Iraq

Mother says she saw her captive son on Iraqi TV

The names of those captured in Iraq have not been officially confirmed.

[AP photo] Anecita Hudson of Alamordo, N.M., wipes away tears as she sits with her younger son, Anthony.

©Associated Press
March 24, 2003

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A New Mexico woman said Sunday she saw her son interviewed on Iraqi television as one of the U.S. soldiers taken prisoner, and she prays fellow soldiers "will get him out of there."

Anecita Hudson of Alamogordo said she saw her 23-year-old son, Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, who was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, interviewed in the Iraqi video, which was carried on a Philippine television station she subscribes to.

"He's been captured. They interviewed my son live from Iraq," Hudson, who is of Filipino ancestry, said in a telephone interview.

"From my point of view, he looked so scared," she said.

Hudson said her son identified himself on the video but didn't give any more information. She said he appeared to be uninjured, unlike some of the others in the video.

U.S. military officials did not release identities of any of the soldiers, who Iraqi television reported were captured or killed in an ambush near Al Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra.

However, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had told him to "assure the family, including Mrs. Hudson, that we are doing everything possible to assure his safety and speedy return. He complimented the young military people, including Joseph, as being well-trained, extremely patriotic and great volunteers."

Jean Offutt, a U.S. Army spokeswoman at Fort Bliss, said some of the prisoners had been stationed at her base.

Hudson said her son's wife was meeting with military officials Sunday at Fort Bliss, about 90 miles south of Alamogordo.

She said she and her son moved to Alamogordo after his father -- an Air Force retiree -- was killed in a Florida motorcycle accident in 1991. The family had lived in Alamogordo previously when her husband was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, she said.

A 1998 graduate of Alamogordo High School, Joseph Hudson lifted weights at the school and liked to bowl, his mother said.

"I'm just praying that the other people (in the military) will get him out of there," she said.

Two of the other prisoners interviewed said they were with the 507th Maintenance, part of the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, which is stationed at Fort Bliss.