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Show 2 & ri The Salt Lake Trihqne, Sunday, September 2, 1973 An Ex-POW, 6 Months Later r. f rr Macs Free Now , Trying to Find Family , Career By EDITOR'S NOTE iix monffts AP Writer John Newsfeatures ago It heeler reported the joys and trials of a POW's return to his family u.id his country. They were hectic, headHned days of heroes. What about now? Wheeler located Maj. Norman McDaniel again and here is his story; John T. Wheeler Associated Press Writer 'It and his wife have found differences their lives after his years in the Hanoi Mac not unreasonable was NORFOLK, v'A. -one of many restless, thrashing nights when bitter memories of prisoner of war Ufe ruse up in stark nightmare. May Norman McDaniel was oack in a ceU at the Hanoi food He wants me to go back seven years, Jean says. I dont think I can or even want to. He is so Im not any part of womens liberation. But I was so sheltered before (he left) I thought I couldnt do anything. I found I could do anything about as well as a man. If I can, why do I have to ask permission for all that? rd they were torturing him agiok of the guards, maybe it wafeTthe sadistic one nick-nDum Dum, was stabbing him with a bayonet. Another guard, possibly the brutal Bllvit, was driving slivers o tt bamboo under Macs fingernails the dream as other nightmares there was a certain kOowledge that it would all go on forever the beatings, the torture, the bleak routine of cjmp life. The gates would forever be closed. Death was, tlie only way out. There would b$ no reunion with his wife, Jean, asleep beside him now. llinSever again would see his djjldren, Randy and Crystal Xt Thrashes Around Cffe thrashes around so wildly sometimes, I think he is; going to throw me out of bed, Jean says. I dont remember any nightmares before he was sent to Southeast Asia. She sees other things More Pensive jin a she doesnt remember compulsive need to keep busy, a! brooding seriousness, a rigidity in his approach to life. For Mac and the other former, POWs, a part of their minds perhaps always will be in prison at the Hanoi Hilton, Heartbreak Hotel, the Zoo and other camps. Mac spent 6 years as a POW, almost one day of every five he has been alive. SKmonths after his release, Mae says he still is recovering arwCadjusting. There are still peflSSs when he must pull wiffiin himself looking for the strength and wisdom to get his life geared once again to freedom Tougher POW The Pentagon considered Mac, 35, one of the tougher POWs, a natural leader noted for helping other prisoners. But even on the strongest the torture, the helplessness, the hopelessness left deep wounds that will take much time to heal. The dreams, the hopefully only temporarily changed the among personalities POWs, is vivid testimony to the problems the former prisoners will face, perhaps m some degree, for some men, forever. Experts at the Pentagon say the men have double burdens as they try to move back into the mainstream of Amencan life. Not only must they come to terms with their camp experiences, they must adjust and catch up with the dr-salterations in Amencan i'e One major example of this is the effect of the feminist movement on wives who during iheir husbands absences had to b" both mother and father and are loath to give up roles. their decisionmaking Perhaps thus is one of the most serious pressures on the men and their mamages now. Drugs and dropouts among their children is another hc ranks already Tha have been cut by two, Air Force Capt. Edward A. Brud-n- i who committed suicide in Jun and Marine Sgt Abel expe- riences any deviation from routine or instructions normally resulted in beatings or the withdra ;al of privileges and lljlton. ' considering that during Macs camp Jean sees other fundamental Hes more pensive changes and senous than before He seems to have a compulsive need to keep busy. I think lfs getting worse. Hes easy to get along with, but he seems to have lost his sense cf humor. Jean concedes she has a problem of thinking in terms f of being a couple one-hal- I still talk about my car, and when he first came home it was my house. The Pentagon says the resumption, or nonresumption, of POWs as the male in their families can be critical to them readjustment agam Maj. Norman McDaniel, POW for six and a half years, surveys Larry Kavanaugh himself to death same month. who shot later the Count on Camaraderie Oddly enough, one spokesman said, many men who may be pushed into tight, perhaps too tight, emotional corners at home may be more prone to break down there tnan m the camps themseiv es In the prisons the POWs treat-- , edr each other and counted on a deep camaraderie In the United States, the spokesman said, men fear to seek professional psychiatric help because of social stigma and the fear it will hurt their careers Without professional help, the incidence of disabling neuroses and the like may be higher in the future than necessary, some experts believed. So far, 13 of the 325 Air Force POWs were divorced before they got home, 19 are in the process now and two dozen couples are in formal family counseling programs that the Air Force knows of None has been institutionalized for psychiatric problems We A spokesman said, dont expect thp really severe to psychological problems show up for two years or so The guys are ndtng pretty high now as national heroes He said when they become just another jet jockey or are flying very dull desks, the situation is expected to alter Grope for Words After 14 months in solitary confinement, repeated beatings and torture, short rations and filthy conditions including an open bucket for a toilet, Mac says he knows he has some hard readjustments. Whole hunks of his vocabulary disappeared, and six months after his release he says he still must grope for words which he feels he often mispronounces er misuses Learning how to drive agam was a tough More sen- - I Staff ginia Vir- in College Library where he resumed career. ous, he feels his mind deteno-ratefrom the intellectually barren years. I lost some of my ability to retain and abinformation sorb rapidly. There has been a marked improvement, but it is not up to precaptivity. I think it will continue to come back, but not all the way. d Mac reads voraciously, trying to catch up with the lost years and to get plugged into the present His