Local Vietnam Veteran Recalls Torture

COVINGTON, La. - WDSU .com

As the country salutes the men and women of the military on Veterans Day, one man recalls how close he came to the brink of death during the Vietnam war and how he survived.

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Murphy Neal Jones, of Covington, was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam when the U.S. first bombed Hanoi. He was shot down on June 26, 1966.

Jones' fighter jet took a direct hit from an anti-aircraft round. It blasted through the plane near the cockpit, tearing out the bottom of the aircraft.

"The airplane had pitched down slightly and was rolling slightly to the left out of control and I ejected about 300 feet above the ground," Jones said.

Jones said he hit the ground, bounced about 10 or 15 feet in the air and staggered to his feet only to discover that he had injuries to both legs and a broken left arm. However, his ordeal was only beginning.

"I saw about 30 north Vietnamese running towards me. They were only about 75 to 100 yards away," he said.

Jones was taken prisoner at the infamous Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp. There, he discovered that he also had six fractured vertebrae and two completely torn anterior cruciate ligaments in his knees. Despite his injuries, Jones was subjected to excruciating torture.

"(They) put my left arm in a hammer lock," Jones said. "I could feel my hand at the top of my head. They tied my ankles together very tightly with a rope, tied my wrists behind my back, wrapped a rope twice around the right arm, rolled me over on my right side, stood on the broken arm, shoved the elbows together, tied it up very tight like a tourniquet, then ran a piece of rope from my ankles up behind my back to my elbows and pulled me up backwards and then they started beating me."

The torture continued for 10 days and 10 nights. Jones said what got him through was his fellow POWs and his faith.

"I knew no atheists in prison," Jones said. "I mean whether you were Jewish, Catholic or Muslim, it didn't matter. I mean we all worshiped together."

Jones spent six and a half years as a POW. He was released on Feb. 12, 1973. Despite his ordeal, Jones returned to the cockpit as commander of the 357th tactical fighter squadron and as chief of the war and mobilization planning division at Air Force headquarters. He is now retired.

Jones urged the country to honor the men and women who fought and died for their freedom.

"The military has made it possible in this country for us to live the way we do today and they need to remember that," he said.

Jones credited his conditioning as an athlete for being able to endure the extreme physical torture. He is a member of the Tulane University and Baton Rouge High School halls of fame. Jones also said he's worried that the war in Afghanistan will turn into another Vietnam, with the military being sacrificed due to political indecision.

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