In
1968, while serving as an interrogator with the USMC, I was assigned to
the 11th ITT (Interrogation/Translation Team), 3rd Marine Division at
the prisoner-of-war (PW) compound in DaNang, Republic of Vietnam. One
of dozens of interrogations I conducted during my 13-month tour of duty
was with a rather interesting NVA (North Vietnamese Army)
prisoner-of-war who provided some unusual information. As part of our
procedures, our interrogation team members routinely asked PW's if they
had ever seen an American held prisoner anywhere. Occasionally, they
would answer they had seen Americans, sometimes in captivity, and once,
one was seen fighting alongside the enemy Viet Cong. We kept an album
with photographs of all our military personnel who were missing in
action and asked those who said they had seen an American to go through
the album. Only once, in all my interrogations, was a PW able to
identify a person from the photos. He said that he had witnessed an
American pilot who had been shot down over Hanoi being manhandled by
his captors while a crowd was cursing and spitting at him. He told me
that the pilot was held with others who had been captured and gave me a
description of the prison compound and its approximate location. The
American he identified from the photo was a US Navy Lt. Commander named
John McCain. For me, at that time, John McCain was just another Navy
pilot missing in action who had his photo in the album. I had never
heard of the man. I submitted my interrogation report and thought
little more about it. However, a year or two later, after I had
returned home to the States, I heard a radio news story about an
attempted rescue of American prisoners-of-war from a compound in
Vietnam. The location of the compound was not identified.
Unfortunately, everyone had been moved so there was no one at the site.
The news story reminded me of the interrogation I had conducted in
DaNang concerning the captured Navy pilot, Lt. Cmdr. McCain.
It
was 1973 when I first saw John McCain on television as one of the
returning prisoners-of-war from Vietnam. There he was - the American
from the photo that had been picked out by the PW I had interrogated
several years earlier. For those who may not know, John McCain was held
as a prisoner-of-war for five and a half years (1967-1973), much of the
time in solitary confinement. He retired from the Navy as a Captain in
1981. His naval honors include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver
Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, and Purple Heart. John McCain's
first person account of his time in captivity can be found here: John McCain, Prisoner of War [2].
Since that time, I have recounted this story to very few people,
however, a short time ago, I decided to send an email message to now
Senator McCain briefly telling him about my interrogation report of
1968. I have never received a response but I suspect his email is
screened and he has possibly never seen the message I sent.
John
McCain is now a candidate for President of the United States. The
senator is an honorable and patriotic man who has sacrificed much for
his country. I respect him greatly for his military service. As a
former trained military interrogator, I disagree with his views on
passive interrogation techniques for enemy combatants. I also disagree
with his positions regarding illegal aliens, President Bush's tax cuts,
oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, climate change
regulation, drug re-importation from Canada, and campaign-finance
legislation. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to win the
fight in Iraq, on finding and eliminating Islamic militants and
eradicating al-Qaeda and other terrorist factions. These are the most
dangerous threats to our country today. I will vote for Senator McCain
because we cannot elect someone as the next President of the United
States who will retreat in the face of evil. I know that John McCain
loves his country and I trust that he will never retreat. He will be an
outstanding Commander-in-Chief of our military.