wife says he even reads junk mail for Mac, the Because, crunch is on again He recently started classes at Armed Forces Statf College here When it lets out in January, he hopes to go back to college for a masters. Before joining the Air Force, he won a cum laude degree in chemistry at and Technical Agriculture State, a black college m Greensboro, N C Speaking of his comrades from the camps, Macs face clouds a bit as he says, In six months well see the trouble begin. Guys will find they arent hacking it Theyll fad in school or flying they wont be able to get along others " He Jean still does not want to talk about his prison experiences, something which Mac savs makes it a little tough on me. I need to talk it out sometimes Jeans switch from passive housewife to a decidedly independent person m her own right also disturbs Mac somewhat Wife Not Sure isnt so sure how going yet. He gets upset with me when I get upset because he wants me to ask permission to do things. If were driving home and I detour to the supermarket he gets upset A psychiatrist said this is His wife its Well bee Trouble with above that would be just gravy. Both Jean and Mac consider their marriage to be an unusually strong one. If I haunt really loved him, I dont think we could have gotten this far, she said. She was speaking not only of the years she spent in her own prison of loneliness, but the pressures she sees that have developed since Macs return says he expects more That place (prison) its toll The North -- m BEST SEA S T Both Jean and Mac have checking accounts, but Jean says she still pays all the family bills, a point she makes with some pnde. Before the war, Mac did all that. Fundamental Differences Neither Mac nor Jean see any real fundamental difficulNo ties between them There is one cloud on the intellectual side of their lives. Mac and Jean say they were in HU- ton. But the electricity, maybe even better than ever, I - war could have been won with far fewer casualties and less destruction on all sides otism. ide Its he go back to war, any war, the country found itself in? My decision to stay m the Air Force answers that. Mac expresses an intense patnotism and carefully hews to the military line that waen the government or President orders them into battle, they go without a plebiscite on the had bought Crys- The first tal, 8, Mac says: few weeks home they were very obedient and anxious to please. Now, the novelty is off and Ive had to tighten discipline. Crystal didnt even know what a daddy was, and Randy was really too young to know what a fathers role in the family was his absence y was in a middle-twhite, class neighborin (my house) predo-mwentlo he has However, his view on amnesty softened for w'ar resisterS since his arrival when he said,Those who refused to serve shouldnt escape punitive action. Now he feels resisters could clear their slates with equivalent time spent serving their country, in such jobs as orderlies in hospitals and the like Disturbs Me wars merits Dunng Macs captiv lty Jean originally followed the Pentagons policy of writing Hanoi and asking for better treatment for Mac and the other POWs. After a few years, she decided one day she did not want better treatment for Mac m the Hanoi Hilton, she wanted him home where she could take care of the treatment. She began writing congressmen asking them to stop the war. Later she worked for Sen. George McGoverns 1972 presidential campaign the same, Jean decia.es. lusioning Decision Shows As is disil- upper-middl- Would Noveltys off for Randy, 10, and fashionable to der- patnotism and this its On race relations, Mac says his reading and observations since returning indicate a decrease m the efforts at intean atmosphere that gration whites have done as much as they are going to do. It disturbs me. But the blacks have hurt their own cause. They have been too forceful an attitude of Ill take mine whether you want to give it to me or not. As a minority there is just so much taking you can do - In an earlier interview in their Greensboro home, Mac had voiced the same sentiments, and Jean shot back, If no one had pushed, how do you think we could be livThe house Jean ing here? e hood Wants to Get On Like many former POWs, Mac has made his share of speeches since arriving home, one of the things that has kept . the POWs before the public-eyeMac says now that he is back on duty, he hopes he can drop his role as former POW and just get on with his ca-- , reer and life The Pentagon, too, wants fast return to a normal life a1 No one is more in agree-- ' ment than Jean. Im Bred of, being a freak living m a fish-bowl I want to get back to; Jean Mrs being plain McDaniel. 1 Perhaps the nation is ready,, as well. The avalanche of let-- , ters that rolled in for the first weeks and months following Macs homecoming to a tnckle ORGAN CLUB Being Organized Monthly Entertainment Phone 486-811- 9 After six months in his homeland, Mac despairs over some of what he sees as major trends that developed Im most impressed with the lack of patn- in his absence FURNITURE both mildly conservative when Mac went away. Jean says she ne er really thought about the war until Mac went and was shot down Now they disto the point agree strongly they duck the issue and agree simply to disagree Mac says, I personally still ft el our purpose was right. If I had it to do over agam, I would 1 want to go back into living eventually. However, I still do feel that there was a question of the conduct of the war It is an often stated theory among professional mditary men that had the civilians in Washington gone all out, the IN THE HOUSE". suicides. took officially say of all services died 45 men m captivit-y- , and some military men believe some of these were suiThank God I was cides. strong enough ir there, Mac says A major portion of the bedrock Mac stands atop is his famdy. Asked if he encountered any major disappointments on his return, the said moustachioed major theie were none. Seven-foo- TODAY & In Color fn Deluxe Pearl TOMORROW Biggest Hope (lJT) tall wrought iron bookcase t Fashionable decorating thrives on accents like this fabulous bookcase in heavy, expensive wrought $j iron, beautifully finished in black. Delivered free, of coursp, with our famous warranty of quality. Copyright C1973 RB Industries, Inc., r. 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