The whole idea that the rescue was staged or the soldiers were shooting blanks, that's just obvious stuff. Why would you do that in the middle of a war? It's just crazy.
The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans.
I know that I'm already in the history books and that people are going to remember me as the prisoner of war and the fabricated stories, but you know, to me I was just another soldier over there doing my job.
I don't come from a rich family - it's not like we lived in a cardboard box, but we didn't have a ton of money.
