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File: 120596_aaczf_12.txt
Page: 12
Total Pages: 22

		12
 thick and it was brick all around so there was no way to
 talk between cells or anything. The door was solid steel
 and it had a little window that they would open up when
 they wanted to pass the food to you. There was a window
 on the other end of the room. But it was about 12 feet
 off the floor and real thin and it had bars on it and
 louvers so you never got any direct sunlight in the room.
 So in that prison, communication was just about impossi-
 ble. What guys tried to do was...when they would come
 around and take roll, which they did periodically...was
 to try and say names as loud as possible so if somebody
 else was listening they could tell other Americans were
 there. I knew other Americans and Allies were there
 because I'd transferred with them from the first prison.
 Some of the guys who had been shot down later said they
 never knew anybody else was in the prison because they
 could never hear anybody. So for them, it was probably
 worse to be there because they didn't know what was going
 on.
 
 Q: Was there enough time for a SRO {senior ranking officer)
 to be established?

 A: In the first prison: Colonel Eberly was the senior rank
 ing officer. We had talked about it in the first prison
 when we could communicate; but again, once we were in the 
 second prison there was no communication. It was just
 about impossible. It would have been impossible for him
 to get messages out; it would have been almost impossible
 to have any sort of chain of command or anything like
 that. On the night of 23 February, we were actually
 bombed out of the prison; it showed up as a target and
 was hit by four laser guided bombs. They transferred us
 to another prison and they obviously were not ready for
 that contingency, because 11 of us were put in one cell
 for a night. That was about the first communication we
 had had with other prisoners for about a month. At that 
 point, it was determined Colonel Eberly was the SRO and
 that word did get out. I think if we'd have had an
 opportunity to communicate, and if our stay had been
 longer, it would have worked out...everyone was aware of
 that requirement and there were no problems with it.

 Q: Did they provide you with any recreational facilities?

 A: No.

 Q: What about reading material?

 A: Nothing. We were never let out of our cells except to
 be interrogated.

 Q: And how long did the interrogations usually last?




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