Special forces veteran forced to sit in own poo and eat rats during five-year captivity

dailystar.co.uk:

soldier was forced to sit in his own poo and eat rats during a horrific five-year captivity. Raymond Schrump, was a retired veteran of the Green Beret Special Forces – the US equivalent of the SAS – passing selection in 1962, just a few years before the US sent troops to fight in the Vietnam War.

In 1967 he was promoted to Major and was subsequently assigned to the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) as a Senior District Advisor assigned to Tay Ninh Province, Southern Vietnam, before arriving in the East Asian country in 1968.Only four months later however, he was captured by the Vietcong and was held for nearly five years, before being released in February 1973 – a period which lasted 1,727 days.Raymond was in the village of Go Da Ha when it was attacked by the Vietcong on May 23.He set out to recover the bodies of the dead, but his jeep was ambushed and he was taken captive.Speaking to GruntTV 1776 on YouTube, the former soldier said: "They [Vietcong] came out of the wood line about dusk and their lead person – I don't know if it was the ambush commander or not – saw me, took out a pistol and put it to my forehead."I thought of my wife and said, ‘Oh my God honey, I’m sorry’ – I thought I was gone."A flash bulb then went off – I believe the person was a Japanese journalist – and after it went off, he withdrew the pistol and put it back in the hold.

That's how I got captured."To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.During the next four and a half years, the veteran endured many hardships, including being kept in solitary confinement and total isolation for two years while chained up.He said: "I was in total isolation, chained like an animal, starved,.