Another Medal of Honor recepient’s view of Torture
Medal of Honor winner, Col Bud Day USAF (Ret.) about his time
as a prisoner in North Vietnam.
Dear Kelly:
Thanks for the “heads up” on the Medal of Honor spots. Some of my friends have seen it already and mentioned it. I sent a copy of my book to Fox News in D.C., and wanted Sean Hannity to be able to talk about what torture really is. He has no one on his side to talk about torture … who has been tortured. He is free to quote from the many illustrations that I provided in my book Duty Honor Country I got shot down over N Vietnam in 1967.
After I returned in 1973. I published 2 books that dealt a lot with “real torture” in Hanoi. Our make believe president is branding our country as a bunch of torturers when he has no idea hat torture is.
as for me — put thru a mock execution because I would not respond…pistol whipped on the head…same event.
Couple of days later…hung by my feet all day.
I escaped and got recaptured a couple of weeks later…I got shot and recaptured. Shot was OK…what happened after was not.
They marched me to Vinh … put me in the rope trick, trick..almost pulled my arms out of the sockets … beat me on the head with a little wooden rod until my eyes were swelled shut, and my unshot, unbroken hand a pulp.
Next day hung me by the arms…rebroke my right wrist…wiped out the nerves in my arms that control the hands..rolled my fingers up into a ball. Only left the slightest movement of my L forefinger. So I started answering with some incredible lies.
Sent me to Hanoi strapped to a barrel of gas in the back of a truck.
Hanoi … on my knees … rope trick again. Beaten by a big fool.
Into leg irons on a bed in Heartbreak Hotel.
Much kneeling–hands up at Zoo.
Really bad beating for refusing to condemn Lyndon Johnson.
Several more kneeling events. I could see my knee bone thru kneeling holes.
There was an escape from the annex to the Zoo. I was the Senior Officer of a large building … because of escape they started a mass torture of all commanders.
I think it was July 7, 1969 they started beating me with a car fan belt. In first 2 days I took over 300 strokes..then stopped counting because I never thought I would live thru it.
They continued day-nite torture to get me to confess to a non-existent part in the escape. This went on for at least 3 days. On my knees … fan belting … cut open my scrotum with fan belt stroke … opened up both knee holes again. My fanny looked like hamburger … I could not lie on my back. They tortured me into admitting that I was in on the escape … and that my 2
room-mates knew about it. The next day I denied the lie.
They commenced torturing me again with 3- 6- or 9 strokes of the fan belt every day from about July 11 or 12rh..to 14 October 1969. I continued to refuse to lie about my roommates again.
Now, the point of this is that our make-believe president has declared to the world that we (U.S.) are a bunch of torturers. Thus it will be OK to torture us next time when they catch us….because that is what the U.S. does. Our make-believe president is a know nothing fool who thinks that pouring a little water on some one’s face, or hanging a pair of womens pants over an Arabs head is TORTURE. He is a meathead.
I just talked to MOH holder Leo Thorsness who was also in my sq in jail … as was john McCain …and we agree that McCain does not speak for the POW group when he claims that Al Gharib was torture … or that “water boarding” is torture.
Our president and those fools around him who keep bad mouthing our great country are a disgrace to the United States. Please pass this info on to Sean Hannity. He is free to use it to point out the stupidity of the claims that water boarding … which has no after effect … is torture. If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on the twin towers in NYC…hurrah for the guy who poured the water.
BUD DAY, MOH
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_a.png?x-id=93a559e3-9cdf-4493-abfb-2ed2e8e0cb73)
Wow! This is really something to think about. It is a real slap in the face to our POW’s who lived to tell. God Bless those who serve. Most of us could never imagine going through these kinds of horrors, let alone surviving them. Scared for life the walking wounded victims of war. God grant them peace. Our political leaders need to deal with reality.
Thank you for replying Julie…
~jude
I must say this – I do not know John Mc Cain personally so I have no special knowledge of any opinions he may hold. I would think that each of you being men and Americans are capable of each holding different and valid opinions of the same incident which if what I read is accurate was not pleasant for any of you. That you have implied an “Us POWS against John Mc Cain who does not speak for us” is … well it speaks for itself.
On a logical point what I draw from your post is that the extreme barbarism of your experience caused you to give any answer, not necessarily a true one,r to cause it to stop. From what I understand this is an expected result of torture. You ended with this conclusion…
“If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on
the twin towers in NYC…hurrah for the guy who poured the water.”
My question is why would you conclude that the terrorist would “cough up” the truth to what you describe as a lesser torture one with “no lasting effects” when your were deceptive having endured greater torture?
Any external assessment of what is great pain is academic. My father, an Army veteran, died of a colon blockage that, according to his physician, “should have been so painful he MUST have expressed great pain” – he expressed no such thing not once. Isn’t generally held to be it true that each individuals’ pain threshold and “breaking point” is different and that each person absolutely has a breaking point. Clearly drowning or the
JH
Why did they endure such torture? Honor, personal honor and many, most of us possibly, could not do this. Compare this honor to politicians and judges that take an oath to uphold the Constitution and then fail to honor their oath and just decide to make decisions and let the law catch up, as one SC Justice is reported to have said. People that take an oath should have empathy for their oath, empathy for justice and if they can’t take the “heat in the kitchen”, get out. Do the honorable thing and resign, or have the dishonorable thing done to them, be impeached!
For JH who questions why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided factual data as opposed to why guys like Bud Day did not:
Because Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a fat pig of a low life with no real intestinal fortitude and core values for which he stands other that to kill, maim and torture all in the name of what is referred to as a benevolent god.
I had a prior post which the moderator saw fit to not post. I do not know your history military or otherwise but I recognize a simpleminded answer to a complex issue. For clarity sake the issue being breaking under torture, the value of information derived from torture, the effect on our countrys morals and on our operatives in the field, whether the ends justify the means.
I have a family member who was captured in the Vietnam war. Telling him I wrote this statement would anger him as he does not use the experience to make cheap political points.
From knowing him, speaking with him and several friends in similar situation one thing is apparent to me is that men who make second-hand statements about what torture is to those who have actually endured it is gibberish from fools.
It is satisfying for some to call people names and question their, values and fortitude. This is a game for children.
“Real” men know they cant intelligently speak of exactly what another man has gone through. As I am a believer in God, a student of history things I have read about Cols Day bring questions to my mind. I believe NO MAN god and thus (like it says in the bible) subject to the frailties and foibles of all humans – Col Day is no exception.
Those who expect blind fealty in the face of truly opposing information and blindly oppose good faith straightforward questions are in my view are not Americans
JH
well.. it’s like I said!
Jon H,
I know that this is very late in the coming, but I MUST respond to your remarks!
How dare you dream to disgrace such a quality in a man who served his country with pride and honor. There is a vast difference between someone who joins the armed forces with the intent to serve and protect his nation and people, and the likes of a simple terrorist that seeks nothing more than to inflict terror and harm on the civilians (none-combatants). You clearly have not the remotest inclination of the core values one needs to served their country.
It turns my stomach to read your accusations of false statement by Mr Day’s; granted his wording might not be as ‘polished’ as those of any presidential candidate, but to his credit, I doubt he has had many other people check his work for political correctness either – just another sign of YOUR ARROGANT IGNORANCE!!!
Then again, it is for the likes of you, that Mr Day, and the many that have served before, alongside, and after him endured so much, and in some cases gave their lives.
Sleep well