was now a talkative, solicitously smiling squad cadre, his appealing, boyish sincerity and simplicity replaced by the brash, clamorous arrogance of newly assumed authority. Base and Porky had both been assigned as boat handlers and bodyguards for higher-ranking political cadre. Exposure to the dedicated political leaders of the revolution had provided Porky and Base not only with individuals to be emulated, but also with the rhetoric to support their new identities. Both were virtually unrecognizable as the inhibited, frustrated young boys we had known before. It was unfortunate that in losing their prior weaknesses, they had developed the veneer of fanaticism that often shields the developing revolutionary from the full spectrum of human reaction and inter-reaction, leaving him merely an automated shell with only revolutionary responses functioning.

Major Bay visited the camp and introduced a new cadre who was to be in command of the camp. Mr. Sau was hard-core; there was no doubt of this from our first meeting on. He was a

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