Col. James Hughes stripped in Vietnam

JAMES HUGHES

On May 5 Gordon (Swede) Larson and I reported for our briefing. We were to destroy a military complex. As I turned to make the bomb run on our target, I took a hit which wiped out the electrical and main fuel systems. During ejection my helmet was blown off and I sustained a hard blow on the head which rendered me unconscious, cousciousness was regained in the parachute descent.

I was received on the ground by a large group of people, completely disrobed, although they later returned my underclothing, and was taken to a nearby animal shelter where they put me in with the chickens and the pigs.I was later moved to a single family compound and put on a board bed. Two young girls came in and splashed iodine on my face wounds, bound my head with gauze and left.About a half hour later I was blindfolded and forced into the back of a vehicle and carted off to Hanoi Immediately I was taken to the Meat Room of the Hanoi Hilton, so-called because of the bolts in the ceiling that could be used to string things up, such as POWs who blatantly refused them. My legs were put in shackles and an eight foot metal bar was put through the eyes of the U-bolts and this weighted the feet to the ground. They handcuffed my hands, tightening the cuffs with a mechanical rachet, breaking the skin and causing the hands to
swell like five bananas on each arm. Then they put ropes around my elbows and from behind the torture guard put his foot on my elbow and pulled the ropes tight. He then brought the elbows together behind my back, gave me a judo punch to the right rib cage and cracked it, doubled over he brought the ropes from behind my back down to the metal bar at my feet and put my head between my shins. So my legs were bent, my elbows were touching behind my back and my head between my shins.It was the same torture guard, lacking in innate intelligence who was with me on and off for six years. I found I could not think of home as that was a form of mental punishment. To sustain any form of sanity I had to block out that part of my life. I could no longer take the physical punishment if I subjected myself to mental punishment. 1967 was a terrible year for me. They exploited me at every turn of the road. The tortures were varied, such as interrogating me all night
and then one could not lie down during the day.


Other sources:

Hughes suffered appalling torture at the hands of the Viet Cong.

The Air Force colonel's ordeal began on May 5 1967 when his F105 was shot down during a bombing raid over what was then North Vietnam.

He managed to eject but was knocked unconscious and did not come round until just before he landed on the ground.

A large angry crowd stripped him naked and threw him into a pig sty.

He was later blindfolded and taken to Hanoi, where the photograph of him being paraded through the streets at gunpoint enraged America. He said: "They marched me through the streets with a bayonet on each side of my stomach.

"Of course I was terrified. Don't forget I was blindfolded and couldn't see what was happening.

"I remember thinking, 'This is what it's like to be a casualty of war'. I asked God to forgive whoever was doing this to me.

"Eventually I was taken to the prison camp which we called the Hanoi Hilton, where I stayed for six years. It seemed like I'd been there 60 years by the time I got out."

He was held at the camp with 360 American PoWs. "I was taken straight to the Meat Room, so called because of the bolts in the ceiling that could be used to string things up, such as PoWs who defied them," he recalled.

Hughes was shackled to an 8ft iron bar and handcuffed.

"They tightened the cuffs with a mechanical rachet, breaking the skin and causing the hands to swell like five bananas," he said.

His elbows were roped together behind him and his head forced down between his shins.

A brutal guard cracked his right rib cage by hitting him with a judo punch while tightening his bonds.

Hughes added: "They exploited me at every turn of the road. The tortures were varied, such as interrogating me all night and then one could not lie down during the day. Sometimes this would cover a 10-day period."

To avoid being used for propaganda films he deliberately starved himself until he weighed barely 100lbs.

"With this routine I became in an emaciated and seemingly unstable condition and was able to survive without further exploitation."

He had to blank out all thoughts of home and family. "To sustain any form of sanity I had to block out that part of my life.

"I could not take the physical punishment if I subjected myself to mental punishment as well."

Despite the tortures the PoWs organised a riot and won the right to hold a weekly religious service.

"It was our greatest triumph," said Hughes.