U.S. Special Forces Prisoners of the Vietcong Exhibit

Press Release from the ASOM: A very special exhibit will be on display in the Airborne & Special Operations Museum’s (ASOM) temporary exhibit hall, opening at 10 a.m. Friday, February 10, through January of 2013. “The Animal Called POW”: U.S. Special Forces Prisoners of the Vietcong describes the experience of U.S. Special Forces and Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) prisoners held in South Vietnam. The exhibit will also cover rescue missions, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training and modern prisoners of war.

Raymond C. Shrump a prisoner of five years is quoted “Some of these men died in my presence, and I can assure you not one—not one ever lost faith in his country, his God, or in you, his fellow man.” Utilizing dioramas and media technology the visitors will be immersed in the times. According to Dr. Nicole Suarez, Museum curator, “Nineteen prisoners of war will be highlighted; some of these soldiers and/or their families will be at the opening of the exhibit.”

A focal point in the exhibit is Colonel James “Nick” Rowe a U. S. Army officer, one of only thirty-four American prisoners of war to escape captivity during the Vietnam War. Rowe was kept in a cage made of saplings, measuring 3 feet by 4 feet by 6 feet. The exhibit includes a realistic “tiger cage”, a replica of the one that imprisoned Rowe. Rowe later developed the rigorous SERE training program taught to high-risk military personnel. Visitors will be able to enter an immersive indoctrination hut an example of one used in the U Minh Forest, better known as the "Forest of Darkness," in southern Vietnam.

A quote by Daniel Pitzer captured with Rowe has been contributed for the title of the exhibit. “…having spent four years in the hands of the VC, I will never again be the same after being the animal called POW.”



Photo, left, of Ike Camacho at the exhibit opening ceremony. The exhibit has been made possible by the support of Booz, Allen, Hamilton; the S.E.R.E school at Camp MacKall, North Carolina; United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC); Fort Bragg Department of Plans, Training and Management; The Airborne & Special Operations Museum Foundation and many more. A press only event has been scheduled for Friday, 3 February 2012 from 11am to 2pm.

New POW Exhibit

Billy Waugh sends: If you are in the Fayetteville, North Carolina area on 10 Feb 2012, then at 1000 hours, at the Downtown Airborne and SF Museum, a new display will open, featuring POW's of the Vietnam War.

Featured will be items belonging to Nick Rowe, as well as Kenneth Roraback, Isaac Camacho, and others whom were held captive interned during the war of Vietnam.

I have heard from Dr. Nicole Suarez, one of the Curators of this huge Museum, that a model of the Punishment Hole, where POW escapee Isaac Camacho was tossed often for not cooperating with the "Commissioner" of NVA POW Camp Bravo-20 (In the jungles of Cambodia, near the SVN/Cambodian border just north of the Tay Ninh Province village of Katum, SVN).

The years of capture and POW internment of Isaac Camacho, Kenneth Roraback, George Smith, and Claude McClure were from 1963-1965. Isaac Camacho, who had been an 12B4S (SF Heavy Weapons Man of Detachment A-21, 5th SF TDY from Fort Bragg, NC), fought his tail off, but was butt-stroked then captured by the NVA who flattened the SF Camp in the III Corps area of Vietnam, near the Parrot's Beak area of Cambodia.

Isaac Camacho and his wife Grace will be at the opening of this POW display there in Fayetteville , NC . I am certain that Isaac and Grace C. would love to see you once again, and shake the hand of each of you.

I have included a sketch of the Punishment Hole, from the web-site which coincides with the book Isaac Camacho, an American Hero, that site being a 135-page depiction describing the various book actions http://www.isaaccamachoamericanhero.com/

Click on the photo below to see a larger, clearer image.