Have you ever seriously thought about being a POW?

Ben Jefferson

Ben Jefferson

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I honestly think anyone who has seen combat will say they have!

Many of us has been to one or more of the available SERE schools

Personally I have attended the USAF offering in Germany during 1973. P

It was a good course, in fact the most professional thing the Air Force has done.

Netflix has a movie “UNTHINKABLE” that will provoke thought.


I always wondered how I would measure up to my own expectations if that scenario actually happened..

… and how far it would be taken.

Be realistic in your self eval.
 
I was thinking of this last night (not a veteran, not trying to steal valor etc) after I watched Rescue Dawn for the first time since it first came out.
I thought of how miserable it must be to want to get out, try to think of a plan, but have nothing at your disposal.
We, everyone on here, 'normal folks,' have plans and we can do things to work towards them.
These men who were captive had nothing but time. The main guy, played by Christian Bale, was so eager to escape, but there just wasnt anything for him to get him out. He finally got A NAIL and that aided him, but only slightly.
We take those things for granted, but in those conditions you may have nada to assist you...that'd be so scary.
 
Ben Jefferson said:
I honestly think anyone who has seen combat will say they have!

Many of us has been to one or more of the available SERE schools

Personally I have attended the USAF offering in Germany during 1973. P

It was a good course, in fact the most professional thing the Air Force has done.

Netflix has a movie “UNTHINKABLE” that will provoke thought.


I always wondered how I would measure up to my own expectations if that scenario actually happened..

… and how far it would be taken.

Be realistic in your self eval.
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A lot of the true accounts I have read made me think that I would do ok.

Why? It will sound conceited to those who aren’t marines but the common theme I have seen is that just about everyone said that marines seemed to do ok. It was like they’d already been through worse. lol.

The things I’ve read said that marines would do things like catch rats, fashion parachutes for them with whatever they could scrounge and then hang them from the barbwire just to make the guards think the Americans were sending them in.

We’re masters of getting even in subtle and hidden ways.
 
HMP said:
I was thinking of this last night (not a veteran, not trying to steal valor etc) after I watched Rescue Dawn for the first time since it first came out.
I thought of how miserable it must be to want to get out, try to think of a plan, but have nothing at your disposal.
We, everyone on here, 'normal folks,' have plans and we can do things to work towards them.
These men who were captive had nothing but time. The main guy, played by Christian Bale, was so eager to escape, but there just wasnt anything for him to get him out. He finally got A NAIL and that aided him, but only slightly.
We take those things for granted, but in those conditions you may have nada to assist you...that'd be so scary.
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Dieter Dengler, He was a stud. As is any man who did what he did in those circumstances.

Never thought about it, it never even crossed my mind.
 
Chdamn said:
A lot of the true accounts I have read made me think that I would do ok.

Why? It will sound conceited to those who aren’t marines but the common theme I have seen is that just about everyone said that marines seemed to do ok. It was like they’d already been through worse. lol.

The things I’ve read said that marines would do things like catch rats, fashion parachutes for them with whatever they could scrounge and then hang them from the barbwire just to make the guards think the Americans were sending them in.

We’re masters of getting even in subtle and hidden ways.
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Plus all yall marines have experience concealing things in your orifices, and if you had to seduce a guard that just another day in the life, right?
 
Chuckman said:
Dieter Dengler, He was a stud. As is any man who did what he did in those circumstances.

Never thought about it, it never even crossed my mind.
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Have you seen the documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly”? I agree with you, he was beyond tough.
 
As mentioned above, our key enemies these days don’t do prisoners. They do torture and brutal executions all on film to be used as propaganda.

That said, I don’t think I’d do great over a long haul in prison. I’d darn sure try, but realistically I’m a civilian who has never had any form of training. So I won’t puff my chest and boast of how unwavering I would be. I honestly don’t know. I could be a Dieter Dengler, or pee myself whenever I hear a key rattle.
 
Thatguy said:
Have you seen the documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly”? I agree with you, he was beyond tough.
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Yes. He was definitely exceptional.

I had to go to SERE. It was no joke, the best and worst school I have ever been to. I would want to die before I was captured given the post-WW2 aggressors.
 
One question I don't see is...captured by who- Germans, Japanese, Viet Cong, or one of the current sandbox enemies?

I grew up amongst Vietnam conflict and Korean war vets .

