Spoiler Alert !
A 'Tony Franciosa' Segment Episode.
As (then in 1969) the Vietnam war rages on...'People' Magazine's Star Reporter Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa) learns from an Army Deserter of an 'all too realistic' Army training camp which is supposed to prepare Soldiers for possible P.O.W. Torture techniques at the hands of the enemy, as a part of their training, but at this specific camp have things gone too far...?
Dillon is initially sceptical of the Deserter's claims, thinking such things just could NOT happen....but then agrees to go undercover posing as a U.S.Soldier to experience the camp first hand...with unexpected results !
Dillon is shocked to find that the camp IS being run as if it were a REAL P.O.W. camp with a iron fisted Base Commander Col. Royce (superbly played by Guest Star Steve Forrest) - Col. Royce is himself a highly decorated Korean War veteran having been captured and tortured in that earlier conflict...we duly learn he is not quite the 'enemy' we are built up to expect him to be, but is genuinely trying to prepare the men under his command for the worst...
...while of course SOME of those under his Command take FULL advantage of the 'position of power' they enjoy....
Dillon finally manages to convince the Colonel there MUST always be a difference between preparing soldiers for the horrors of war and imprisonment ....and the real thing.
A powerful and disturbing episode, with 'flashback' scenes of Steve Forrest's character being tortured by his Korean War captors....this episode, in light of modern day tales of possible wartime prisoner mistreatment (on all sides) and the mental damage done to such victims, is both moving and thought provoking....
Can such places still secretly exist in the world today we find ourselves asking at the end... ?
A 'Tony Franciosa' Segment Episode.
As (then in 1969) the Vietnam war rages on...'People' Magazine's Star Reporter Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa) learns from an Army Deserter of an 'all too realistic' Army training camp which is supposed to prepare Soldiers for possible P.O.W. Torture techniques at the hands of the enemy, as a part of their training, but at this specific camp have things gone too far...?
Dillon is initially sceptical of the Deserter's claims, thinking such things just could NOT happen....but then agrees to go undercover posing as a U.S.Soldier to experience the camp first hand...with unexpected results !
Dillon is shocked to find that the camp IS being run as if it were a REAL P.O.W. camp with a iron fisted Base Commander Col. Royce (superbly played by Guest Star Steve Forrest) - Col. Royce is himself a highly decorated Korean War veteran having been captured and tortured in that earlier conflict...we duly learn he is not quite the 'enemy' we are built up to expect him to be, but is genuinely trying to prepare the men under his command for the worst...
...while of course SOME of those under his Command take FULL advantage of the 'position of power' they enjoy....
Dillon finally manages to convince the Colonel there MUST always be a difference between preparing soldiers for the horrors of war and imprisonment ....and the real thing.
A powerful and disturbing episode, with 'flashback' scenes of Steve Forrest's character being tortured by his Korean War captors....this episode, in light of modern day tales of possible wartime prisoner mistreatment (on all sides) and the mental damage done to such victims, is both moving and thought provoking....
Can such places still secretly exist in the world today we find ourselves asking at the end... ?
