View Full Version : Five Years to Freedom
Roguish Lawyer
04-06-2004, 12:56
Just finished this account by Major James N. Rowe of his 5-year POW experience in Vietnam. A very good book.
After starting off with the story of his capture, Rowe provides a quick biographical sketch of himself and then spends the entire book focused on his captivity, except for a short chapter on his escape and return home at the end. He apparently kept a diary which allowed him to recall events with astonishing detail.
I was surprised to learn that Rowe was not beaten or actively tortured by the VC. He was, however, passively tortured through food deprivation (usually fed only rice with nominal amounts of fish), lack of adequate medical care, denial of basic sanitary needs and intentional exposure to swarms of mosquitos. He also was subjected to constant indoctrination by cadre, but resisted valiantly. He was moved frequently from camp to camp, and there is no discussion in the book of attempts to rescue him, although it does discuss several escape attempts.
I had expected to learn more about Rocky Versace from the book, but there is little detail because they were separated early on. There also is nothing after he returns home. The best part of the book is the end, when he describes things like his first meal, first alcoholic drink, trying to sleep in a bed, etc. Really touching stuff.
Anyway, this is a great book and I highly recommend it.
I finished 5YTF a few weeks ago. I was surprised at how vividly it was written. At one point I think Rowe mentions that he wrote his diary in languages other than Vietnamese or English.
I cried like a girl at his first helicopter ride away from the Mr. Liberators. I also liked the allusion he made during his helicopter ride in Texas, to his parents house, in which his eyes kept seeing rice paddies and canals.
The best parts were probably the instructive parts.
Read this old thread from back in April. K, it is a great book, I'm resurrecting it!!
I read the thread and post's..... 2!?...... Two??????!!!!!!, inclusive!!
I read 'Five years to Freedom' some 12 years ago. Checked it out from the Library. Checked a couple months ago, wasn't there. I'll buy it from Amazon.com. Point is......
Everyone out here should read it. EVERY SF canidate or 18X( if I had that wrong , excuse me..... new term to me) best get the book. Reason being ...... you will be going through SERE..... wanna know who developed that???
Now!!! youngins what happened to that Man?
Remember Heckle and Jeckle RL?
brownapple
01-14-2005, 06:06
I read the book over 20 years ago. It still sticks with me, as did meeting Colonel Rowe.
Read this old thread from back in April. K, it is a great book, I'm resurrecting it!!
I read the thread and post's..... 2!?...... Two??????!!!!!!, inclusive!!
I read 'Five years to Freedom' some 12 years ago. Checked it out from the Library. Checked a couple months ago, wasn't there. I'll buy it from Amazon.com. Point is......
Everyone out here should read it. EVERY SF canidate or 18X( if I had that wrong , excuse me..... new term to me) best get the book. Reason being ...... you will be going through SERE..... wanna know who developed that???
Now!!! youngins what happened to that Man?
Remember Heckle and Jeckle RL?
Killed in the Philippines on the 21st of April, 1989. RIP
CPTAUSRET
01-14-2005, 10:15
I am glad you guys read Nick Rowe's book.
Here is a thread I started some time ago, re Nick Rowe, and Rocky Versace.
http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=410&highlight=Rocky+Versace
Roguish Lawyer
01-14-2005, 11:41
Remember Heckle and Jeckle RL?
Yes, I do. The cartoon birds, right?
Yeah RL, For a time as a POW he had two birds, he named them after the cartoon birds. Just one of the many ways he develped to help him survive mentally.
Killed in the Philippines on the 21st of April, 1989. RIP
Yes Tuukka... actually murdered, assassinated in his vehicle by "insurgents".
I am glad you guys read Nick Rowe's book.
Here is a thread I started some time ago, re Nick Rowe, and Rocky Versace.
http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=410&highlight=Rocky+Versace
Just went back and read your thread CPT....... fantastic, I've only started delving into the archives on this site. Thanks for mentioning it here and incredible story of the rescue mission you took part in, to get those Men out. I remember from the the book how defiant and tough Rocky Versace was during his captivity. What I just learned however from following your older thread that he/his family finally received what he deserved so long ago THE MOH and of course it took a man like GW to get that done. I had no idea. Again, thanks.
NousDefionsDoc
01-15-2005, 00:36
Yes Tuukka... actually murdered, assassinated in his vehicle by "insurgents".
