Rotary Club 585 - Los Banos California

Marine veteran Pat Atkins speaks to Los Banos Rotary
9/8/09

The speaker this week was Pat Atkins. He's the Area Administrator for Elementary Education, here in Los Banos. His talk however, wasn't about education or even related to his position or job.

Pat talked about Dr. Shant Kenderian, author of 1001 Nights in Iraq: The Shocking Story of an American Forced to Fight for Saddam against the Country He Loves [America].

Pat was a Marine MP stationed in Pittsburgh when Desert Storm was initiated. He was sent to Kuwait to build a prison camp. His company hadn't been in Kuwait more than two weeks when they received their 1st shipment of POWs. The didn't have facillities for prisoners yet; so they dug in hole, hand cuffed the prisoners with ty-wraps and put them in the hole. As they were lowering the prisoners into the hole one of them said, in an American accent, "I'm from Chicago".

They pulled him out of the hole and took him to their superiors for interrogation.

As it turns out, Dr. Kenderian's parents came from Armenia. They moved to Iraq before he was born; so he was born in Iraq. His Mother left and took the children to the U.S., so Dr. Kenderian was raised in Chicago. When he graduated from high school, he went back to Iraq to make peace with his Father. While he was there, war broke out and he was conscripted into the Iraqui military. The book tells how he spent 10 years trying to get home.
Pat met "Chicago" again recently at a wedding in San Francisco. One of his service buddies, who was also coming to the wedding of their friend, had heard about the book and Googled it. When he realized it was their POW "Chicago", he contacted him and invited him to the wedding too. They are all getting together again, next year the tenth anniversary of Desert Storm.
Dr. Kenderian, now a Phd is currently living in Southern California with his wife and three children. He's working for the Department of Defense trouble shooting Rockets and Rocket systems.

Pat's was a really interesting talk. I think i'll read the book.

Just a few other points of trivia that i found interesting and thought you might too...
* Lawyers went undercover in the POW camps watching for Geneva Convention infractions.
* The POWs were given the same rations as their guards. Except that the ham had to be pulled out 'cuz of course the Iraqui's don't eat pork.
* All of their papers and personal items, except those which could be used as weapons, were examined and returned to the prisoners.