Associated Press Newswires

Tuesday, February 18, 2003



Oklahoma man recalls days as Gulf War POW



TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Marine Maj. Craig Berryman can't shake the memory of

his 37 days as an Iraqi prisoner of war.

The Cleveland, Okla., native says a day hasn't passed in the last 12 years

that he hasn't thought of how Iraqi soldiers tortured, kicked and

starved him in 1991.

Iraqi guards broke Berryman's left leg, beat him repeatedly and

threatened him with shooting and mutilation. A lighted cigarette was

twisted into an open wound on his neck, and his requests for medical

attention were ignored.

He lost 25 pounds in 37 days and caught a case of dysentery that lasted

two years and is likely to cause him digestive tract problems the

rest of his life.

When Berryman returned to the United States, a World War II POW warned the

young Marine pilot he would never forget the experience.

"He said there would not be a day go by I didn't think about it," Berryman

told the Tulsa World in a telephone interview from his home in

Florida. "At first I really didn't believe him. But in the 12 years since,

he's been right."

Berryman was a captain when he was shot down near Kuwait City on Jan. 28,

1991. Now he's assigned to a staff job analyzing coordination of

joint forces, making it unlikely he would go to the Middle East if the

United States invades Iraq.

"I'd be the first to go if I could, but my job means I'm probably not

going," he said.

"There have been days I'd like to go after some of them for what they did

to me. Some days I'm happy to have survived and have my honor

intact. There are a lot of emotions. I have some unfinished business over

there."

Last April, Berryman was among 16 Gulf War POWs and their families to file

a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., against the Iraqi government and

President Saddam Hussein. The lawsuit asks for $25 million in actual damages

for each of the POWs and $5 million for each of 21 family

members, plus $300 million in punitive damages.

Iraq refused to participate in the lawsuit. A decision is expected in late

spring or early summer.

The document says Iraq violated the Geneva Convention agreement on the

treatment of POWs and is liable under the Foreign Sovereign

Immunities Act, which allows civil judgments against certain countries known

to sponsor terrorist activity. Iraq is on that list.

"I had so much hatred for those guys," said Berryman. "I was thinking so

much about how much I hated them for what they were doing to me I

wasn't concentrating on what we were trained to do, to plan escape and

staying alive.

"I prayed I would have the physical strength and the mental ability to do

that, and fortunately I did."