Several of us were supposed to be on that trip. I was "invited" to go as a member of a heavy A. It got canked, by State I believe, after we submitted the drafts for the log. IMUA was on it as well. One of my few regrets from my time in.
Several of us were supposed to be on that trip. I was "invited" to go as a member of a heavy A. It got canked, by State I believe, after we submitted the drafts for the log. IMUA was on it as well. One of my few regrets from my time in.
NDD, I really suck at trying to type my feelings and I've been away a long time so I don't completely understand all the new lingo and abv's. Tell ya what though, what's stickin in your craw is the fact that you may have been there when that happened, and you (here's where the typing thing gets tough) feel and truely believe you could have interdicted/stopped those slime. You also know you are good enough to have done it, Ever since I heard about it and it was on the news (knowing most in this country were going... who??) I always felt if I could have been there, perhaps I could have made a difference, thing is you and some others were invited to go and the politicians reared thier ugly friggin head. Then again, if you were... who knows, best to have had the shot though. The beginning of an interesting story, if you'd like to elaborate.
I have a few regrets from my time in as well........
Team Sergeant
01-15-2005, 07:49
Read it some years ago. Very good book.
"actually murdered, assassinated in his vehicle by "insurgents"."
Yes and it was a very professional hit, IMO above and beyond the intellectual capacity of the local insurgents....
NousDefionsDoc
01-15-2005, 10:47
NDD, I really suck at trying to type my feelings and I've been away a long time so I don't completely understand all the new lingo and abv's. Tell ya what though, what's stickin in your craw is the fact that you may have been there when that happened, and you (here's where the typing thing gets tough) feel and truely believe you could have interdicted/stopped those slime. You also know you are good enough to have done it, Ever since I heard about it and it was on the news (knowing most in this country were going... who??) I always felt if I could have been there, perhaps I could have made a difference, thing is you and some others were invited to go and the politicians reared thier ugly friggin head. Then again, if you were... who knows, best to have had the shot though. The beginning of an interesting story, if you'd like to elaborate.
No, I couldn't have stopped it nor could anybody else. But they changed the mission and sent him alone. Perhaps he wouldn't have been where he was or had that profile with the original mission. Mostly what I meant was I regret the mission didn't go. The crew they picked would have KIAd a boatload of terrorists. I'm not arrogant enough to think my simple "being there" will significantly alter a course of events. Not yet anyway. :o
No, I couldn't have stopped it nor could anybody else. But they changed the mission and sent him alone. Perhaps he wouldn't have been where he was or had that profile with the original mission. Mostly what I meant was I regret the mission didn't go. The crew they picked would have KIAd a boatload of terrorists. I'm not arrogant enough to think my simple "being there" will significantly alter a course of events. Not yet anyway. :o
Yes NDD, I was referring to you and the others that had at onetime been invited. Traveling with him.
Yeah TS, they weren't local scumbags, that were wandering the streets with AK's or whatever, wondering what to do that day and came upon Colonel Rowe.
CPTAUSRET
01-17-2005, 17:54
Just went back and read your thread CPT....... fantastic, I've only started delving into the archives on this site. Thanks for mentioning it here and incredible story of the rescue mission you took part in, to get those Men out. I remember from the the book how defiant and tough Rocky Versace was during his captivity. What I just learned however from following your older thread that he/his family finally received what he deserved so long ago THE MOH and of course it took a man like GW to get that done. I had no idea. Again, thanks.
De nada.
I deeply regret that we didn't get to Nick Rowe, it wasn't because we didn't exhaust all our resources trying, we were just out gunned and out manned.
It would have taken a MUCH larger ground force than we inserted into that LZ, and AC 130 gunships (Puff), a continual resupply of troops, ammo, water, and medevacs overhead; it could have turned into another Ia Drang, but that wasn't in the plans.
Terry
De nada.
I deeply regret that we didn't get to Nick Rowe, it wasn't because we didn't exhaust all our resources trying, we were just out gunned and out manned.
It would have taken a MUCH larger ground force than we inserted into that LZ, and AC 130 gunships (Puff), a continual resupply of troops, ammo, water, and medevacs overhead; it could have turned into another Ia Drang, but that wasn't in the plans.
