News-Info-Alerts

Re: Haunted by Iraq Memories

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 19, 2003

"POW haunted by Iraq memories
The Associated Press

TULSA -- Marine Maj. Craig Berryman can't shake the memory of his 37 days as an Iraqi prisoner of war.

From The Oklahoman Archives:
• June 21, 1992: Ex-prisoner of War in Iraq enjoys air show on ground
• Jan. 16, 1992: Former POW adjusts to life After Gulf War
• March 15, 1991: Faith in God, Family Cited By Ex-POW
• More selections from the archives

The Cleveland, OK, native says a day hasn't passed in the last 12 years that he hasn't thought of how Iraqi soldiers tortured, kicked and starved him in 1991.

Iraqi guards broke Berryman's left leg, beat him repeatedly and threatened him with shooting and mutilation. A lighted cigarette was twisted into an open wound on his neck, and his requests for medical attention were ignored.

He lost 25 pounds in captivity and developed a case of dysentery that lasted two years and is likely to cause him digestive tract problems the rest of his life.

When Berryman returned to the United States, a World War II POW warned the young Marine pilot he never would forget the experience.

"He said there would not be a day go by I didn't think about it," Berryman told the Tulsa World in a telephone interview from his home in Florida. "At first, I really didn't believe him. But in the 12 years since, he's been right."

Berryman was a captain when he was shot down Jan. 28, 1991, near Kuwait City. Now he's assigned to a staff job analyzing coordination of joint forces, making it unlikely he would go to the Middle East if the United States invades Iraq.

Last April, Berryman was among 16 Gulf War POWs and their families to file a lawsuit in Washington against the Iraqi government and President Saddam Hussein. The lawsuit asks for $25 million in actual damages for each of the POWs and $5 million for each of 21 family members, plus $300 million in punitive damages.

Iraq refused to participate in the lawsuit. A decision is expected in late spring or early summer.

The document says Iraq violated the Geneva Convention agreement on the treatment of POWs and is liable under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

"I had so much hatred for those guys," Berryman said. "I was thinking so much about how much I hated them for what they were doing to me I wasn't concentrating on what we were trained to do, to plan escape and staying alive.

"I prayed I would have the physical strength and the mental ability to do that, and fortunately I did."

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