Well. I don't remember much until we were captured and interned in the Korea-style POW camp. Most of that was spent in solitary darkness & little black boxes of one size or another. At least, it was indoors and relatively warm. Damn Soviet music playing in the background.
THEN, we time-traveled back to the Nazi-style POW camp -- outdoors and in the snow! Two feet of snow! We formed a queue at the entry gate and they had us sign in one-by-one for the blanket and candle we were eventually supposed to get. (But didn't.) Damn, I realized halfway through my scrawl that those bastard captors could be videotaping my signing & make it seem like a confession. I stopped without finishing and walked off to the left to enter the main camp gate. HALT! (Oh shit, I almost got away.) Into the fucking doghouse, they threw me! I was the first dummie in there, and a cold night wind blew from the 7-foot-long doghouse's window at one end to the entry door at the other. There were 2-5 inch rocks completely covering the floor to make it intentionally uncomfortable. Jesus, it was cold!
After awhile, they threw another dummie in there with me,,, and another,,, and another! This doghouse could not have been 3 feet wide or 3 feet high, and I was uncomfortable with so many men so close & touching me (they kept adding prisoners until it felt like a college prank to load a telephone booth for a new world's record). Let me remind you, I had never even spent a full night spooned next to my bride (or any OTHER person)! For Christ's sake, we were packed on TOP of each other! At least, we still had our basic clothes on and a jacket -- I felt for the poor naked Jews in the Auschwitz bunkers side-by-side-by-side. But I suddenly learned what the AF must have been trying to teach -- these other men had Body Heat and we were keeping each other warm, unintentionally warm! WOW - that made it tolerable! I could save my strength & pass some time as I dropped off to survive awhile in dreamless sleep.
posted by Richard A @ 9:42 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for your feedback, Catie. I have been a little distracted by my month-long trip to California which I still am on -- with few online opportunities! So, I WILL get back to this... I DID make it back from Vietnam! (And Grenada,,, and El Sal,,, But those are other stories!) And this is just a tease for now hoping you come back to see me again!
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