News-Info-Alerts

Re: Former SEA POW Speaks

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 18, 2002

"VOA POWs During Vietnam War, Part 1
Written by Al Pessin
Voiced by Bob Doughty
Washington

15 Jul 2002 19:19 UTC

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A VOA Snapshot - Part of VOA's 60th Anniversary Year Coverage.

During the Vietnam war, communist forces took more than 700 allied prisoners. Most people don't know that three of them worked for VOA. "There was an explosion that hit the house. And I said, 'uh-oh, this is bad,'" said Candido Badua.

Cadido "Pop" Badua was right. It was bad. The house he shared with his boss, Chuck Willis, had just been hit by a satchel bomb thrown by a Viet Cong fighter. Mr. Willis was wounded in the foot. It was the Tet Offensive in January, 1968, in the Vietnamese city of Hue, not far from the VOA transmitter where they both worked.

The two were taken prisoner and within hours they were marching north in the dark, at gunpoint, hands tied, through an area known as the 'bombing zone.' "[Willis] could not walk anymore. He said, 'go ahead, Pop, save your life, let them shoot me if they want to. I can not go any farther.' So I told him, 'If they're going to shoot you, they're going to shoot both of us,'" he recalled.

The much larger American leaned on his Filipino colleague until they staggered out of the bombing zone and were allowed to rest.

When they reached their first prison camp, they found another Filipino VOA transmitter staff member, Arturo Balagot. The three men spent the next year in solitary confinement in dark cells. Chuck's was not big enough for him to stand up straight or lie down flat. After that, the two Filipinos were allowed to live together with other prisoners, but Pop Badua says they did not see Chuck Willis again for nearly five years. "It's hard. It's hard to be there," he said.

We talk more about what happened to the VOA POWs in our next VOA Snapshot.

To write to us about our anniversary, send an email to anniversary@voanews.com. Or, send regular mail to Anniversary, VOA News Now, Washington, D.C. 20237, USA.

VOA POWs During Vietnam War, Part 2
Written by Al Pessin
Voiced by Bob Doughty
Washington
16 Jul 2002 01:17 UTC

A VOA Snapshot - Part of VOA's 60th Anniversary Year Coverage

During the Vietnam War, three VOA staffers were among the more than 700 allied prisoners held by North Vietnam.


Chuck Willis "It's hard. It's hard to be there," said Candido "Pop" Badua. He and his friend Arturo Balagot, both Filipinos, were technicians at the VOA transmitter in Hue, South Vietnam, when they were captured in January, 1968, along with their boss, American Chuck Willis.

But the Filipinos and Mr. Willis were separated for nearly five years.


Candido 'Pop' Badua In the prison camps, with mostly American military men, "Pop" Badua earned a reputation for generosity. When he fixed the commander's radio he smuggled cigarettes and alcohol back to the cell. And he helped keep up morale with a Christmas show.

Fellow-prisoner Michael Benge said, "He was a ball of fire, had a lot of spirit there and if there was anything that he thought he could end up doing for you, he would. I mean, that does end up describing it."

The VOA POWs were reunited near the end of the war at the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison. A few months later they were released.

"That was one of the happiest moments I had," Mr. Badua said. I couldn't believe it.

After the war, all three men came to the United States and continued working for VOA.

Chuck Willis and Arturo Balagot have died in recent years. Pop Badua's actions in prison earned him U.S. citizenship through a special bill in the Congress. Today, he is retired in California.

I'm proud [to have been] with the VOA," he said. "If at my age I am still allowed to work for VOA, I would be willing to go back." An amazing statement from a man whose career at VOA was more difficult and dangerous than any transmitter technician could ever expect.

To write to us about our anniversary, send an email to anniversary@voanews.com. Or, send regular mail to Anniversary, VOA News Now, Washington, D.C. 20237, USA. "