U.S. Marines in Vietnam, the war that would not end, 1971-1973 (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Under the terms of Operation Homecoming, as it was dubbed, POWs held by the Viet Cong were flown by helicopter to Saigon, POWs held by the People's Army of Vietnam were released in Hanoi and three POWs held in China were freed in Hong Kong. From there they were flown to Clark Air Base in the Philippines for processing, debriefing and physical examinations. They were then relocated to military hospitals.

Of the POWs repatriated to the United States a total of 325 served in the United States Air Force, a majority of them bomber pilots shot down over North Vietnam or VC controlled territory. The remaining 266 consisted of 138 United States Naval personnel, 77 soldiers serving in the United States Army, 26 United States Marines and 25 civilian employees of American government agencies. A majority of the POWs were held at camps in North Vietnam, while some were held in at various locations throughout Southeast Asia.

The prisoners returned included future politicians Senator John McCain of Arizona, vice-presidential candidate James Stockdale, and Representative Sam Johnson of Texas.

Operation Homecoming provided the country with moment of drama and celebration and ignited a torrent of patriotism that had not been seen at any point during the Vietnam War.

President Nixon celebrated the return of the Vietnam POWs hosting an estimated 1,600 guests at a banquet held in a tent on the White House South Lawn. The tent was longer and wider than The White House itself, with 126 round tables set up for the guests.

That banquet was—and remains—the largest in White House history. The menu included All-American fare: sirloin steak, fingerling potatoes and strawberry mousse

The 591 former POWs, in full dress uniform, were entertained by comedian Bob Hope, who served as master of ceremonies, and mingled with senior military and government officials to celebrate their return. Other celebrities in attendance included John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Phyllis Diller, and Sammy Davis Jr.

Irving Berlin along with the President and his wife Pat, joined by Sammy Davis Jr. and Bob Hope, concluded the evening by leading the guests in the singing of his American standard, “God Bless America.”

In May of this year, in recognition of the Golden Anniversary of Operation Homecoming, numerous military installations conducted commemorative events celebrating once more the return of the American POWs 50 years ago.

On the National Mall in Washington, the U.S. Vietnam War Commemorationan, authorized by Congress, established under the Secretary of Defense and launched by President Obama in 2012, sponsored a public exposition meant to honor those who served in the military during the war. Tents with different war-related exhibits were scattered across the Mall. Vietnam-era helicopters were on display. About 200 posters were positioned along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, each with the face and name of troops still unaccounted for.

The Nixon Foundation was the Official Site of the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of Operation Homecoming. On May 23-25, nearly 200 POWs and their families gathered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, CA, for a three-day reunion.

Events included a community parade, recognition and honors from the U.S. Military, the official opening of a new exhibit, Captured: Shot Down in Vietnam, and an opportunity to hear reflections from the POWs themselves and their stories of survival and endurance in the face of physical and emotional torture, and of the bonds of brotherhood and faith that helped them persevere.

On May 24, Nearly 150 former American Prisoners of War from the Vietnam War gathered in the East Room of the Nixon Library for a re-creation of the White House homecoming celebration dinner fifty years before to the day. The reenactment featured the menu selections and table centerpieces evocative of the style the original banquet in 1973.

Since 1973, more than 1,000 missing service members have had their remains returned to the United States for burial with full military honors. There are 1,581 Americans from the Vietnam War still missing in action.

Operation Homecoming, Beginning
to End …
a young wife’s personal perspective

A memoir by Robbie Wade Certain

The circumstances of my life had prepared me for what I was letting myself in for, at least somewhat. But I had never dated a military officer before July 21, 1971.

I was 22 years old. I had grown up in Blytheville, Arkansas, which had a B52G Air Force base. I was aware of this plane and understood its purpose as far back as elementary school.

I actually had witnessed the arrival of the first plane at the base. I knew about the “red phone.” I was acquainted with Air Force officers and their children. I felt comfortable with the military and its lifestyle. I knew that B52s could carry nuclear weapons. I also knew they were very good airplanes with excellent safety records. But until 1971 all of that existed mainly on the periphery of my consciousness.

