Say Anything Blog

A true American Hero:

I spent nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam, more than half of that time in solitary confinement…

While in solitary confinement, my captors kept me in leg stocks, like the pilgrims… for 72 days….

As you can imagine, they had to carry me out of the stocks because I couldn’t walk. The following day, they put me in leg irons… for 2 ½ years.

That’s when you have a tight metal cuff around each ankle, with a foot-long bar connecting the legs.

So, little did I know back in my rat-infested 3 x 8 dark and filthy cell that 34 years after my departure from Hell on Earth…I would spend the anniversary of my release pleading for a House panel to back my measure to support and fully fund the troops in harm’s way….and that just days later I would be on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives surrounded by distinguished veterans urging Congress to support our troops to the hilt.

We POWs were still in Vietnam when Washington cut the funding for Vietnam. I know what it does to morale and mission success. Words can not fully describe the horrendous damage of the anti-American efforts against the war back home to the guys on the ground.

Our captors would blare nasty recordings over the loud speaker of Americans protesting back home…tales of Americans spitting on Vietnam veterans when they came home… and worse.

We must never, ever let that happen again.

The pain inflicted by your country’s indifference is tenfold that inflicted by your ruthless captors…

Today, let my body serve as a brutal reminder that we must not repeat the mistakes of the past…instead learn from them.

We must not cut funding for our troops. We must stick by them. We must support them all the way…To our troops we must remain…always faithful.

Semper Fi