I have a story to tell this morning. It is of someone that you all don't know but I was privileged to know for a short time.
I am disturbed by the stories vilifying Senator John McCain a POW for several years and I am going to tell you some of what he had to endure from the lips of one of my Vietnam Vets. He is no longer with us taken by Pancreatic Cancer, but he suffered from PTSD so badly that sometimes he would call me in the middle of the night and just have me read to him.. I would tell him. I have the watch and some of you that have had the honor to serve, will understand what that means.
He was a kid sent to Vietnam in 1967. It was guerrilla war fare. Our boys had not seen the likes of what they had to endure there in any other War. Long bamboo spikes placed into tunnels and holes so that if you stepped on them, they would go into your feet and then the infection you would get from them would likely kill you or you might fall head first into them and the service to your country would be ended. You would be one of the ones coming back to the country in a flag draped coffin or you might be one of the ones who made it out alive to come back to US soil and be spit upon, like my brother was by the protesters.
But my guy was captured. He was not a very good War hero according to some, because he got caught.
He spent five years in a bamboo cage with other prisoners. Sometimes they were in water up to their waist and the leeches were all over your body, sucking your life's blood from you. Each day someone was "chosen" to be tortured while the others watched helplessly in horror as bamboo sticks were shoved underneath fingernails, they were hung upside down and ants were applied all over their faces and there were so many other despicable acts done to them daily. I won't speak of more of them here but I have had Vets talk to me for hours, telling me of the horrors of captivity.
My friend finally escaped biting through the bamboo cage with his teeth and helping to save others. When he got home, the welcome was not what he expected. Even all these years later, the nightmares visited him each night and then I met him. And he told me of his visit to the VA Hospitals to talk with despondent Veterans of Vietnam and other Wars. The ones that wanted to take their own lives to escape the memories.
He told me that he started by never saying a word. Just removing his shirt so that they could all see where they shoved bamboo stakes into his body to fester into wounds., to see where they tied him to animals that pulled him through the jungle. To see all of the wounds of captivity and he would just stand there in silence, his body speaking for him. Many of them would weep for what he had suffered but he told them that the will to live was what motivated him to escape and for some of them, it gave them the inspiration they needed, to do the same.
It is not easy trying to explain what you may or may not have done or said but I know this without a doubt that I would not have been able to walk in my friends shoes nor Mr McCain's nor any other soldier that had the misfortune to be captured.
God put me in the path of those suffering from Vietnam for a reason and it is heartbreaking to hear people talk down about someone that has been a prisoner.
But for the grace of God go I..
Please God help us to remember what our boys suffered and are still suffering. Many of them return to us with the War in their heads for the rest of their lives. Many of them can't endure life anymore and end it early. Many of them turn to drugs to help them cope and we all judge something that we have no experience with.
My friend is gone now, God rest his soul and his mind is at peace but for 40 years he endured the screams in his head. Pray for all of those that have served, that are serving and pray that they come home and that we welcome them in a manner they deserve. It is called Respect and they earned it..
God bless you all and God help us all.. We need it..
Pray for our Nation and its people. A divided house can not stand nor one built upon sand.... I Love You, Kimmee
My brother Clif in Vietnam. My sister and nephew have shared photos of him and as you can see, he is just a boy here expected to do a mans job... God Bless Him...He looks so old in these photos.
RIP Clifton Levon Peacock
Born Dec 6, 1946 Died May 4, 2021
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