I had come home to Blytheville after graduate school to teach, but it was love at first sight. Robert was a first lieutenant and a navigator bombardier. He had already been flying missions for four months (without incident).

Then after 10 nights of dating, my future husband left me to go to Thailand. He came home at Thanksgiving, and we were engaged by New Year’s Eve. A perfect time to wed would be June. Plans were made for an elaborate event, a large wedding because Blytheville was, after all, my hometown. Life was progressing. School was winding down for the summer. And I was ready to marry my capable young officer. Ah, man plans and the gods laugh.

B52s and their crews stood alert for seven days a month. The planes had to be ready to defend the nation at a moment’s notice. Wives, girlfriends, and families had visiting privileges at the Blytheville AFB when their men were on active duty, and one Sunday evening in May I went out to visit. It didn’t go as either of us had expected. Robert had been informed earlier in the day that all planes would be leaving for Guam by the end of the following week. So, I could marry Robert by the week’s end or wait for his return in six months. What a week. For all of us. I made an important decision and married him five days later. I had no idea what was ahead.

Specifically, we were wed on May 25, 1972. As luck would have it, we wound up with six whole weeks of married life together before he left for Guam. We communicated after that daily by letter. We had two phone calls in six months. Phone calls to Guam were six dollars a minute at the time!

I kept busy teaching two sessions of kindergarten daily and teaching community college two nights a week. Robert was due home the first week in December, but his orders were cancelled. The new date of return was December 18. I was so excited. I decorated the house with a tree and a manger scene he had made in the base hobby shop. He liked to say he made it “between bombing runs.” A Colonel had brought it to me in mid-December. Life was looking up. We were going to resume our young marriage.

But when December 18 came, my world changed very unexpectedly. No matter how steady and solid you think you are, no one is prepared for the arrival of a notification of wartime status of a loved one.

It was Christmas break, and I had gone home to have lunch with my parents. I had planned to pick Robert up in the morning hours of December 19. While I was eating lunch, my mother answered the phone and received news that military officers had been by my father's furniture store looking for him. Our salesman asked that my father stay home and wait until the officers arrived. At that point, I was sure something was wrong. I lost all interest in eating and began pacing the floor, pondering what could be going on. My parents were saying don't worry, but my stomach knew better.

Some time earlier, a pilot’s wife had told me to never worry until the white-top cars show up. Well, two white- top cars were sitting outside our front door with at least six officers inside. This was my worst nightmare coming true.

My mother and father had their arms around me as the notifying officer read a letter explaining that Robert had been shot down over Hanoi and was classified as Missing in Action. I didn’t know that B52s were flying over North Vietnam. Robert had not warned me that he would not be home on the 18th although he was suspicious with all the activities going on in Guam. Information was hush, hush, and men were not being informed of anything ahead of time. The whole world exploded, for me and other family members.

The visiting officers expressed their sympathies. At that time, my father and mother were serving as liaison officers to the base, so there was a lot of respect and concern shown to us. I was going to go lie down and rest a little when another phone call came in, with better news. Robert's Social Security number was being released by Radio Hanoi. The next morning Robert’s picture along with those of five other officers was published around the world in every major newspaper. We were all learning about the United States attack on Hanoi.

President Nixon hoped that bombing Hanoi would bring North Vietnam back to the bargaining table to end the war and bring all the POWs home. This was the beginning of Linebacker II. The bombing runs lasted for 11 days. My husband just happened to be on the first airplane to go down over Hanoi and was the first one captured.

That was the start, for me, of Operation Homecoming. I had no idea when my husband would be home. I had only just been notified by the military, and they were supporting me with all the information they could. My job was to go on with my life, live it as a schoolteacher and a wife with a husband in the “Hanoi Hilton.” What could be more normal? But all my sights were set all along on the day my Robert would come back home to me.

I have always been happy with my decision to marry before Robert went to Guam. I am sure I would not have gotten the information I did get as quickly, as a fiancée. I realized later in life that, in essence, I’d become a war bride, just like the young women of World War II.

