By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Prolific author Milt Toratti, an Army veteran, has helped veterans tell their stories in 160 books written over the past 69 years.
It took him much longer to help former POW Guy Gruters tell his.
Toratti says he and Gruters first collaborated in 2008, but two drafts didn’t work. A third attempt produced “Faith Conquers Through Courage Tested,” a book about Gruters 5 ½ years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton where the Viet Cong held U.S. prisoners during the Vietnam War.
Toratti says Gruters leaned on his Christian faith to make it through years of torture.
“Guy Gruters actually started to evangelize, because what he did in there was he said in order to survive I have to forgive my enemy,” Toratti relates during a visit to the KFEQ Hotline. “And he forgave the interrogators. He forgave the guards. He forgave them for beating him, because that was his way of getting salvation and his belief in Christ and it made him stronger because of that.”
Though the book focuses on the experiences of Gruters in the Hoa Lo Prison, it touches on the stories of several POWs.
“Like James Stockdale. He became an admiral. He got the Congressional Medal of Honor along with (George) Bud Day,” Toratti says. “But James Stockdale tried to commit suicide, because he knew too much. But he didn’t know how to lie well enough. So, he was going to commit suicide. Well, they talked him out of that. He tried to commit suicide. He lived. And then, he went on forward from there. But that’s how gruesome it was.”
Another prisoner in the Hanoi Hilton was John McCain, who became a United States Senator and ran on the Republican ticket for president.
Faith and camaraderie go them through unimaginable conditions, according to Toratti. The POWs devised a code of conduct to help them survive. If the torture brought them to a breaking point, they could confess, but the confession must be mixed with enough lies to confuse the enemy. The Viet Cong held more than 600 prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. Toratti says he hopes the book pays tribute to their sacrifice.
Planning is underway months in advance to welcome Gruters to St. Joseph during a special ceremony to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
Michael Meierhoffer is leading the effort to bring Gruters to St. Joseph on September 11th. The event is scheduled to be held at Wyatt Park Baptist Church. Meierhoffer says the country should pay special tribute to those imprisoned during the Vietnam War.
“Certainly, they’re at the tip of the spear, because there were hundreds of thousands of men and women who went to Vietnam,” Meierhoffer says. “And we can debate all day long whether we should have been there or shouldn’t, but we were and I can tell you from a Navy perspective and a Navy flyers perspective there were a lot of things that were done incorrectly. But we are there and we’re going to celebrate what we can.”
Money raised during the event as well as through sale of the book will benefit the Cameron Veterans Home.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
