I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do. I did not shoot - not a round, nothing. I went down praying to my knees - that's the last thing I remember.

The truth is always more heroic than the hype.

I try to dream about peaceful things, beaches, that is what I cannot understand. Why are they chasing me?

Honesty has always been very important to me.

I know that I'm already in the history books and that people are going to remember me as the prisoner of war and the fabricated stories, but you know, to me I was just another soldier over there doing my job.

The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans.

I remember the first time I put on the Army uniform. I just felt like a totally different person - I felt proud.