The Prisoner

Vietnam 1965

Lt. John McGuire is lifted from the mud to stand on shaky legs in front of a screaming Vietcong officer. In the middle of his yelling tirade the officer delivers a backhand to Johns right temple, sending him staggering back a few feet. The officer follows the strike through with a viscous kick to John's stomach, sending him to his knees. Kneeling in the mud gasping for air, he curses the day of his capture. Hands roughly pick him up and drag him across the POW compound. The guards then force him into a three feet high by three feet long bamboo cage. They push him to the ground and then shove him into his new cell.

The cage smells of wet mud and human waste, and its confines are cramped and uncomfortable. John tries to shift around so he can try to get a better look at the sky. Lying in a twisted uncomfortable position hes finally able to peer through the bamboo slats to see the clear blue sky beyond. Just looking at the sky always calms him. Flying through the sky is all he's ever wanted to do. Then John curses the very same sky that he was shot out of a few months ago. His thoughts suddenly shift back to his current situation. Since his capture the Vietcong have been extremely brutal. His first night in the camp he endured hours of beatings and intense interrogations. The interrogations included electrical shock, Bamboo whipping rods, and mind-altering drugs. The whole experience was like a night spent in hell. At the end of the interrogation he was telling them anything they wanted to know. It took him a couple of weeks to slightly recuperate from that night.

John knows that the beatings won't end soon because the Vietcong have an intense hatred for American pilots. They believe that the indiscriminate bombing from the pilots is cowardly and dishonorable. The Vietcong officer, the main contributor to most of the brutality, calmly walks over with a bamboo stick in his hands. The VC officer starts speaking in Vietnamese very softly and calmly, but his voice suddenly changes and he proceeds to kick the cage stirring John from his contemplation. After kicking the cage several times, he raps his stick across the top of his cage. John hates this personthe man who persistently causes him pain and discomfort. He looks at him with contempt and swears that if he gets the slightest chance he will escape.

After two days of cramped confinement John is finally released from his cage. At first it hurts just to stand and walking is very difficult. With some encouragement from the VC officer who constantly kicks and pushes him, he slowly makes his way back to the POW main quarters. As John stumbles into his cell and eases himself down onto his pallet he hears some one whispering his name. John's cell is an 8-foot by 8-foot room with one door and a small slat about head level placed on the door. John looks through it and sees Roger looking nervously through his slot on the other side of the hall. Roger is another American pilot who has been a POW for two years now.

"John whispers back to Roger, " Roger what's up? If the guards hear us well both take beatings."

Roger replies, "Corporal Mathers over heard two of our gaurds talking.