ting the rope off of you. Soldiers were placed in handcuffs and leg irons and were left that way for sometimes many years.Mr. Ralph Gaither was a navy ensign when his plane was shot down. He was immediately taken to one of the thirteen vietnamese prisons. He would spend the next seven to eight years of his life in an 4.5x9 cell with another man. From the cell he watched many of his friends lives get wasted, because they talked back to the Vietnamese. There was no love in these camps between the Americans and the Vietcong. Soldiers were told that they were not prisoners-of-war, but mere criminals. A war had not been declared by the United States Government so therefore they could treat their advisaries as murderers and thieves. The prisons that they were being held in were built by the French in the latter parts of the nineteenth century. The same times when the Geneva Accordance came around. This was the law on treatment of all foreign prisoners of war and civilians. It stated that humane treatment of civilians, prisoners, and wounded persons in wartime must be adhered to or a war crime indictment would be issued. Colonel Bud Day whose f100 was shot down in Vietnam stated I was hung by my feet like a side of butchered beef for many hours because I refused to answer my captors questions. Beatings Kyles 3were uncontrollable and sometimes resulted in death. I was tied down by all four limbs and they beat me with an automobile fan belt, replied Gaither. We prayed that whoever beat us knew what they were doing so they didnt kick our internal organs out, said Gaither. I went in weighing 170 lb. two years later I weighed 105, and I stayed that weight for more than five years. People were put into solitary confinement for long periods of time. Sometimes spending years in a cell all by themselves. Some of the guys were optimistic about getting out, but most were doubtful. The Senior officer (SRO) would keep the morale hi...
