Irving Rice; phony POW’s records
Last month we discussed Irving Rice, the aircraft mechanic who was captured by the Viet Cong and subsequently escaped in a vivid tale of derring-do. Of course, he wasn’t on the DoD’s POW/MIA website, but the tale was told in the pages of Unionville, Pennsylvania’s Herald Standard;
Rice’s journey has another chapter, one that defines him to this day. He was captured by Viet Cong on March 5 outside Saigon.
“I saw a little Vietnamese boy crying,” Rice said with a faraway look in his eyes. “I decided to go down to check this out, to see if he is in trouble. I wanted to see if there is anything wrong. Little did I know that that one little trip down there would change my life forever. I had no clue there was a Viet Cong unit down there.”
Rice said it was dark when he was ambushed. The soldiers beat him up and he passed out.
“When I came to, I was in severe pain,” he said. “I was bleeding. I was lying on a cot in a jail cell. I didn’t know what to think, but I knew I had to get out of there.”
Rice said the jail cell was not very big, maybe 10 feet by 8 feet and had a wooden door. By Rice’s estimate, he was probably there more than eight hours.
“I knew I had to move,” he said. “I was hurt, but I finally got up. I went across the room, across the jail cell. I then ran as fast as I could, kicked the wooden door. I fell back. I was hurt, but I got out.”
Rice said he was able to crawl onto the building’s roof where he saw barbed wire everywhere. The young soldier knew he was far from safe.
“As soon as I got on top of that building, I heard pow, pow, pow, zing, right past my head,” he said. “I thought, ‘they are shooting at me,’ so I started rolling.”
Rice said he rolled off the roof and fell maybe six feet. He crawled to a cemetery, rolled over a stone wall and into the woods.
“I laid down there,” he said. “I said this is where I’m going to die. I didn’t want to die at the hands of the Viet Cong soldiers. I didn’t know what kind of injuries I had. There was so much pain in my legs. I laid there and thought, this is it.”
Rice remembers hearing a jeep before he was spotted by American soldiers. The soldiers picked him up and told him what was happening.
“The guys said, ‘You are the lucky one,’” he said. “I said, ‘I don’t feel so lucky.’ They said, ‘There was a big battle last night. We did a room to room search. We found other American soldiers, but they all had their throats cut.’”
Rice said that news was a lot to bear then and now.
“It hit me that I was the only one who escaped that building. I carried that to this day,” he said.
Yeah, well he was an Air Force mechanic and he was at Tan Son Nhut Airbase in Vietnam, but his records surprisingly don’t mention his capture by the Viet Cong;
His FOIA request turned up an Air Force Commendation Medal that doesn’t mention his capture either. Like I said before, it took him 40 years to tell his story and he should have waited another 40 years to tell it. He should have stuck to writing poetry instead of fiction.
Category: Phony soldiers
Really?
Sounds like he ate a bad burrito and watched a Chuck Norris movie before bed.
OR…..is simply stupid enough to think people will believe that complete line of BS.
Doc Savage…Spew alert please! LMAO I was thinking a big German sausage w/kraut right before bed and a Chuck Norris Movie to fall asleep to.
Funny.
Another example of perfectly honorable service shot to hell by lying.
Like most of you, I just don’t get people like this. Join the service during war time, they do they part even if the job they have isn’t glamorous, then come back home and muck it all up with lies.
Oh – His records say Tan Son Nhut. But the AFCOM award citation says Bien Hoa.
LebbenB: I think the line on his assignments is for the 469th Tac Recon Wing (Bde-level equivalent). I’m guessing that was his parent HQ, and that he personally was assigned to the 6251st Maint Sqdn, which was a subordinate unit of the 469th. Don’t have time to research that, but I’d bet that’s the case.
He simply figured 40+ years was long enough to get away with baffling everyone with bullsh!t. So he decided to play the “phony POW card” to make his background look better and more authentic regarding his poetry.
The LSoS figured wrong.
Fhak’eem.
Hondo…What I don’t get about most of these guys, is that they will not Google simple things like, proper wear of a uniform, precedence of awards, list of MOH recipients, list of POWs. I mean this guy seems pretty savvy enough, yet he claims something so easily shot down. Doesn’t make sense to me but then again most posers leave me baffled anyway. I believe Sergeant McSoup Sandwich, though he has passed now, had some mental stuff going on, obviously. But the vast majority cannot lay claim to that as an excuse. Reference such as, Bernath, Chevalier, Giduck, Shortbus41, and of course the master himself Phil Monkress of All-Point Logistics. (Had to get the Google hits in there)
I’ll never understand it either, Sparks.
Even if all you did was “shovel sh!t in Louisiana”, honorable wartime service is a thing to be proud of.
This tool did far more than “shovel sh!t in Louisiana” – he served in-theater, doing an essential job. And yet he went and p!ssed all over that honorable service anyway by lying about it.
Fhak’eem.
I disagree, Chevalier is a complete mental case. Aside from being a poser and liar.
