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FORT HUACHUCA — America’s heroes were honored at a special event on Wednesday, including the many who now live in this community.
The annual Bring A Vet To Lunch, presented by the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce and its Military Affairs Committee, saw more than 180 people fill the Thunder Mountain Activity Center.
Among them were veterans aged 80-plus, as well as active-duty soldiers still in their teens, and community and military leaders.
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But the special guest was retired Lt. Col. Barry Bridger, an Air Force veteran who spent more than six years as a prisoner of war after he was captured in North Vietnam.
Bridger, who received a standing ovation before and after his hourlong presentation, talked about what he believed motivated his captors to inflict mental and physical torture on their U.S. prisoners at the infamous Hanoi Hilton camp.
With the use of video footage, he explained what lay behind those prisoners’ determination to resist the inhumane efforts of the Vietnamese to break their will and force a confession admitting America’s acts during the conflict were criminal.
“They wanted our military secrets and to provide them with propaganda and repent our crimes,” Bridger said. “But every man walked into the torture chamber rather than sign on the dotted line.”
On Jan. 23, 1967, Bridger and his co-pilot were flying over North Vietnam when their F-4 Phantom jet was hit by a surface-to-air missile.
He was subsequently captured and spent the next six years in prison, where he was tortured and endured long periods of isolation. Bridger did not return to his hometown of Bladenboro, N.C., until March 1973.
“When I walked into my first cell I expected to see something like this,” said the 65-year-old, referring to a list of Vietnamese prison regulations. “I was not disappointed.”
The rules stated if the prisoners did not give the right answers when questioned, they would be subjected to “strict punishment.”
“They took our senior leaders and tortured them and then forced them to write confessions which were read out over a speaker system,” he recalled. “But we ignored these confessions. We knew what these men had been through because we were going through the same trials and tribulations ourselves.”
Bridger recalled how his jailers played on the prisoners’ fears in a bid to wear them down.
When the U.S. bombings stopped, the camp commanders told the prisoners every day they had been abandoned by their country.
And divorce letters from wives who had not seen their husbands for many years were read out for all to hear.
“Some of the men began to feel alone and abandoned.” he said.
Communication, laughter and prayer, however, got many through their ordeal.
Bridger’s homecoming, captured on video camera, saw him hailed as a hero by thousands who turned up to greet him when he returned to Bladenboro, a town of between 400 and 500 residents.
He played that video to Wednesday’s audience, bringing a tear to the eye of some of those who watched it.
Bridger, who now lives in Kansas, ended the presentation by paying tribute on behalf of the veterans to today’s active-duty men and women.
“We are your greatest fans,” he said. “We are all honored to be with you and proud to be considered within your ranks.”
Herald/Review reporter Amanda Baillie can be reached at 515-4683 or by e-mail at amanda.baillie@svherald.com.
TheSilverRose wrote on Jun 27, 2009 10:22 PM:
Thank You! "