Ex-POW used hope to survive

At the beginning of his captivity in Baghdad, Ron Young didn’t know if he would survive the ordeal.

“You never know when it’s your time to go; that’s the toughest thing about it, really,” Young said. He started praying a lot, he said, and after a week felt that he was going to make it through.

Then he started thinking: “Maybe I’ll come back and meet the president.”

That he did, as well as becoming a special contributor on CNN for military stories and touring the country, speaking about his experiences as a prisoner of war.

Young, a former helicopter pilot in the Army, came to Spokane to speak at a Boy Scouts fund-raiser and at Fairchild Air Force Base’s Survival School on Friday.

He was captured in Karbala during the first week of the Iraq War, held for 22 days in Baghdad and rescued by the Marines on April 13, 2003.

“You lose the right to life as you know it,” Young said in an interview.

The prisoners – six Americans other than Young, all of whom were rescued – were denied basic rights such as being able to eat or visit the bathroom when they wanted to, said Young, who lost 25 pounds during his internment.

Young said he would like people to take from his experience this sentiment: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, for or against the war, there’s just a lot of guys who have sacrificed and didn’t make the decision to go to war.”

The Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts brought Young, who was an Eagle Scout in his home state of Georgia, to speak at their event because of his inspirational story, said Brad Stark, the district executive.

“It’s not just the actions that he undertook and his faith that carried him,” Stark said, “but it’s his character, ethics and leadership that personifies all that Boy Scouts seeks to do.”

A Lithia Springs, Ga., native, Young said he joined the military because he thought it would be exciting.

“Flying is something I’ve wanted to do my entire life,” he said, and it is so enjoyable that he doesn’t see it as a job.

Young was discharged after his rescue. In his new environment – the University of Georgia, where he started this spring to work toward a political science degree – Young hopes to give fellow students another perspective.

“They’re so disassociated with life, with what’s going on in the news,” Young said of his peers.

He also hopes to encourage people with his message of survival.

“You can never give up hope. You have to prepare yourself for anything,” he said.

For people who are in tough situations, Young said that not only can they endure, but “they can make it into a good situation.”