The air force in Bien Hoa as in most rear bases had great emenities, air conditioning, refrigerators, PX, alcohol, drugs, real beds, and the hooches were more like a moderately priced motel room in the states. I can see why he’s traumitized.
Sounds like he got too high and billegerent in the village and mama san locked him in a room with an ugly whore. Terrifying.
Bien Hoa Army Base wasn’t bad either. After the 25th ID shut down I got sent to the 15th Maint Bn (1st Cav) at Bien Hoa to finish out my tour. Was really surprised to find flushing toilets. As much of a bummer as the assignment turned out to be. at least burning shit was no longer on the list of details.
Cato, don’t know when you were at Bien Hoa but when I was there I must have missed the AC. Beds were bunks. But, not a foxhole, thats why it was a typical AF base that took care of its folks.
Serving as a mechanic in Vietnam was perfectly honorable. There was nothing to apologize, be ashamed about, OR EMBELLISH! His lies put a giant stain on a perfectly fine service record. Just a waste.
The only US POW in VC history ever to have a cot in his cell.
LEGIT!
Carry on!
Master Chief THANK YOU AND THANK YOU AGAIN, for pointing that out. As I read it I thought of the guys on nothing but dirt floors, with bugs to eat. No “cots”, nothing so luxurious as that. Especially in a makeshift POW camp in South Vietnam? Gimme a friggin break here!
Here to serve!
Hope all is well my friend … CHIN UP!
That is all!
EXACTLY what I thought.
But did he get loved long time?
Was his dong beau coup?
Did Charlie surf in his AO?
Was baby san a number 1 boom boom?
I have so many questions!
Bet he loved him some of the Cream of Sum Yun Guy soup while in “the shit”
These local rags are formalized rumor mills. They seem never to verify or to cooroborate anything regarding military service claims. And that blind-eye approach starts with management. If it sounds like a story people might read, run it, and to hell with whether or not it’s true or accurate. There is so much wrong with this bullshit story that it’s overwhelming. I wonder, were the men of that “Viet Cong unit” paratroopers?
As far as I got before my bullshit radar went off
“with a faraway look in his eyes”
Miles Layton, you piece of shit. Shame on you. You’re as bad as the fucking phony you’re promoting for personal gain.
BINGO!
I’m glad so many people don’t believe my story. This waty I can still keep it silent for the rest of my life the way I wanted it to be. They wouldn’t put it on the POW records because it was only one night. I was told by a doctor that I had to be held so many days or they don’t classify anyone as a POW. Now I can keep it with me for 40 more years. I can take it to my grave the way I wanted it to be now. I’m glad I found this site. It doesn’t matter about what people believe. I still pray at night for those other Americans that were in that building I was held in. It was probable only about 9 hours. I’m the only one who paid that price. I wish I never released it to the public now. I was doing fine keeping it to myself. I believe with all my heart that all veterans had a bond but I see now that that’s not the case anymore. I’ll be sure to keep everything to myself from now on. This way I won’t bother veterans who I thought were brothers in arms. I knew I shouldn’t of released it to any papers. One last word !! When any of you die, ask God what really happened to me in Vietnam. We talked about it many times at the altar in my church. People knocked me down so much that I don’t even feel like going to church anymore. I’m used to it coming from a poor family. I was mocked, spit on and humiliated by my neighbors when I was growing up. I still went to Vietnam to fight for those who ran me down to the ground. I guess it was because I believed in America but I might not anymore. I do honor all the veterans who serve their country and I always will even if they do run me down.
Irving E. Rice
You are so full of shit it isn’t funny. I hope and pray you find your integrity and stop with the fucking lies.
BULLSH!T, Rice. Prisoners of War who escaped or were rescued the same day in Vietnam were documented – and were indeed recognized by DoD as escaped or former POWs.
All you are is a lying sack of crap.
Just STFU. Then when your time comes – go to hell.
You hear his sob story there? Wreaks of low self esteem issues, and a need to prop oneself up to counter their piss poor image of themself. The victim card is well played as well…
If you want some cheese to go with all that whine, ask Dennis Chevalier.
You’re a liar that got caught, plain and simple. So tuck that “poor pitiful me” story in your back pocket and STFU.
Where he needs to tuck that story is near his back pocket, LebbenB. But a bit lower, and more internal.
After folding it into a bunch of sharp corners.
F**k this guy. Damn, I hate fake POWs.
Irving, Irving, Irving. I too came from a poor family. I too was looked down upon by those better off in the community. It only spurred me to do my best to become successful. I didn’t feel the need to lie about what I’ve done in my life, nor do I feel the need to garner attention because I have low self esteem. I am what I am and I make no apologies for it. And if someone wants to look down their nose at me, fuck ’em. I served faithfully and well. I married a wonderful woman and raised three beautiful children. You need to take a huge step back and analyze your life and what you are doing. Your post has the smell of self pity. If you wanted to take your tale to the grave with you, then why did you feel the need to spread it around? The fact that you say you told everyone at your church your tale of fake heroism, while crying at the altar no doubt, and spread it around the internet contradicts your post here that you were keeping it to yourself. Just another lie from you. Almost everyone here has stories that they will either take to their graves with them or will only be told to those who have had similar experiences, real stories not of heroism but of friends made and lost. You would attempt to steal their honor and the honor and valor of their friends who aren’t here to defend themselves. You are the lowest sort of slime, not worthy to lick the dust off the boots of those who served faithfully and well and then went about their lives quietly and with dignity and honor.
