"The memories of my imprisonment will forever plague my mind, for the unsightly things I was a witness to are too horrid to forget."
These are the sorrowful words of a fatigued soldier, Luis A. Rockler, who just last Wednesday returned home after being a prisoner of war to Korea for more than two years. Rockler, who was part of the over nine-hundred army and airforce personnel that disappeared shortly before the Big Switch, was quick to tell others of his life-altering experience.
According to him, many United States soldiers were transported to the Soviet Union after being captured in Korea. There, they are either languishing in Soviet prisons or being subjected to brutal medical and psychological tests. Rockler, however, was sent to a "hospital of horrors" in North Korea. Here, the Soviets experimented on him and other American prisoners of war.
In one case, the POWs were used as bodies for training military doctors in field medicine. "My best friend was told to follow two armed men into a small room, and then only screams of distress could be heard as an inexperienced student amputated his leg," Rockler painfully recalled. "The fact that there was nothing I could do to help him was what haunted me the most." Other POWs were used to test the effects of chemical and biological warfare agents and the effects of atomic radiation. Rockler was used to test the physiological and psychological endurance of American soldiers.
"I was forcefully deprived of sleep to see how long I could stay awake. Sometimes, it was days before I was allowed to close my eyes," Rockler stated. Later, the Soviets tried to test his mental state. "They began to tell me that ghastly things were occurring in my home town and convinced me of several other ideas before I finally cracked. I thought I'd never get home and began to wonder if I'd ever see my wife and kids again. The pressure and build up was unbearable."
Rockler lived in these situations for two years before he was finally released when questioned about by American authorities. He is now home with his wife and two children, trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. When ordered, he will testify as witness to the cruelties taking place in North Korea and the Soviet Union towards American prisoners.
Though Rockler has safely returned home, the United States is left to wonder about the hundreds of other American prisoners who are still being held after war terms. Wishful thinking can only be accompanied by hope that something will be done to successfully rescue the remaining soldiers.
"I must be blessed to have made it so far after seeing and living so much. War is more destructive than the average eye will ever see," Rockler stated. "I can only now pray for those brave souls left behind, but never forgotten."