Knife Edge: Life as a Special Forces Surgeon by Richard Villar Read Free Book Online Page A

pressed down on the back of my neck, a rifle barrel stuck under my left ear, while my hands were handcuffed behind my back. I can still feel them as I write this. Handcuffs are painful things. My colleague, an accountant at the time, was being manhandled in the same way. I never asked him what he felt, even when we eventually returned to London, but I imagine he rated himself as foolish as I. We had been out of the lorry for barely thirty seconds before being caught. Not what is expected of a trained SAS operative.
    We were dragged, blindfolded, along the track to a waiting vehicle. Once a prisoner is captured the aim is to totally disorientate him in time and space. Hooding, or blindfolding, is one such way. I was terrified. My mouth was dry, my heart racing. It was not a pleasant experience. I could sense our captors were experts, but I had no idea what was in store for me. All I knew was that I could only give my name, rank, number and date of birth. I shall call them the ‘vital four’.
    The UK now has a number of locations specifically designed for interrogation. I was to see them develop in later years. On this occasion, however, such facilities did not exist. It was dark and I was blindfolded. Much of what I describe is thus based on subsequent experience, when I was on the issuing rather than receiving end. I am afraid even doctors who have taken the Hippocratic oath do have a part to play in suspect interrogation.
    By now I had lost contact with my colleague. For all I knew he could have been right beside me, but neither of us was going to speak to find out. Once caught, I knew I should say nothing to anyone, except the vital four when faced with my interrogator. I was taken first to the prisoner holding area, a dilapidated barn fifty metres from an equally dilapidated country road. An indelible marker pen was used to write my prisoner number on my forehead, my handcuffs were removed and I was placed in the stress position.
    The stress position is the official term for wallstanding. Still blindfolded, your hands are placed at head height, palms forward, a shoulder width apart on the wall before you. Feet are positioned a metre from the wall and a metre apart. There you stand, seemingly forever. When you first adopt the stress position you wonder what all the fuss is about. After twenty minutes you begin to understand. Your hands go numb, your thigh muscles shake and your shoulders feel as if lead weights are attached to them. Slowly, quietly, in the hope that no one will notice, you let your elbows bend and hands slide downwards to a more comfortable position. What you do not know is that you are in the permanent company of at least one guard. He, or she for all I know, stays silent. No one hits you, no one threatens to kill or drown you, they simply put you back in the stress position whenever you lapse. They do not speak at all.
    The stress position is not without medical hazard. Inside the human body, immediately behind the collar bones, lie the major nerves to the arms and hands. When you stretch out your arms, these nerves also stretch. They do not like being pulled and are very sensitive to such things. Normally the human body would not stand for hours on end, arms outstretched against a wall. Should it do so, the prolonged pull on the nerves can damage them, albeit to a minor degree. On a number of occasions, after interrogation, I had tingling in my fingers and hands for several days before the nerves recovered. A worrying time for a future surgeon who relies on his hands to make a living.
    Fortunately, not all your time is spent in the stress position. Occasionally, your guards will sit or kneel you on the floor, hands clasped behind your head, elbows and shoulders braced firmly backwards. The floor is normally concrete or gravel and extremely uncomfortable. Thus it continues for at least twenty-four hours, limited bread and water the only food provided. During this period you can expect to be interrogated