Medals
Received: Army of Occupation, American Campaign Rifleman, Good
Conduct Medal, WWII Medal, Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Combat Inf. Badge,
POW Medal, Eastern Campaign, European Campaign, African Campaign.
Military
Job: GI
Company:
United Methodist Church and TVA
Occupation
after War: Minister, Truck Driver
Bio:
This is very hard to write since my husband very rarely talked about his
experience as a POW. He passed away November 3, 1998 and I am writing
this on December 20, 1998.
He was drafted into service while a senior in high school. When he
returned home he went back to complete his high school education, and he
wrote an essay about his service time and the following is what
information I have. He didn't write a great deal about being a POW, we
now believe it must have become too painful for him.
He was captured on 12-18-44. He states "they were marched for
several hours without water and food to a town called Gerodstein,
Germany where they were crowded into German trains. There were 55 men
crowded into each boxcar. They remained in the box cars until
12-28-44",(my husband told me many times this is where he met the
Lord). While they were bombed on 12-24-44 he was on his knees in that
boxcar and he gave his heart to the Lord and he remained true to the
Lord until the minute of his death. He stated, "they traveled very
slowly and stopped in every big town or factory district where they
thought our planes may hit." On 12-23-44 they pulled into a town
called Driets Germany. Within half an hour or so they heard the siren
begin to blow, soon they heard bombing. Those bombs, he stated,
"sounded like they were three times larger than they were. For
about 2 hours the allies steadily bombed the railroad and yard. The
flashes had the place lit up brighter than daylight." They stayed
there three or four days and received water every other day and their
first food since being captured, {a one man Red Cross box to four of
them}, was all they received until the end of their journey. They
unloaded in Bad Orb on 12-28-44. They were marched up a mountainside for
about 1-1/2 miles to a camp. The snow was about 3 or 4 inches all that
winter. When they reached their camp they received some greens to eat,
mixed with carrots and sugar beets, it made nearly all of them sick.
They asked for food but they said they didn’t have any more. They used
their helmets or anything they could find to eat out of. They made
wooden spoons, which were poor utensils. Stammlager IXB Bad Orb Germany
was divided into many sections with high barbwire fences. They stayed
there until 2-8-45. They received a little potato soup the first week
there, then they fed them on sugar beets, turnip tops the rest of the
time. On the 8th of February 1945 they marched them out of there and
loaded them on a train for another camp. They traveled about 4 days with
nothing to eat. They stopped at a little factory town on the Elba River
called Berga. They marched up on the hilltop to a small camp. They
worked there for nearly two months digging an underground factory in the
side of a mountain near the Elba River. Every day they saw hundreds of
our large bombers overhead.
This is where my husband left off. I do not know much more except he
told me that during the 125 days he was a POW he did not have a bath,
nor a change of clothes and very little to eat. He lost about 70% of his
body fat. He did not blame the German people, he would always say
“they were as good to us as they could be.” My husband was a hero.
He died with COPD (a lung condition) that was caused from being exposed
to God knows what and digging those underground factories, yet our
Government denied his claims for his lung condition. I have nightmares
because they denied his claim and wouldn’t recognize what he gave up
for his country. He deserved better from our government.
Message to Future Generations:
I am sure my husband would want future generations to know what the POWs
went through for their country and what they gave up for their country.
He would want everyone to do their best in whatever they have to do and
to do it without complaining. This is what he did, HE WAS TOUGH. I think
he learned this by being a POW. He was on oxygen the last two years of
his life and was a very sick man, but he didn’t complain, he always
had a smile. He was however VERY DISAPPOINTED that his Government
wouldn’t approved his claim for his lung condition (he never smoked a
cigarette his whole life). He fought for his claim for six long years
and now that he is dead they still don’t accept the fact that the CPOD
was caused from the condition he was in while a POW. He deserved better
than this!!! But it is a comfort to know that now he is well and can
rest with the Lord. My husband always felt that voting was a very hard
earned privilege that he and everyone in the service fought for in fact
the very last thing he did in this life was to vote. The one thing that
my husband could not understand was the apathy that young people had
toward government. He believed that as citizens of this country we had
the privilege and the responsibility to vote and let our voices be heard
by these who were elected to represent us in our state and in
Washington. Now and always my husband and many others gave their lives
for this right. Information provided by Helen Fowler his loving wife.