Terry
I can imagine the regret you and the others felt that risked thier lives to get Nick Rowe. I sure would have. A major attempt was made and you participated in that CPT. Even if you guys had gotten them out, doesn't change the fact that you all laid it out there to get at them. Either way, all of ya gave it your best.
Endorphin Rush
01-18-2005, 00:35
I, too, read Nick Rowe's book many years ago...and probably 2-3 times again since then.
I never thought that I would ever "speak" with any man who ever knew him.
I am honored...and humbled. God bless you all!!!
Archer06
01-18-2005, 13:08
never thought that I would ever "speak" with any man who ever knew him.
I feel the same. Words can not express my feelings.
The Reaper
01-18-2005, 22:23
I, too, read Nick Rowe's book many years ago...and probably 2-3 times again since then.
I never thought that I would ever "speak" with any man who ever knew him.
I am honored...and humbled. God bless you all!!!
There is at least one QP here who I happen to know was a good friend of COL Rowe's.
Hope he steps up and contributes.
TR
I for one would like to read anything he'd be willing to share.
Hey guys got the PM from the Reaper, I guess I'm the QP he was referring to. COL Rowe was my boss and ass close friend as his family still is (Wife: Susan, Sons Alex and Bryan). I will need to gather my thoughts, check my emotions and will try to explain my feelings about a man I consider a True HERO and a personal Friend. So I promise more to come.
CPTAUSRET
01-19-2005, 10:02
Hey guys got the PM from the Reaper, I guess I'm the QP he was referring to. COL Rowe was my boss and ass close friend as his family still is (Wife: Susan, Sons Alex and Bryan). I will need to gather my thoughts, check my emotions and will try to explain my feelings about a man I consider a True HERO and a personal Friend. So I promise more to come.
Bam Bam:
It truly is difficult reigning in those emotions in order to put pen to paper and write something which might be read by strangers, something that we could easily discuss among ourselves...At lunch our discussions flowed all over the place, no problems whatsoever.
Nancy wants me to write a book, and doesn't understand the emotional baggage I bring to the writing table, and yet I don't have a problem telling those stories to guys who have BTDT.
I too want to hear your thoughts, just wanted you to know that it won't be easy, but it needs/deserves to be told.
Terry
Roguish Lawyer
06-20-2005, 19:37
Bam Bam:
It truly is difficult reigning in those emotions in order to put pen to paper and write something which might be read by strangers, something that we could easily discuss among ourselves...At lunch our discussions flowed all over the place, no problems whatsoever.
Nancy wants me to write a book, and doesn't understand the emotional baggage I bring to the writing table, and yet I don't have a problem telling those stories to guys who have BTDT.
I too want to hear your thoughts, just wanted you to know that it won't be easy, but it needs/deserves to be told.
Terry
Given the impending release of COL Rowe's killer, I thought I would bump this thread. Bam Bam, I know many of us would be very interested to read more about COL Rowe, and also that we will understand if you choose not to write about him.
In memory of Col. James Nick Rowe~
Go For Broke
02-20-2007, 23:01
Two purposes for this -
1) To bump the 5 Years to Freedom - Still a great read (read my father's copy of it as a kid, Hardcover, by MAJ James N. Rowe - shows you how old the copy was). To those in the Q-Course, if you have not read it - Why do you think it is on the reading list?
2) Just finished a (at the time) thought provoking novel also by the late COL. The Judas Squad. Robin Moore quotes on the back, "PRESIDENT CARTER SHOULD MAKE THIS REQUIRED READING FOR HIS ADMINISTRATION". Not sure when I found it or for how much, but you can still find it on-line (out of print) for about a $1.00 (less S+H). Good quick read.
Of the two, still recommend 5 Years to Freedom.
x SF med
02-21-2007, 11:48
I, too, read Nick Rowe's book many years ago...and probably 2-3 times again since then.
I never thought that I would ever "speak" with any man who ever knew him.
I am honored...and humbled. God bless you all!!!
I'm glad this Thread was resurrected. I know a few QP's on this site, myself included, who went through SERE while it was run by COL Rowe at Camp MacKall. The Man made sure you understood that you were not there just to learn, but to experience - it was friggin humbling, and it has stuck in my mind since 1983.
kachingchingpow
02-23-2007, 08:58
I was humbled when I met him.
