Please do something for my son,' mother urges Bush
Anecita Hudson of Alamogordo, New Mexico 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 Filipino television station she subscribes to.
"I saw my son and I said, 'Oh, my God.' He looked so scared. I started crying," Mrs Hudson, who is of Filipino ancestry, said.
Asked what she would tell President Bush if she met him, she said she would say: "Please do something for my son. I don't want him to get cold, and I don't want him to get hungry. I just want him to come home alive."
Mrs 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.
"It's like a bad dream, seeing your son get captured on TV," she said, noting she saw the images before talking to her daughter-in-law, who received a briefing about the situation from military officials.
The family of Pfc Patrick Miller of Park City, Kansas, also said he was among the five captured soldiers.
The soldier's half-brother, Thomas Hershberger, 27, said his mother spoke to Pfc Miller's wife on Sunday. She had received confirmation from the military that Pfc Miller, a father of two, was being held by the Iraqis.
Video footage aired on Iraqi TV showed Pfc Miller answering questions in a shaky voice. Asked by an interviewer if he came to shoot Iraqis, he responded, "No, I come to shoot only if I am shot at. They don't bother me, I don't bother them."
US military officials did not immediately release identities of any of the soldiers, who Iraqi television reported were captured or killed in an ambush near Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra.
However, Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico said Secretary of Defence Donald H. Rumsfeld had told him to "assure the family, including Mrs Hudson, that we are doing everything possible to assure his safety and speedy return.
Mrs Hudson said her son's wife, Natalie Hudson, was briefed at Fort Bliss Army base on Sunday and was told not to say anything about her husband's plight. The couple has a 5-year-old daughter.
"I'm just praying that the other people (in the military) will get him out of there," she said.
