When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, sixteen service members and, in some cases, their families were held hostage, trapped in the American embassy in Kuwait and then taken to the embassy in Iraq. LTC (Ret) Rhoi Maney (Artillery OCS Class 5-71) was one of those unlucky individuals.

Iraq let family members leave the country in late August 1990, though it kept the U.S. service members in Baghdad. The family members then traveled overland by convoy to Turkey. Once they returned to U.S. soil, they had to fight to get their military medical and other benefits restored because they had destroyed their military IDs and other documents in Kuwait in an attempt to keep their military identities secret.

Two months later a few of the hostages confined to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad were tapped to participate in a risky, but successful escape. 

The other service members were among the hostages Iraq released in December, weeks before Operation Desert Storm began in January 1991.
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Click Here to read about the experiences of the hostages and the efforts of COL (Ret) Fred Hart to get his Kuwait comrades the POW recognition they all deserved and the pitiful excuses the service branches have offered in response along the way.