My orders to show up at the school house were jacked up, so I showed at SWC the day my AIMC class was starting. Needless to say they wouldn't let us in-process and chew up 3-4 valuable days of class, when the washout rate was as high as it was. We had to wait for the next class to start up and pull detail. After earning my rakemaster badge, and shovel-assault wings, I was asked to work for the training group bn cdr, & smaj as a gofer. A lot of it spent running documents and what-not back and forth from the school to the white-house (do they still call it that?). I met and stood at attention in front of a lot of heros during that period... me the lowley worm PFC. Looking back on it, it amazes me at how fairly I was addressed (a couple of 1st sgts come to mind that locked my heels on a regular basis, but that's to be expected).
Every staff member that has worked for me has read 5 Years to Freedom. I'm particularly fond of having my non-native's read it (I work in the software industry, you do the math).
Just finished this one. All I can say is WOW!!
Torture is an obvious way to break someone, but COL Rowe survived an ordeal that would have surely taken many men quicker.
This is now another book that will be read again and again. It is also going into my required reading list for my soldiers and anyone that has never understood hardship. If you know someone that takes things for granted, throw this in their lap, if they shrug it off and don't show a significant difference in their demeanor towards what they have, I'd recommend a serious look at who they really are.
RIP COL Rowe
I haven't seen any posts with respect to the release of Nick Rowe's killer from prison . A notice of comeuppance would be nice. Nick's fellow prisoner, Rocky Versace (MOH-P) was recently honored by his High School in Virginia Beach, VA.
CPTAUSRET
06-07-2007, 06:17
I haven't seen any posts with respect to the release of Nick Rowe's killer from prison . A notice of comeuppance would be nice. Nick's fellow prisoner, Rocky Versace (MOH-P) was recently honored by his High School in Virginia Beach, VA.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1426093/posts
Free Republic
Killer of Col. James Rowe to be released
The Belmont Club | June 18, 2005
Posted on 06/19/2005 7:46:18 AM PDT by SteveMcKing
The assassin of Col. James Rowe, the "political prisoner" Danilo Continente, is scheduled to be freed from prison on June 28th after serving his maximum sentence. Philippine President Fidel Ramos refused to pardon Continente during his term of office despite representations by 'human rights organizations'. But with his sentence served, Continente will soon be a free man. The left-leaning Philippine Daily Inquirer has started a countdown to the blessed moment.
In just nine days, Donato Continente becomes a free man. And for him, freedom means becoming a full-time father to his 6-year-old son. Continente, 43, one of two men convicted in the killing of US Army Col. James Rowe in 1989, is set to be released from the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa on June 28. Bureau of Corrections records show that he has served the maximum sentence of 16 years.
His chief regret, the Inquirer says, has been an inability to spend time with his son, conceived on a conjugal visit.
During the occasional visit, after the child had become comfortable with his father, they would spend the allotted eight hours chatting and frolicking in the prison's playground. "He would often ask me if it was really a prisoner because he couldn't see barred cells and barbed wire." ... Continente was initially convicted as a principal in the murder of Rowe, for which he was given a life sentence on Feb. 27, 1991. But upon review, the Supreme Court ruled in August 2000 that he was only an accomplice and lowered his sentence to 14 years. He was recommended for release thrice under the Ramos administration's amnesty program: In January 1993, by the Presidential Review Committee secretariat; in June 1993, by the Department of Justice, and in 1994, by the Presidential Committee for the Grant of Bail, Release on Pardon and Parole. But Continente remained behind bars, allegedly because of pressure from the US government.
The Left always kept the faith with Continente, who at the time of the murder was a staff member of the Philippine Collegian, the student newspaper of the national university, famous for its radical politics. Ever and again they clamored for his release as they are even now doing for terrorists imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. The New York Times reports:
May 29 - In the last few months, the small commercial air service to the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been carrying people the military authorities had hoped would never be allowed there: American lawyers. And they have been arriving in increasing numbers, providing more than a third of about 530 remaining detainees with representation in federal court. Despite considerable obstacles and expenses, other lawyers are lining up to challenge the government's detention of people the military has called enemy combatants and possible terrorists.
It's a way of sending them their love, showing that they care. And they do. Describing the treatment of terrorists confined in Guantanamo, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said:
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control," he said, "you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings."
