Elizabeth Ellis

Called to Quiz*

On being drafted to war Dr. Ron Glasser said, “But I’m a pediatrician!”

Miles Davis said “I know people are tired of hearing,” about Black people’s plight. People are probably tired of hearing about Viet Nam, but our Baby Boomers were veterans, and thirty-three Minnesotans remain MIA.

There were P.O.W.s who wanted Nixon’s bombing to hasten their release, but LBJ feared aggressive bombing of North Viet Nam would incite China and USSR to WWIII.

“Stopping wars requires settling the political question over which they are fought,” George C. Herring wrote in Amer. Longest War: U.S. & Viet Nam 1950-75.

I’ve read that the Viet Nam conflict was a race war, that ‘gook’ was the equivalent of the n___ word.

“Since armed men were supposed to be fighting a common enemy rather than each other,” Gabriel Kolko wrote, “racism became another factor weakening discipline and morale among already dissatisfied soldiers,” during the Viet Nam era conflict. [Crisis in the Military, The Viet Nam War.]

Watercolor painting of soldiers walking through jungle

Jungle Column by Samuel B. Alexander, U.S. Army Combat Artists Team IV, Vietnam, 1967, Public Domain

The basic line of survival “is the pair, not the individual."

“No group can see further than the shared experience of its members.” (Howes) Black soldiers were more politically astute than their white counter parts. Their era coincided with the Civil Rights Movement back home. Howes reminds us that adversity draws us closer.

A Black (b. 1948) USMC (Marine) I know returned from Viet Nam with nightmares. His countertop holds as many prescription bottles as a pharmacist.

“Highest value had to be placed on the support of the man next door,” J. B. Stockdale, (1923-2005) said of his fellow P.O.W.s. “To ignore him was to betray him. Never undersell the infinite goodness of any human being; cherish him as the most precious object in the universe.”

The basic line of survival “is the pair, not the individual,” a subject-expert wrote on survival in P.O.W. camps. P.O.W. Robert Risner (1926-2013) said, “No torture is worse than [years of] solitary confinement.”

“Keep your head up! You’re Americans!” one P.O.W. shouted to the others.

To countermand despair in captivity march, count cadence, plan, make policy.

To conform and comply was to surrender. To succumb was death by giving up, POWs said out of concern for their fellow P.O.W. Ron Storz (1933-1965) who died in captivity.

P.O.W. John Dramesi (b. 1933) was branded “Maverick” for his attempted escape. “We suffer on account of you!” “A ring in the nose,” is what he dubbed it when P.O.W.s (like the powerful male water-buffalo he saw) remained passive despite its large size. P.O.W. Jeremiah Denton (1924-2014) said that “sulking, [being] uptight” makes losing eventual.

Charcoal sketch of African American soldier

CAVALRY TROOPER by John D. Kurtz IV, CAT VI, 1968, Courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Army; Public Domain

Albeit captured, they were still military, still on duty. Dissenters were “avoided like the devil.” Scapegoats were villains; ‘collaborators.’ In P.O.W. jungle camps and prisons, refusals, confrontations, resentments, suspicions, jealousy and hatred happened; even, coming to blows.

Two P.O.W. suicides occurred after release. One of their wives said, “The Vietnamese kept him alive. His country killed him.” The other’s suicide note read, there is “No reason for my existence. My life is valueless.”

“I made them beat it out of me,” Stockdale said. When his captors told him his tactics had “incited others to oppose, you have made trouble,” and “set back” the enemy he said, “My life has served a purpose! This [8 years captivity] is not a pointless existence!“ Suffering was not wasted.

After release advice was, “Resist debriefers. Be careful, watch what you say. Cover you’re a__.” There was an official story to present; Readers Digest claimed its was. ( Howes) There were to be no P.O.W. courts martial, but there was. Robert Garwood (b. 1946) emerged after 14 years in North Viet Nam as a P.O.W. The USG didn’t believe him.

I wanted to be a C.O. (conscientious objector) from seeing the movie All Quiet on the Western Front, but I also eyed Navy wool bell bottoms. I didn’t know the salesman was a Viet Nam vet when I asked him, “What happened to your voice?” “The last thing I remember,” he said (1948-2009) “a Vietnamese woman threw a grenade into the helicopter.”

“There are two insults which no human being will endure,” Sinclair Lewis wrote, “the assertion that he hasn’t a sense of humor and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble.”

PRISONER BLINDFOLDED by Roman Rakowsky, CAT VIII, 1969, Courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Army, Public Domain

Today’s Black Lives Matter movement is the P.O.W.s’: don’t to surrender spirit, keep self-confidence, take charge, command, lead, choose restraint and self-governance, and show organized resistance to authority.

*Called to Quiz was a P.O.W. term for torture-interrogation.

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Published January, 2016, by Minnesota Spokesman Recorder.