Vietnam POW shares story of captivity

(EXCERPT) By Alisha Jeter, Enterprise Staff Writer November 12, 2003

Retired Navy Capt. John McGrath urged students to tap into character
and integrity as they move into the world after school. He described
Tuesday how doing that kept him and hundreds of other prisoners of war
in Vietnam alive and hopeful.

He watched a cellmate turn yellow from Hepatitis and another nurture
maggots in a gaping leg wound for 18 months to keep it clean.

When torture, disease, lack of health care and decent food threatened
to crack the men asunder, their integrity and will to live cranked
them forward, McGrath said.

He and others there developed a complex series of hand taps to
communicate through the walls of their cells, passing along jokes to
lift the spirit and names to carry back home. McGrath left captivity
with 350 names st...

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Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com