War words

Posted by ESC on April 15, 2003

NAME, RANK & SERIAL NUMBER/FIGHTING MAN'S CODE - "In 1955 (U.S.) President Eisenhower signed the first military Code of Conduct, then called the 'Fighting Man's Code.' It spelled out a soldier's duty if taken prisoner -- no collaboration with the enemy, give only name, rank and serial number, resist the enemy, and so forth. This gave POWs (prisoners of war) guidance in the Vietnam War, even as the military psychologists were still just learning how to handle returning POWs." From "Tending to the Psychic Wounds of POWs/ Military 'Decompression' Eases Transition" by Don Oldenburg, Washington Post Staff Writer, April 15, 2003,

DECOMPRESSION - "The military defines decompression as 'the process of normalizing psycho-physiological and behavioral adjustments that individuals made in order to cope' with hostile captivity, isolation, degradation, beating and torture. In other words, to survive that extreme traumatic and pathogenic ordeal, POWs often must engage in abnormal mental states and skills from which they need to be eased back to normality." From "Tending to the Psychic Wounds of POWs/ Military 'Decompression' Eases Transition" by Don Oldenburg,