The VoV was a 30 minute propaganda broadcast beamed to the GI’s in S. Vietnam. We seldom got any reliable news from “Hanoi Hannah” – the English speaking Vietnamese woman who read the script – because it was all distortions and outright lies. The only saving grace was that they would play two currently popular US songs at the end. They thought this would entice the G.I.s to listen ‘til the end. It was lucky for us that the camp officers never thought to turn the radio off before the music, as it was the only morale boost we ever got.

After the VoV, we waited for the morning meal, which consisted of a small bowl of crudely milled brown rice and a bowl of soup – not Campbell’s – but watery boiled vegetables with no meat or seasoning. In Summer it was greens, Fall was squash and Winter was cabbage. After 6 months of this diet, most of us looked like the POW depicted in the attached sketch. At some point in the day we were supposed to get out for 10 minutes to bathe and wash our clothes with the muddy water we would draw from a seepage well. In practice we got out 2 – 4 times per week, depending on the mood of the guards who preferred to lounge around with their buddies and BS and smoke cigarettes.

At noon, they rang the gong and we were permitted to take siesta for 2 hours. This seemed like a good deal, but most of the guards took a nap so security was light during that time. We took advantage of this and did most of our communicating during the quiet hour. Since we were forbidden to speak, we communicated by tapping code on the walls. Slow, but effective. We developed many short hand codes, much like young people do in present day text-messaging, and were able to accomplish a wide range of info dissemination.

At 2:00PM they rang the gong to signal the end of siesta and we waited for the evening meal, which was a repeat of the morning meal. We had no cards, chess or checker sets to while away the hours, no books except for a rare appearance of some propaganda, certainly no access to a bible, and we were never allowed pen and paper, except when we were tortured to sign a war crimes confession. When asked about these items, the interrogator’s stock answer was: we should think about our crimes and what we could do to work to end the war (code for give them propaganda).

At 8:00PM we heard the repeat broadcast of the VoV, and at 9:00PM they beat the gong to signal time to tie up our mosquito nets and go to sleep so we could get up at 5:00AM and do it all over again.

My friend and cellmate, Mike McGrath, did a great job of describing our treatment illustrated by his very graphic sketches. Following is a verbal sketch of a typical cell. I like to characterize the cells by the five “Bs”:

1. A “deluxe” two-man cell was 7ft x 9 ft., with wooden Boards arranged in an “L” shape for sleeping. The bad cells had no boards and prisoners had to sleep on the concrete floor.

2. A bare light Bulb hung from the ceiling was on 24/7. This is because the rooms were dark due to…

3. The Bricks. The windows were bricked up so we couldn’t see out. It was strictly forbidden to see other prisoners. This created a severe ventilation problem, but that was OK, as we were being punished for our war crimes.

4. Every cell had a loudspeaker Box, for our daily ration of propaganda from the VoV and locally produced “instruction” read by the interrogators.

5. You can probably guess the 5th “B” – the rusty Bucket which served as our toilet. We were allowed out once a day to empty it.

There you have it – a day in the life of a Vietnam POW.

We lived in these conditions for years – for some longer than WWII. We never gave up hope, and we never lost our faith in God and Country. This is the crucible in which John McCain, like the rest of us, was tested. When you vote, please think about the strength of character demanded of our Commander in Chief and who is most likely to deliver.