No POW experience is worth seeking out, regardless of a possible thought scenario or LARP example and while I can fathom the real possibility of capture any combat soldier must think of.....
I would be with those fighting till last breath than possibility of capture .
 
B00ger said:
As mentioned above, our key enemies these days don’t do prisoners. They do torture and brutal executions all on film to be used as propaganda.

That said, I don’t think I’d do great over a long haul in prison. I’d darn sure try, but realistically I’m a civilian who has never had any form of training. So I won’t puff my chest and boast of how unwavering I would be. I honestly don’t know. I could be a Dieter Dengler, or pee myself whenever I hear a key rattle.
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I happen to think that's a very good answer for most all of us. You can preparer, train and be a very strong Alpha but ya just never really know until it's real.
 
Chuckman said:
Yes. He was definitely exceptional.

I had to go to SERE. It was no joke, the best and worst school I have ever been to. I would want to die before I was captured given the post-WW2 aggressors.
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I've never been to one of the formal SERE schools, but I have been to SERE training at the regimental level. It wasn't fun.

I remember on a different occasion during Desert Shield (prior to Deser Storm), the Interrogator-Translator Team (ITT) gave my platoon or company a class on getting captured. One SSNCO said, "They're going to ask for info, and when you refuse they're going to start to cut off your fingers. When you wake up after passing out from the pain, they'll ask you again. When you refuse, you'll watch them cut off another one of your fingers." "How many fingers do you think it will take for you to finally tell them what you know?" "Do yourself a favor, resist as long as you can, but don't be stupid. By the time they get actionable info out of you, we'll know you're missing and change whatever you knew our plans to be....."

This is me (upside down) during SERE classes, before the real fun began! They put a gas mask on me, taped-off the eye lenses and hung me upside down. They asked me questions to where my shouted reply was, "Kiss me where my skin turns pink!". They then covered my air intake filters and I couldn't breathe as the mask just collapsed tighter around my face.......sucky feeling to be hanging there, in the dark, and not being able to breathe!

STA SERE.jpg
 
Diablos said:
No thanks, id rather go out in a hail of gunfire. Especially considering our recent enemies would rather use us in propaganda videos where they cut our head off.
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Only after turning your butthole into minced meat….
 
Ben Jefferson said:
Other than the mandatory “Captured” portion of the course I thought it was fun.

Eye opening.
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I do not know if you had to do this but we had to sign a bunch of NDAs about the "capture" and "resistance" part of the course. As much as I hated the instructors during that portion, afterward I could see the method in their madness and realize what great people they were.

I thought the survival portion was pretty fun too.
 
"They're going to ask for info, and when you refuse they're going to start to cut off your fingers. When you wake up after passing out from the pain, they'll ask you again. When you refuse, you'll watch them cut off another one of your fingers." "How many fingers do you think it will take for you to finally tell them what you know?"

good one 03
:D:D:D:D:D That's exactly the one I was thinking about but just wasn't going to say it.
 
One of my funny stories from SERE: We knew we were gonna be captured. It's part of the school, right? I found a creek bed that was 100 yards or so downhill from a slope that had civilian homes. I was following that creek bed, and saw some cherry tomatoes. I was starving...probably down 10 pounds from the start of the class. I was pulling those cherry tomatoes off the vine and stuffing my thigh pockets like no one's business. A civilian homeowner saw me and said they were his, but knew about SERE and what was going on, and said he'd give me food and shelter. Sweet!! So I went up to his place, he fed me a nice meal...then then booger eaters came in. MFer sold me out. Turn out, that was his 'role'. He did that every class. I never stood a chance. I went into the camp well fed, though.
 
I was "only" Army Guard but I thought about it briefly, until deciding I didn't want to be one. A few years later, I read Nick Rowe's book "Five Years To Freedom" (actually got it at an Expo at Ft. Bragg from COL Rowe's widow, who autographed it). Wow. Even the ones you "think" will make it get wore down, and die from injury, disease, or after years of a non-western diet developing an inability to eat or hold stuff down, and die from undernourishment. So sad. I used to work as an officer in a SMALL town (less than 1000 people) but there is an active veteran community there, and they have ran the MIA/POW flag under the US flag for years.

I also have irregularly worn MIA/POW bracelets. A good friend I was in the Guard with in the 1980s wore a MIA bracelet with his father on it (US Army SF MIA in EARLY Viet Nam years).
 
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