Did you follow the Royal Navy hostage crisis with as much fascination as I did?
As I mentioned earlier, being taken prisoner and what you should try to do when it happens is a very-much-discussed item in the ready room, briefing room and bar. I may be wrong, but I think the chances of American military aviators finding themselves in that situation is somewhat greater than either ground troops or maritime surface warfare personnel.
So, it’s hardly surprising that it occupies us airmen personally (“How will I conduct myself?” “How long will it take them to break me?” “What should I do if I think I’m about to break?” etc., etc., etc.) and professionally (the Laws of Armed Conflict and the Code of Conduct is something we used to take tests on…don’t know if they still do that). Moreover, given the viciousness, brutality and utter disregard for the laws of armed conflict and the Geneva Conventions our enemies in the Middle East display I think it’s a pretty safe bet the US Army and the US Marines have brought it a little more to the fore in alot of their training programs (at least I think they are—maybe you can confirm).
This highly publicized event that shines a bright light on something we jet jocks consider an integral part of the pre-mission planning process, e.g., covering everything in the brief from making sure the flight members properly sanitize their flight suits, gear and personal items, to initial CSAR moves if we lose a member (for both remaining flight members and the survivor), to a quick review of post-capture initial moves to minimize injury and even maximize the chances of escaping.
Now, normally, captured pilots can expect to have the snot beat out of them shortly after hitting the deck. I hearken back to the scenes of USAF and Navy pilots paraded through the local village in North Vietnam after what was obviously a fairly thorough roughing up after touching down...the ones that could still walk, anyway. Having sustained injuries—many times breaking bones or dislocating joints—in the high-speed ejections that led to their capture didn’t seem to attenuate the ferocity of the initial “greeting” either.
I think this brings up an important point in examining the reaction of the sailors and Royal Marines. Personal opinion: their expectations were probably much different than their counterparts’ in the aviator community. Happily, I never found myself floating down underneath a T-10 canopy after a 22-G ride up the ejection seat rails into temperatures well below freezing. That said, I had to steel myself for the possibility, and for the mad scramble to go to ground after touching down if at all possible and dealing with the initial shock and depression of being taken prisoner if the worst-case scenario occurred. I don’t think those sailors woke up every day while deployed thinking about that and I doubt this was a scenario the RN staff burned a lot of brain bytes over, unfortunately. In short, I can cut them a little slack in reviewing the reportage.
Then again…
How to put this? If I decided to embark on a firefighting career, I’d probably weigh the possibilities of suffering third degree burns every day that klaxon goes off. Taking a bullet as a State Trooper? Probably something I should at least consider in passing on a weekly basis. Put simply, these consequences would not be accidental. Rather, they are an integral part of the nature of the work. As such, they should be an integral part of my initial and follow-on training, exercises and any and all pre-deployment preparations undertaken by a professional Western military organization.
BUT…you can’t completely blame a lack of training or a lack of awareness of the chances of this kind of thing happening (if that was even a factor in this incident) on how the British captors conducted themselves during the course of the crisis. The number one mission element is to not give the enemy one iota of assistance in exploiting the fact that you are now a guest of the ayatollahs. It was obvious that this was not a player in these folks’ cases; at least it wasn’t obvious to Western observers—that would be you and me and everyone else—watching the media reports. Now maybe they were giving it their all, but it seemed to me that didn’t really have any idea of what their “all” was, or should have been.
Now, anyone who thinks that they can’t be broken is either a liar or a fool. Probably the most important thing to remember is that there is NO dishonor in having been broken IF you continue to resist to the best of your ability afterwards. It doesn’t have to be much, but it is important to try, if only to preserve your sanity. One of the best examples for civilians is watching Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. He was a hard nut, but he cracked (he openly admitted it to Dragline). However, he didn’t stay cracked.
The latter is something most Western viewers can, I believe, no longer process. Then again, maybe they can—as the popularity of 300 may hint, much to the chagrin of the congressional, academic and entertainment elites.
Unless the Brits are cool with Tel Aviv being nuked, women being publicly flogged for not being sufficiently servile, homosexuals being hanged from cherry pickers in the public square and having that culture imposed on them, they are at war with Iran. They may not have started it, but merely by showing resistance to it they are in it. And their military (what’s left of it, anyway) should be prepared to fight it. That includes preparing its soldiers, sailors, airmen and Royal Marines for continuing the fight regardless of circumstance. (Note to Rosie O’Donnell: Your stock pretty low in the Twelfth Imam’s Persian theocratic paradise due to your sporting a vagina, copping an attitude that they probably have a Farsi word for that roughly equates to “uppity,” and your sexual “lifestyle choices.” It compels them to take extreme measures in protecting any subjugated society against those choices. I wouldn’t cast my lot with the Iranians as quickly as you did dear, since the first thing they would do after taking over is hang your ass. Moron. But I digress.)
Frankly, the British sailors’ response to the situation did not strike me as one a serious nation’s military should make. The battle is not over when one is captured.
Now please understand, we should not expect the female to tell her captors to stick the headscarf up their collective asses, she just had to say, “No thanks.”
As for wearing the track suits…please. I’ll be happy to launder my uniform and continue to wear it, thank you very much. Laundering is an option, I know but you get the idea.
Admitting they were in Iranian waters? Well, that was not the case and can be empirically confirmed and it doesn’t matter anyway, or at least it shouldn’t have to the patrol. Even if they thought they were in Iranian waters, handing the enemy a tool to undermine their government’s prestige and negotiating position doesn’t strike me as something to do without first resisting coercive interrogation that at least leaves a mark.
Nobody wants to be tortured, but it’s part of the job if you’re nicked. Again, no one is saying that cooperating after extreme mistreatment is unacceptable but crikey, at least make the bastards work for it a little bit.
And, yeah, I can hear the screeches now from those who think I’m the Code of Conduct version of a chickenhawk. Don’t care. I took the government’s money for 26 years knowing full well that if I was a$$holed by a SAM I had an obligation to be a pain in the ass to the enemy even if I ended up wearing prison stripes. Part of the job. So’s dying. If we are serious about resisting tyranny, we need to be able to fight on all levels at all times until we’re dead or victorious (Go Leonidas!). If the British Navy wants to run with the pack they need to start acting like bulldogs, not schnauzers.
Dusty
11 Comments