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The Sierra Chronicles – Part 4
PRODIGY(R) Service Personal Message 01/14/96 To: AFWA58C From: AFWA58A Subject: Sierra Chronicles -Part Four Date: 11/11/9512:24 AM * * Sierra Chronicles -Part Four -Border Crossing * * As the sun went down, I think our hearts sank with it. What we were looking at was almost as difficult as trying to slip across an actual enemy border in most of the communist countries of the world. We spread out and individually approached the border area like snakes, slithering through the weeds using just elbows and toes for propulsion and trying to stay as low as possible. At one point, a roving guard stopped only 4-5 feet away from me in the darkness as I froze and held my breath, hoping he missed me. I never did know if he actually saw me or not, but he gave no sign of it. By then, I probably looked like just one more muddy spot on the ground in the dark. The concertina wire was a real challenge. Not only did it's barbs catch on clothing easily when you got near it, but it was alarmed with trip wires that set off flares and alarm bells to warn the guards of an intruder. We had learned to turn over on our back and slither under the wire while holding it carefully above us. It worked... barely... but more than one of us set off alarms and the searchlights on the towers began their probing illumination of the whole area while everyone froze again in position. The ditches provided some cover, but they also provided more difficulty. They were probably every bit of 6-7 feet deep and were difficult to get out of. We had several rows of ditches to get through with concertina wire in between and a high fence on the far side. I don't remember how long it took us to get through, but it seemed like all night. I know it was after midnight when we found the last hole through the final fence and collapsed on the other side. Then they just picked us up and said, "OK, guys. Good job! Now you all go into captivity!"
The border had been
realistic, with foreign looking guards and The camp we were all thrown into was modeled after all of the enemy prisons that U.S. forces had ever been involved in. Following World War II and the Korean War, a great deal of effort had been put into training U.S. GIs in the proper way to conduct yourself during captivity. World War II POW Camps (The Stalags of the Germans) were pretty civilized. Treatment was hard but fair. American flyers, for example, were prisoners of the German Air Force until later in the war. POWs in Japan had very harsh treatment. You may remember the Bataan Death March, when Japanese captors marched weak and emaciated American POWs long distances under terrible conditions .Many died at the Japanese hands. But until the Korean War , POWs were generally handled humanely under the rules of the Geneva Convention and POWs were not exploited at great length for intelligence data and propaganda purposes. That changed in Korea and many GIs in captivity were "brainwashed" into collaborating to a high degree with the, enemy. They didn't have POW training. They didn't have the guidance to know how to continue the fight while in captivity. That's why we received the very realistic training we did in the Sierra Nevada POW camp. Coming out of the studies of POW brain washings in Korea, the Fighting Man's Code was developed. I don't remember all of the words now, after all those years, but the heart of it was, "I will never surrender of my own free will! " "If captured, I will continue to resist the enemy by any means at my disposal! " "I will give only Name, Rank & Serial Number when asked for information." (That information was required by the Geneva Convention. ) There were a total of about 10 such statements and what they did was to give the POW a sense of mission that continued even in captivity. It provided a guideline for every minute, every hour, every day, week and year of captivity. It was a way to WIN even when it seemed to others (and sometimes yourself) that all was lost. (I'll show you just how much that accomplished when I tell you about "Operation Homecoming", but that's another story.) Anyway, though we all knew that the ONLY way to go as a POW was with only Name, Rank & Serial Number, we were specifically ordered to disregard those instructions for instructional purposes during the exercise. In fact, we were each given a "mission story" that we were to keep from our captors at all costs, but instead of Name, Rank, & Serial Number, we were to try to give a false mission story, a "cover story" that would keep them from learning our true mission. Sounds great, huh? The camp was realistic, but on the order of a stalag (German Air Force prison). ' It was several barracks-type buildings inside a double barbed wire fence topped by concertina wire. The fences were about 10-12 feet apart. We were informed that the inner fence was electrified and we would fry if we touched it. The guard towers were at all corners of the prison yard and we had perhaps 150-200 POWs and probably 20-30 guards. They didn't hurt anybody, but you were SURE that they wanted to. They were mean looking and tough. The foreign uniforms and the less than hospitable quarters and the pitiful food, all combined to make you think that you really were a POW and might never see home again. Nobody had any sleep with the "border crossing" and from the moment we entered the prison compound, sleep was impossible. Guards came into the barracks all night and dragged out individuals for interrogation and it was the picture of police grilling that you have seen in every detective show you've ever seen, but more. The bright lights, repeated questions (to which you answered details of your cover story,) sleep deprivation, mild mishandling (thrown across the room, etc.) , and being put into dark little boxes that were too small to stand up in and too narrow to sit down. One advantage we had, (like WWII) was that we were imprisoned with 20-25 others in a barracks. That gave you someone to talk to in between all of this. Our Vietnam POWs spent many days in solitary confinement and it must have been much tougher. They had frequent formations out in the prison yards where they called the role and checked on POW presence, gave out instructions and warnings from the Camp, Commandant, etc. At one of these, only 24 hours after entering the stockade, the "enemy" read to us word for word our Mission that we were trying to hide from them. What they taught us was that there is no substitute for giving just Name, Rank, & Serial Number. When we tried to give them a cover story (as we had been directed to do), in every cover story, there was a tidbit of the true story. With hundreds of interrogations and much correlation of statements, they were able to duplicate word for word what we didn't want for them to know. There were a few humorous stories that I remember in POW camp. One day, the POWs had all staged a hunger strike and a mild insurrection. In the midst of all this (they threatened to turn the dogs loose on us), the Camp Commandant was spotted walking down the road outside of the camp. Someone began beating his tin cup on the bars of the barracks in time with the Commandants steps and soon the whole camp had joined in. When the Commandant slowed his pace, the beat of tin cups slowed. When he picked up the pace, the tin cups symphony did too. The whole camp had a good laugh before we got back into the serious business we were there for. Finally, it was over! We were going home! What a relief to get a hot shower (I think it lasted 40 minutes for most of us!) and real FOOD again. All those steaks we had dreamed and talked about for three weeks came true! I streaked down the mountain to Sacramento to pick up my little family. Our next stop was to be Tampa, FL and MacDill AFB. It was to be a whole new world for all of us. But first, I had to be reintroduced to my sweet daughter, who at about 20 months wasn't sure she even recognized this strange man in her life. She was very shy for several days, but thankfully accepted me as her Dad by the time we reached Tampa. And so ends the Sierra Chronicles. It was fun remembering those days gone by. Like many of my days, it was a great adventure! In the sections that follow, “Tall Man 55”, "Gunfighter Airlines" and “Operation Homecoming” recount some of the stories that came after the “Sierra Chronicles”. Copyright © 2001 by John T. Burch. All rights reserved. |
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