We’ve all heard what President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have said about waterboarding: “Waterboarding is torture.”
Well, one might ask: How would either one of them know anything about torture - or warfare for that matter? Retired U.S.A.F. Colonel George E. (Bud) Day possesses a great deal of empirical knowledge about both. He experienced real torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese when he was their “guest” at the Hanoi Hilton and other torture chambers for a period of five years and seven months. He was released, on March 14, 1973. He is the most decorated U. S. service member since General Douglas Mac Arthur, having received more than 70 decorations, most of which were for actions in combat.
On March 6, 1976, Bud Day was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Gerald Ford.
The following is an E-Mail forwarded by a friend. In it Bud Day recounts his experiences as a POW, and provides real insight into what is and what is not torture.
Medal of Honor Awardee Bud Day talks of Torture
Dear Kelly: Thanks for the "heads up" on the Medal of Honor spots. Some of my friends have seen it already and mentioned it. I sent a copy of my book to Fox News in D.C., and wanted Sean Hannity to be able to talk about what torture really is. He has no one on his side to talk about torture..who has been tortured. He is free to quote from the many illustrations that I provided in my book Duty Honor Country
I got shot down over N Vietnam in 1967..a sq commander.
After I returned in 1973.. I published 2 books that dealt a lot with "real torture" in Hanoi. Our make believe president is branding our country as a bunch of torturers when he has no idea what torture is.
****e.g * as to me..put thru a mock execution cuz I wud not respond...pistol whipped on the head...same event.. Couple of days later...hung by my feet all day.
I escaped and got recaptured a couple of weeks later.. I got shot and recaptured. Shot was OK...what happened after was not.
They marched me to Vinh.. put me in the rope trick trick..almost pulled my arms out of the sockets
Beat me on the head w/ a little wooden rod until my eyes were swelled shut, and my unshot unbroken hand a pulp.
Next day hung me by the arms...rebroke my right wrist...wiped out the nerves in my arms that control the hands..rolled my fingers up into a ball. Only left the slightest movement of my L forefinger. So I started answering w/ some incredible lies.
Sent me to Hanoi strapped to a barrel of gas in the back of a truck.
Hanoi..on my knees..rope trick again. Beaten by a big fool.
Into leg irons on a bed in Heartbreak Hotel.
Much kneeling--hands up at Zoo.
Really bad beating for refuse to condemn Lyndon Johnson.
Several more kneeling events. Cud see my knee bone thru kneeling holes.
There was an escape from the annex to the Zoo. I was the Senior Officer of a large building
B-cuz of escape..they started a mass torture of all commanders.
I tk it was July 7, 1969..they started beating me w/ a car fan belt. In first 2 days I took over 300 strokes..then stopped counting cuz I never thought I wud live thru it.
They continued day-nite torture to get me to confess to a non-existant part in the escape. This went on for at least 3 days. On my knees..fan belting.. cut open my scrotunm w/ fan belt stroke. opened up both knee holes again. My fanny looked like hamburger..I cud not lie on my back.
They tortured me into admitting that I was in on the escape..and that my 2 room-mates nu about it.
The next day I denied the lie.
They commenced torturing me again with 3- 6- or 9 strokes of the fan belt every day from about July 11 or 12rh..to 14 October 1969. I continued to refuse to lie about my roomates again.
Now, the point of this is that our make-believe president has declared to the world that we (U. S.) is a bunch of torturers.. thus it will be OK to torture us next time when they catch us....cuz that is what the U.S. does.
Our make-believe president is a know nothing fool who thinks that pouring a little water on some one's face, or hanging a pair of womens pants over an Arabs head is TORTURE. He is a meathead.
I just talked to MOH holder Leo Thorsness who was also in my sq in jail ..as was john McCain..and we agree that McCain does not speak for the POW group when he claims that Al Ghrib ws torture.. or that "water boarding" is torture.
Our president and those fools around him who keep bad mouthing our great country are a disgrace to the United States. Please pass this info on to Sean Hannity. He is free to use it to point out the stupidity of the claims that water boarding ..which has no after effect..is torture. If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on the twin towers in NYC...hurrah for the guy who poured the water.
Col. Bud Day MOH