The good news? the bombing did the trick. Everybody came back to the table and started talking. The bad news? Over 30 men died in Linebacker II.

A peace treaty was signed in January, and life was looking hopeful. We didn't know exactly how Operation Homecoming would work out, but we were getting informed each time a group of men were being flown home. As each release came, I would be notified that Robert was or was not on the airplane. But by the second release I'd figured out that the last ones in were going to be the last ones out. It was fair, but each time I got the same discouraging message my stomach would tie itself up in knots.

(caption)
B'VILLE POWS FREED--Blytheville Air Force POWs recently returned to the United States. From left they are: Capt. Richard C. Simpson, Capt. Robert G. Certain, Maj. Richard E. Johnson and TSgt James L. Lollar. The former B-52 crew members are currently under the authority of the Air Force and have been at Scott AFB, Ill. and Maxwell AFB, Ala. undergoing physical examinations and debriefings.

And indeed, Robert was on the last plane to leave Hanoi. He called me when he reached the Philippines. Oh, that was a happy day for me. It would be only a few more days before I saw him again. He would be taken first to Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, IL, the closest major military hospital to Blytheville AFB.

I don't remember much about the drive to Belleville, but I know that I had with me 30 pieces of paper orders in case I needed any one of them while on the base. At Scott I was greeted by an escort officer and his wife, Maj. and Mrs. DeCamillo. They were delightful and treated me well. The first thing they did was take me to the hospital for medicine. When I arrived at Scott I had a cold, a cough and a runny nose.

Robert was to arrive the next day. President Nixon had arranged corsages for all the wives to wear upon meeting their husbands. My teaching assistant had also arranged for a red carnation corsage for me, a gift from my kindergarten students, who had brought in pennies, nickels and dimes to pay for it. I had to wear the carnations, which meant so much to me. The children knew all about the shoot-down and my husband’s incarceration. He was a hero to them.

I learned a life lesson that day at Scott that has stayed with me through the years: stress can make you sick. Robert got off the airplane, hugged me and the cold was gone! Robert’s parents, my sister and her husband, and some very good friends from Blytheville AFB had come with us. Even Robert’s second grade teacher, who lived in the area, was there to welcome him home.

The event was joyous, surreal and heavy. As happy and elated as we were, I was very mindful at that moment of the sacrifices other men and families had made. Some children would never know their fathers. Robert and I were newlyweds, and I felt how blessed we had been, but my joy was measured with emotions for other families.

Robert and I attended the lavish White House dinner President Nixon hosted for the repatriated POWs on May 24, 1973. We considered it our first wedding anniversary party.

Memories of that evening include the military bands playing as we got off the bus, the red carpet, moving to the bar area and meeting John Wayne, being escorted to the tables, flowing wine and champagne, our glasses were never empty, Bob Hope and Sammy Davis Jr., meeting Joey Heatherton in the ladies’ room and the crowning glory of the evening: Irving Berlin leading us in singing “God Bless America.”

A fabulous evening in all details (the cherry tomatoes in the salad had been peeled). But in the midst of it all, my thoughts turned more than once to the three of Robert’s crew members who did not come home. One was MIA, one was reported killed and another’s body was shown to Robert in North Vietnam.

We were still only 24 and 25 years old at the time of that dinner, after all that had gone before. Our marriage of 50 years has survived through the myriad bumps and challenges of life. We live at Blue Skies of Texas in San Antonio. (Formerly known as Air Force Village.) We have one son and one daughter and son-in-law with two teenage children, all living in Little Rock. We are content.

We were at the Nixon Presidential Library this year for the 50th anniversary celebration of Operation Homecoming. A smaller scale with fewer celebrities, but a very familiar ambiance. Same table arrangements. Same menu. Same elegant assemblage. And the same waves of conflicting emotion. Gratitude for our great good fortune, sorrow for the loss and pain suffered by so many who sacrificed so much. I’m sure it will always be that way whenever I think back on it all, and I think back on it often.