Irving Rice,
FUCK YOU! You lying sack of SHIT.
You *disgust* me and you sully the reputation of *MY* great (or “ours” as in everyone who has served except YOU) United States Air Force.
<b. STOP THE LIES.
I don’t want to have to have someone here make a WANTED FOR STOLEN VALOR poster and come down to your hometown and post that bitch EVERYWHERE…cause I’d almost assuredly make it my mission to figuratively and metaphorically bury my size 11 combat boot DEAD CENTER IN YOUR ASS and break it clean off.
That’s Senior Master Sergeant to you shitbag…..
/1984 to 2007.
You tell him Senior. And when ChipNASA here is done with you, into the lift station pit you go with warm regards from a prior service SSGT Prime Beef Civil Engineer. In case our fine friends here at TAH don’t know what a lift station is: it is a pit (open or in a shelter) in which excrement flows via sewer pipe with a pump inside to “lift” the poop up to another sewer pipe to continue the gravity flow. Nasty dirty work replacing those pumps, hence the nickname for us Utilities Systems Journeymen: Turd Herder. Looks like what we have here is a Turd that needs herdin’. *Get along little dogie!*
*Whistles theme from Rawhide*
M2Lt…
I resemble that remark….
Not Prime Beef CE but as in Aerial Port….
Lav Pallet or pulling the T Handle working the Pax Service Lav truck…and watching when the NOOB airman didn’t lock the hose on correctly and got a face and/or chest full of “Blue Goo”….
“Son, you need to go home and burn that uniform and maybe take a *few showers*…..(Turd Herder, *indeed*.)
Mr. Rice – So while you were a POW for 9 hours, you received a Smile Button in the mail from a 5th grade class? You wrote this:
http://www.christianmemorials.com/tributes/kim-palo/guestbook/
Whatever you said about God, death, and lying seems like it came from a lying sack of shit. Go to hell.
So much for keeping that bullshit story to yourself, Irving. What other BS stories ya got? “There I was, no shit, ass deep in jet engine parts and only a pair of needle nose pliers between me and certain death…”
Good find, and Mr. Rice, again you can go pound sand you lying sack of shit.
Even today, where technology has given us near-instantaneous communication all over the world, that would be a near-miraculous story. But during the Vietnam War, for a fifth-grade class to have learned of your imprisonment, and gotten a smile button to you, all in less than nine hours? There’s no other word for it. A MIRACLE! Hallelujah!
Actually, there is another word for it.
BULLSHIT.
“They wouldn’t put it on the POW records because it was only one night. I was told by a doctor that I had to be held so many days or they don’t classify anyone as a POW.”
http://www.axpow.org/vietnamescapes.pdf
Interesting reading here. It seems that Mr. Rice’s name is nowhere to be found here (or anywhere else). Hey asshole – you are a lying sack of shit. The information below is only on “one-day” POWs. There were others that were held 2,3, 4 days. Now what’s the cut-off again for how many days that a lying shithead like you had to be held before being classified as a POW? Are you sure you don’t mean Piece Of Worthless Shit??
Thirty-three American prisoners of war escaped and then reached U.S. forces. Of those thirty-three successful attempts, twenty-eight of them occurred within the first month of captivity. Only three successful escapes took place after the prisoners had been held more than a year, each of them in the South.
Donald R. Braswell, USA E4, was captured 23 Aug 1967 and escaped 24 Aug 1967 with civilian Dewey Holt.
Lee Brewer, USA E5, captured 7 Jan 1968 and escaped 8 Jan.
Jerry L. Fann, USA, captured 21 Mar 1967 and escaped 21 Mar 1967.
Jerry L. Guffey, USA E4, captured 4 Mar 1969 and escaped 4 Mar 1969.
Paul G. Hatch, USA E3, captured 24 Aug 1969 and escaped 25 Aug.
Dewey T. Holt, civilian or USA E4, was captured 23 Aug 1967 and escaped 24 Aug 1967 with Donald Braswell.
There were only five Americans actually rescued from captivity during the entire war.
(Mr. Rice was NOT one of them).
I wonder the sexual abuse he endured (so he says) was left out of the story.
Nah. The VC probably thought he was numbah ten boom-boom and not worth the time and effort.
Apparently Mr Rice didn’t have any syrup or jelly available in his C-Rats.
VERY NSFW
/(VC training video for entertaining Irving E Rice)
Oops…missed…
NSFW!!!
It looks like Rice ate a huge bowl of Sum Dum Phuq and shit it all over himself back here!!
I wonder if he was locked up with General “Maggots and Rice” Marrero?
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=27916
Lying liars lie.
Also, I have found him claiming to have sung “God Bless America” at the Flight 93 crash site in front of a bunch of people. Someone like attention and notoriety I think.