Re: Training Helps Captured Soldiers

Date: April 16, 2004

"U.S. training helps soldiers when they're captured


By LISA HOFFMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

(April 16, 4:33 pm ADT) - All U.S. troops receive at least some training in how to cope with being a prisoner of war.

But only those whose roles in the military carry a greater risk of falling into enemy hands - such as helicopter and aircraft pilots - learn much beyond the rudiments of the laws of war and general guidance on what to expect.

After seven Army soldiers were held captive for 21 days before being released almost exactly a year ago in Iraq, more attention was given to providing training to troops in primarily support units.

Those in the 507th Maintenance Company taken captive March 23, 2003, along with Pvt. Jessica Lynch, said later that their training had consisted of a couple of hours of instruction to which the soldiers paid little mind because of the belief that behind-the-lines troops would be in little peril of being captured.

It could not be immediately learned how much training the newest U.S. POW, Army Pfc. Keith Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, had undergone. The Arabic television network Al Jazeera aired video Friday afternoon of Maupin - a member of the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, another support unit - sitting in front of a row of armed and hooded captors.

Maupin and another Reserve soldier from the same unit, Sgt. Elmer Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C., had been missing since April 9 when their convoy came under attack in Iraq. Krause's whereabouts is unknown, as does the allegiance of those holding Maupin. Unlike the captives of a year ago, who were held by Iraqi soldiers, Maupin could have been captured by former soldiers, foreign Islamic fighters or criminals seeking ransom.

In an online discussion March 28, 2003, Dr. Robert Ursano, a professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md., explained that past experience had shown that soldiers prepared for the physical and psychological stresses that confront captives generally fared better after release than those with scant preparation.

"Military service members are given training to aid their endurance and, most importantly, their ability to maintain hope for the future," Ursano said. Among the things they are taught is how to talk to and respond to captors, and ways to fight the fear that maltreatment, deprivation or worse can engender.

U.S. Army Pfc. Patrick Miller was among the POWs seized in the opening days of the war in Iraq when his convoy got lost and was ambushed by Iraqi troops.

Last October, he told the Armed Forces Press Service that after his release he became a vocal advocate of more POW training for all troops, especially for conflicts like Iraq, where there are no front lines and any soldier can find himself abducted.

"Everybody needs it," Miller said. "Don't joke around when it comes to training. You never know. Even if you're combat support, you just might have to use it."

Miller provided insight on how it feels to find yourself being filmed by the enemy and used for propaganda purposes. He said it was degrading, but also a hopeful sign. "They were putting us on TV, so I knew they wouldn't do anything to us."

Ursano agreed that while the broadcast of a POW can be demeaning to the captive and distressing to the family, it also can offer some solace.

"It is also true that when a POW is on film, we know he or she is alive," he said.

© 2004 The Anchorage Daily News
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© 2004 Scripps Howard News Service"