EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who noticed this reference and sent it to us. It appears one of the five POWs taken prisoner and shown on Al Jazeera TV was born in New Zealand.
March 24, 2003, 9:19 PM EST
PENNSAUKEN, N.J. -- A U.S. soldier being held captive in Iraq entered the military after high school because "that's
what he always wanted to do," his mother said Monday.
Sgt. James Riley is one of five U.S. prisoners of war captured after Iraqi forces ambushed an army supply convoy around
An Nasiriyah.
In an interview on MSNBC, his parents said the family lived in New Zealand until Riley was 10, then moved to Pennsauken. Riley graduated from Pennsauken High School, according to his mother, Jean.
Riley's father described his son as "stubborn."
In a video clip that aired Sunday on Iraqi television, Riley identified himself by speaking into a microphone thrust in
front of him by his captors. With his hands in his lap, he answered questions in a clipped fashion and said he was with
the 507th Maintenance Co., part of the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas.
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