Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991 TAG: 9103150301
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PHYLLIS W. JORDAN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: BETHESDA LENGTH: Medium
"I was certainly worried about how people back here in the United States would react," said Lt. Lawrence Slade, 26, an Oceana-based flier captured when his F-14 Tomcat was shot down over Iraq.
"There was also the thin hope that it would show the folks back here that at one time, anyway, I was alive. And in any case, I didn't have a choice."
In their first press appearance since their return Sunday, the freed prisoners told of physical and psychological abuse, including regular beating and, in at least one case, electric shock torture.
They described days in solitary confinement, eating soggy meals of porridge and cold beans. "You get hungry enough, you eat it. Without a spoon," said Marine Capt. Russell A.C. Sanborn, who flies an AV-8B Harrier. Sanborn added, "I kid my wife that I've been in training for Iraqi food for three years."
Mostly, though, the former prisoners spoke of the fear and terror that ruled their lives during the weeks of captivity in Baghdad.
"About 90 percent of the time you felt you were in danger of losing your life," said Lt. Jeffrey N. Zaun, 28, an Oceana-based flier captured on the second day of the war. "About 90 percent of the time you where overwhelmed. I thought about my family. I thought about God."
The scariest night, prisoners agreed, was Feb. 23, when allied bombing came precariously close to the building that served as a prison.
"There were other emotions from time to time during the captivity. That night, I thought my number on the Rolodex had come up," Slade said.
"Immediately following that there was a great high. We were able to scream at each other up and down the hallway and exchange war stories."
It was that night that Zaun discovered his pilot, Lt. Robert Wetzel, was still alive. Wetzel, 30, did not attend Thursday's briefing because he was to have shoulder surgery.
It was that night fliers captured early in the war learned from new arrivals how well the battle plan was proceeding. And it was that night that the prisoners who were forced to make anti-American statements found out that no one back home blamed them.
The prisoners also learned that President Bush had denounced the Iraqis for televising statements apparently made under duress. "It really relieved my feelings quite a bit," said Marine Chief Warrant Officer Guy L. Hunter, who flies an OV-10 Bronco.
Zaun said he was more concerned about how the Iraqis and other Arab nations would view the videotapes, possibly seeing them as a sign of Iraqi victory.
"I had enough faith in Americans to know that anybody who saw this was going to go, `This is ridiculous,' " he said.
Zahn, who appeared bruised and battered in the short video, said, in a stilted voice, "I think our leaders and our people have wrongly attacked the peaceful people of Iraq."
Describing the filming, he said, "They took me to a TV studio, set me up next to the big guy who was asking the questions. They told me what questions they were going to ask and then they told me what my answers were going to be."
"I did my best to stay close to the answer and screw it up a little bit," he said.
Marine Lt. Col. Clifford Acree, who appeared in the same television clip, said he used his interview to telegraph information about Iraqi surface-to-air missile capability.
He also said the tapes provided proof that he and other prisoners were alive.
Zaun said he had battered his own nose, so that the Iraqis would not want to use him on television. And he said some of the bruises may have come from being "slapped around."
"But most of it was popping out of an airplane at 500 miles an hour."
by CNB