Replying to a message of Dan Ceppa to JOHN FITZGERALD:

 JF>> Anyone who can't, or refuses, to see the (very) big difference
 JF>> between  waterboarding and real torture is, at this point, obviously
 JF>> so wrapped up  in their own grief and frustration, any such
 JF>> distinctions are blurred. 

 DC> What "grief and frustration"?  

 DC> Isn't your straw man big enough to light on fire yet?  

 DC> Get back to me after you've gone through SERE training.  

Back in 1971 I went through the AF's survival schools (basic, water and jungle).
Survival schools were a requirement for those on flight status, and I was (at the
time hopefully) going to a flying billet (which I finally did, at Nakhon Phanom
RTAFB, Thailand, flying as aircrew on EC-47 missions).

The basic course (Fairchild AFB, WA) included a 3 day stay in a simulated prison
camp, including interrogations, isolation and stress positions.  It did
*not* include waterboarding or any similar treatment.  That prison camp was
not really that much
of a bother, but a few officers (most flight personnel were officers) could
not handle
it and were washed out of the course; I heard one of them - I think a major and a
pilot - wash out while I was in my little box (which was somewhat smaller than the
knee space under an ordinary desk), I heard the instructors tell him that washing out
meant mandatory grounding and he said that he didn't care get him out of there.  I
learned enough about myself in those 3 days that I resolved to save a
bullet for myself
if it ever came to that, fortunately it didn't.

Water survival (Homestead AFB, FL) and jungle survival (Clark AB, Philippines)
were fun.  I have pictures around here someplace.  I also have a 'class picture'
of my group in the field at basic survival school; I think all were B-52 pilots 
and crew (except for little ol' me) and I heard that the other enlisted guy in the
group (a B-52 tailgunner) had been shot down over North Vietnam and captured.


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