“Scars & Stripes”–Another Classic

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“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:35,38-39

If by “classic” we mean that something is “timeless”—with truth that applies no matter the circumstances and no matter the time frame. . . then Scars & Stripes is a classic must- read. Like Commitment to Love, it’s the true story of a family struggling through the Vietnam War—but the struggle in this book is of survival as a POW in the “Hanoi Hilton.”

My husband and I learned of this book at the retirement ceremony for a regional command Navy chaplain who knew the author, Captain Eugene B. “Red” McDaniel. He told those attending that he never let this book be very far from his side. This great man of God, retiring after thirty years of service, said that he referred to McDaniel’s book often, as a reminder to keep perspective and understand the price of perseverance under extreme circumstances.

This is not an easy read . . . the torturous treatment that our Vietnam POWs endured is not something that we wish to imagine, much less read about in detail. But it happened and those who survived are national treasures, no doubt. Red McDaniel was one of those who survived—from being shot down in his A-6 in 1967 and being imprisoned until 1973.

This book is not just one about the particulars of the fateful mission, a rescue that didn’t happen, untold torture sessions and the personalities of the torturers, the POW community which created a communication system at great risk, the politics of the war, or how his family coped during his absence . . . it’s the story of a man who saw God work even when he had lost all hope.

Red McDaniel shares what went on in his heart . . . and that is what takes his writing beyond autobiographical history to spiritual insight and instruction. The following excerpts from his book are significant, I believe, because they have a message for us today:

“For, while we had to face the pressure of torture every day from the outside, it was the war inside—the battle against boredom, depression, anxiety, and the problem of just plain living together—that had its effect as well . . . The only way to keep those irritations from exploding was to force myself not to let it get to me, and this was often a matter of pure will.” (p. 85, 86)

“I began to take inventory of myself, and the spiritual became the prominent vein of thought. Others were beginning to feel the same, so we formed a Daily Prayer Club, which was responsible for coming up with one spiritual thought a day. I began to quote Bible verses I had memorized from my childhood and church, some verbatim but many paraphrased. Others began to do the same. I wish I had memorized more in my early years.” (p. 99)

“Pain has a way of focusing for a man, giving him recall of what really matters. With death knocking at the door, a man has time for only one thing: to go out with some kind of honor.” (p. 114)

“I knew that if He didn’t do something, reveal something of Himself to me, I could not make it. And, in my feeble way again, I said, “Lord . . . it’s all Yours . . . whatever this means, whatever it is supposed to accomplish in me, whatever You have in mind now with all of this, it’s all Yours . . .’ That was all I could say. That was all I had the mental strength to frame. I knew it wasn’t much, but I meant it. It was the first time I had ever prayed so straight, so directly, so meaningfully. Whatever ‘commitment’ I had given to Him up until then had never brought from me a prayer of surrender like that . . . . And, as I fell forward, too weak to stay kneeling, dropping down into my own blood and wastes, it suddenly seemed that the fifteen-watt bulb was turning on a glow of warmth within me. It was God. It had to be. I was alone, all the grim horrors of the past days and nights still with me, but now I had a moment of peace.” (p. 120, 121)

“There was never any doubt as I prayed that Christ had done something in my life . . . something profound, something very deep, something meaningful that would follow me all my days. There was no question that I had been perfected in my faith through what I had suffered. Perfected to the point that my view of a good many things had changed—even that of my VC jailers. I no long regretted the time in torture, nor did I feel that every quiz or interrogation session was evidence of God’s letting me down. Each incident now was building in me a new sensitivity to God and all who were around me.” (p. 132)

Upon the momentous release of the POWs in stages early in 1973, McDaniel recalls his thoughts as he rode away from the prison in a bus, looking back at one particularly evil guard who had tried to remove from him every semblance of normalcy and dignity: “. . . I knew I had come a long way from my first terrifying moment in that shoot-down. I had come six years in time; but in it, God had turned me around . . . so that I could stand there and look into the face of a man who had done all he could to break me and yet feel only a desire to share with him the inner, deeper secrets of God and His love and His never-ending care.” (p. 167)

Because of the loving and faithful support of his wife and three children, Red returned to his home in 1973 to then continue his career with the Navy for nine more honorable years.  But the story of what his family experienced during his captivity is every bit as meaningful as what I have included previously from Red’s words. At the end of the book, Dorothy McDaniel shares some of what those years meant to her, “When I realized how God was using the situation, I thought of the verses in II Corinthians 1 that tell us that Christ ‘comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trial; . . so that when others are troubled . . . we can pass on this same help and comfort God has given us.’ I began to see that as part of the purpose God had for my sufferings. There were some things I needed to know and was beginning to understand. I realized how shallow my spiritual life—and Red’s—had been, how busy we had been building our home and making a living, and I wondered if I could share all this with him in any meaningful way if and when he ever got home. It was a lack of faith on my part not to know that it was a learning time for him, too.” (p. 189)

When asked in the summer of 1973 after Red’s repatriation to speak about her faith, she asked herself some poignant questions, “How do you put into a few words that gradual awareness of God’s voice speaking, of God’s hand working, until it becomes a sure, steady knowledge of His love? How do you explain His power to work best when we feel most helpless?” (p. 190)

In the years following their reunion, Captain Red McDaniel was awarded the Navy’s highest award for bravery, the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit with Combat “V”, the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars with Combat “V”, and two Purple Hearts for wounds received at the hands of North Vietnamese torturers. He served as the Commanding Officer of the USS Niagara Falls and later the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. Before his retirement in 1982 he served a tour as Director of Navy/Marine Corps Liaison to the U.S. House of Representatives, working daily with Congress on national defense planning and strategic development of Navy forces around the world. Today he serves as the president of the American Defense Institute.

The circumstances of today’s global war on terror are different from the circumstances which brought the McDaniel family through a crisis of military service and a crisis of faith. But the common elements of fear, loneliness, hopelessness, anger, bitterness and uncertainty remain the same for our military families today. The McDaniel family can be an example to all of us in coming to terms with those elements because of God’s goodness. Red concludes at the end of the book that he knows the reality of Romans 8:35,38-39 in his life and says, “My human energy and will went as far as it could, but in the end it was God and God alone who made the difference, who widened the margins of life in His own miraculous way, who took my broken, weak body and soul and put them back together again.” (p. 172)

Amen.

Work cited:

McDaniel, Eugene B., Scars & Stripes: The True Story of One Man’s Courage in Facing Death as a Vietnam POW (New York: A.J. Holman Co., 1975)

Questions to Share:

1. What do you remember of the time in American history when military men were held captive in North Vietnam?

2. How does the McDaniel’s story in Scars & Stripes inspire you?