Subject: Re: Looking for From: Dmsmiley Date: May 25, 1998 Hi Jean, Below is a Bio page that was on the site for Art Elliott. If anyone else is interested in the site the url is: http://www.scopesys.com/powmia/powsearch.html Have a good night. Denise (Kirkland) Smiley ARTICE W. ELLIOTT Lieutenant Colonel - United States Army Captured: April 26, 1970 Released: March 27, 1973 Colonel Elliott was last seen April 26 1970 as he directed the fight against a tightening ring of Viet Cong troops in central South Vietnam. Three years later he was released from prison camp. Our battalion had been airlifted in an attempt to relieve the siege of Dak Seange Special Forces Camp. Our mission was later changed because a sister battalion was surrounded by the enemy. For six days we were under intense mortar and ground attack. We took heavy casualties and our supplies were exhausted. We then attempted to break out. We successfully got outside the perimeter but then the communist forces counterattacked. I became separated From the rest of our element and tried to move south. The South Vietnamese soldiers all around me gave themselves up to the enemy but I tried to escape. Having suffered shrapnel wounds in the legs I managed to move about 200 meters from the location and was in a sort of crawling position maneuvering around an embankment when suddenly I encountered two camoflaged North Vietnamese soldiers. They had their weapons aimed at me and ordered me to put my hands up. I was then marched up a small hill and cast in a hole in the ground prison cage in Laos for thirty days. My feet were kept in wooden stocks one foot in during the day and two at night. The cage was 8 feet by 8 feet and the floor was covered with water most of the time. Despite the hardships of the "living" quarters the interrogations were like inquisitions. From there we marched to Hanoi - 55 days away. The country was mountainous and the terrain difficult. One of the Americans was in poor physical condition and had to be helped. I carried him across streams to keep his wounds from getting wet. i went from a weight of 205 down as low as 145 while a prisoner. The march was a bad experience. The guards struck prisoners with sticks to make us move faster. Leeches got on our skin and sucked the blood out. It was raining and we were always tired and hungry. When we arrived at a field camp near Hanoi I was placed in solitary confinement for four months. Later we were taken to a place ironically named Plantation Gardens. The Communists tried hard to make us think the United States had forgotten us but they were unsuccessful. We had a strong underground communications organization that helped our morale. We used all kinds of secret signals to pass information especially that gained from new prisoners. We wanted to know what was happening on the outside. The guards were sometimes successful in breaking the underground but it was always re-established. Colonel Elliott is a native of Bowie, Texas and was in the last days of his second tour in Vietnam when he was captured. He is a former Texas highway patrolman who joined the National Guard when he was 17. He entered the Regular Army and was commissioned in 1961. He served one tour in the Republic of Vietnam from 1966 to 1967 and returned in 1969. "I'm still an Army man " he said after his release. "I'll always be an Army man." After months and years of peeping through small holes it's a luxury to merely sit in the living room and look out the window and gain an unobstructed view of sunshine trees and flowers. How is he ultimately affected by his imprisonment under the Communists? He answers that "For one thing it makes you really appreciate the good old United States of America. Until you have lived under a Communist regime you cannot begin to know how lucky you are to be an American. I feel sure that all the former prisoners will prove to be stronger Americans than they were before because they know what the other side is like. I think that most of us who have had this experience will be more politically minded than we were before. We will want to participate more faithfully in our country." Colonel Elliott sends this message to all the American people: "Thank God I am free and thank you for helping to make it possible. I will always be grateful for your love and concern." November 1996 Artice Elliot retired from the United States Army as a Colonel. He and his wife Wanda reside in Colorado. -----Original Message----- From: JEAN PRATHER Go To: #, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Main |