In contrast, Colonel Nick Rowe's fate has always been to be forgotten, though he didn't seem to resent it. When Rowe was held captive as a POW in Vietnam, during which he suffered from dysentary, beri-beri and fungal attack -- diseases unknown in Durbin's Guantanamo -- he protected his fellow prisoners by concealing his identity as a Special Forces Officer, which if revealed would single them out for special cruelty. His deception worked for months. But the Left did not forget.
Acting on a request from the North Vietnamese, students in a so-called anti-war organization in the United States researched public records and formulated biographies on Americans captured in Vietnam. After reading Lt. Rowe's biography, his Viet Cong captors became furious. They marched him into a cramped bamboo hut and forced him to sit on the damp clay floor. Several high ranking Viet Cong officials were staring down at Lt. Rowe. They held out a piece of typed onion skin paper.
"The peace and justice loving friends, of the National Liberation Front, who live in America, have provided us with information which leads us to believe you have lied to us," they informed Lt. Rowe. "According to what we know, you are not an engineer . . . you have much military experience which you deny . . . You were an officer of the American Special Forces."
Lt. Rowe sat dumbfounded, unable to comprehend that his own people would betray him. He felt it was over. He had lied to the communists for five years. Worse in their eyes, the Viet Cong had believed him. They had lost face and, for that, he would be punished. Soon after, the Viet Cong Central Committee for the National Liberation Front sent orders to Rowe's camp ordering the cadre to execute the uncooperative American prisoner.
On the day Lt. Rowe was being led to a destination for execution, he and his small group of guards were caught on the edge of an American B-52 saturation bombing raid. The guards scattered, leaving Lt. Rowe with only one. Lt. Rowe knew he had nothing to lose. He bided his time until the remaining guard carelessly moved to Rowe's front, whereupon Lt. Rowe bludgeoned him with a log and escaped. Not only did Lt. Rowe survive his ordeal as a POW, he escaped and emerged stronger than before his capture, more committed to the American ideal and more convinced than ever that what the communists had planned for Vietnam and the world was a blueprint for tyranny and human suffering. Nick Rowe frustrated the communists. They never broke him. They never shook his faith in the American system. He was the quintessential American fighting man, unable to be broken mentally or physically.
The communists, however, never forgot Lt. Nick Rowe. They never forgot the threat men such as he posed to them and their view of world domination. Shortly before 7 a.m. on April 21, 1989, a small white car pulled alongside a gray, chauffeur-driven vehicle in a traffic circle in the Manila suburb of Quezon City. The barrels of an M-16 rifle and a .45-caliber pistol poked out the window of the white car and spit out more than two dozen shots. Twenty-one of them hit the gray car. One of the rounds hit Col. James "Nick" Rowe in the head, killing him instantly. The hooded NPA killers had ties to the communist Vietnamese, Rowe's old enemies in Vietnam. It took the communists nearly 25 years, but they finally silenced Nick Rowe. What they could not do in a jungle cage in South Vietnam's U Minh Forest through torture, intimidation, and political indoctrination, they did with a .45 and an American-made M-16 on the streets of Manila.
His killer will be free in 9 days.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
I recently finished this book after an encounter with the Bearded One. It was both deeply moving and informative, and it is clear that all US troops currently benefitting from SERE training owe COL Rowe a debt of gratitude.
The Reaper
06-07-2007, 08:07
I recently finished this book after an encounter with the Bearded One. It was both deeply moving and informative, and it is clear that all US troops currently benefitting from SERE training owe COL Rowe a debt of gratitude.
And where, pray tell, did you meet the Bearded One?
TR
Roguish Lawyer
06-07-2007, 09:54
I haven't seen any posts with respect to the release of Nick Rowe's killer from prison . A notice of comeuppance would be nice. Nick's fellow prisoner, Rocky Versace (MOH-P) was recently honored by his High School in Virginia Beach, VA.
http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7238&highlight=rowe
The Reaper
06-07-2007, 11:02
I guess the search button still works after all.
At the same time, I hope that the murderers are repaid in spades for their heinous assassination of the COL.
RIP, Sir.
TR
And where, pray tell, did you meet the Bearded One?
TR
PM out, Sir.
The Reaper
06-07-2007, 15:46
I believe that he registered here, but never posted.
Hope that you extended an invite.
TR