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Re: You Wonder IF You'll Survive

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: June 12, 2003

"He knew the look in their eyes

By: MARY ALYS CHERRY, Citizen Staff June 11, 2003


When the American POWs were shown on TV at the start of the war in Iraq, Bob Naughton immediately recognized the look in their eyes.

Their wide-eyed look was a look of sheer terror, he told members of Space Center Rotary during a luncheon address.

He knew it oh so well after spending seven years in Vietnam as a prisoner of war.

Today, Naughton, a retired Navy fighter pilot, heads aircraft operations for NASA at Ellington Field.

But back then...."You wonder if you'll survive. You wonder what your fate will be."

Naughton, had the misfortune to be incarcerated in a Vietnam prison when his Navy jet was shot down and he was captured by Vietnamese peasants in a rice paddy.

"Bob, this is really going to be an experience!" he said to himself as the Vietnamese paraded him through several villages - quite proud they had captured him - enroute to prison in Hanoi.

There in the North Vietnam capital, he and other POWs became a major bargaining chip for the enemy, he explained.

Torture? Yes. He told of going to "Quiz," where one time the interrogator "would be friendly and offer the POW a cigarette and then the next time beat you." The Vietnamese would often pull the POWs' limbs out of joint to attempt to get them to say they were bombing civilians, he told the crowd, adding that the POWs were sometimes put on TV as "they wanted to show us in a defeated situation."

One time it backfired when unbeknown to the enemy a POW blinked his eyes spelling out the word "torture" in the Morse Code.

Often POWs were tied to a stool for 14 days as guards tried to make them write a statement saying they were being treated well.

"The best weapon the Vietnamese had was propaganda," he explained, "so our goal was to resist helping them with their propaganda."

Never once did he or any of the POWs consider giving in to the enemy. They found out about the landing on the moon by seeing a headline in a news photo.
His imprisonment was quite an ordeal for the family, he said, "it was very tough on Peggy," his wife, who did not know he was alive for two-and-a-half years after his plane went down.

A letter from him finally arrived Christmas Day 1969 and to this day is "the best Christmas present I ever received," she said.

From then on, he was allowed to write home and she was able to send "care packages," he said, including vitamins.

Finally he was released March 4, 1973 at Great Lakes Naval Base near Chicago. As preparations were made, Peggy was told that according to protocol, she would be the fourth person to see him.

Laughing, he said Peggy informed the Navy that she was his wife, they hadn't seen each other for seven years and she would be the first one to welcome him when he arrived.

She was.

On his return, he found he had missed a lot.

His three sons were 1, 2 and 3 when he left. When he returned home, they were 8, 9 and 10.

Today it is easy for him to talk about it all, he said, and no, he was never bitter. Instead he said in answer to a question, he looked upon it all as a learning experience. "You learn and then you move on," he grinned.


©Clear Lake Citizen 2003"