Andersonville Marks National POW/MIA Recognition Day

National POW/MIA Recognition Day was established by Congress to honor those armed service members held captive, who returned or who remain missing, while fighting in the nation's foreign wars. In 1979 a Congressional proclamation signed by President Carter declared the third Friday in September as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Each subsequent president has issued his own annual proclamation commemorating National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

This year to honor that tradition, Andersonville National Historic Site and the National Prisoner of War Museum conducted on September 16 a ceremonial wreath laying in remembrance of the sacrifice of those Americans who gave up their freedom on their nation's behalf.

Col. Wayne Waddell, US Air Force Ret.

Sally Morgan

Col. David Eberly, US Air Force Ret.

Gia Wagner, Superintendent of the Historic Site, presided at the ceremony and explained the occasion would be marked, in cooperation with representatives of two of Site's most important support groups, American Ex-Prisoners of War and Friends of Andersonville, with the placement of three wreaths.

Col. Wayne Waddell, US Air Force Retired and former POW during the Vietnam War, presented the Friends of Andersonville wreath. Sally Morgan, who was a child civilian internee during World War II at the Santo Tomas internment camp in the Philippines, presented the American Ex-Prisoners of War wreath. Col. David Eberly, US Air Force Retired, was the Senior Ranking Officer of all POWs captured in the 1991 Gulf War. He presented a wreath commemorating all POWs and those still officially missing in action.

Superintendent Wagner addressed the crowd of attendees: "Today, at the National Prisoner of War Museum, which was designated by Congress as a memorial to all POWs throughout American History, we also remember the over half a million Americans who have been Prisoners Of War throughout history.

"Such a large number is hard to fathom, but today especially, we remember them as individuals with families—whose stories and sacrifices deserve to be remembered and shared with future generations of Americans. I invite you to take a moment to reflect on those individuals."

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, an arm of the Department of Defense, estimates there are more than 81,000 Americans still missing from past conflicts ranging from WWII to the Gulf War. In fiscal year 2022, the DPAA has completed nearly 100 missions in 37 countries searching for American personnel and has accounted for more than 140 missing American military members.

Andersonville National Historic Site, located near Americus, GA, has three features: the National Prisoner of War Museum, the site of the Andersonville prison, and the Andersonville National Cemetery. The National Prisoner of War Museum commemorates the sacrifices of all American prisoners of war.

posted 11/13/22

---

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Congress designated the country's first federal holidays in 1870: granting paid time off to federal workers in the District of Columbia for New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. In 1888, it created Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day.

The practice of honoring soldiers fallen in battle dates back thousands of years. Both the Greeks and Romans held annual days of remembrance each year for fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and holding public festivals and feasts in their honor. In Athens, public funerals for war dead were held after each battle. One of the first such public tributes took place in 431 B.C., with the Athenian general and statesman Pericles offering a funeral oration praising the sacrifice and valor of those killed in the Peloponnesian War, in a speech often compared to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Arlington National Cemetery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In the years following the end of the Civil War increasing numbers of American communities began ritually tending to the remains and graves of an unprecedented number of fallen soldiers. (All of the previous wars and conflicts fought by the United States combined barely add up to the body count the country suffered in the Civil War.)

A few local springtime tributes to Civil War dead began even before hostilities had ceased. In Columbus, MS., April 25, 1866, it has been recorded that a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed flowers on their mounds as well.

Three weeks after the Confederate surrender, on May 1, 1865, more than 1,000 people recently freed from enslavement, accompanied by regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops (including the Massachusetts 54th Infantry) and a group of white Charlestonians, gathered at a former war prisoner detention camp in Charleston, SC to consecrate a burial site for Union dead.

Near the war's end, thousands of Union soldiers held as prisoners of war had been herded into a series of hastily assembled camps on the site of a former racetrack in Charleston. Conditions at one camp were such that more than 250 prisoners died from disease or exposure and had been buried in a mass grave behind the track’s grandstand.

The gatherers sang hymns, gave readings and distributed flowers around the cemetery, which they dedicated to the "Martyrs of the Race Course."

Cities in the North and South who claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day.

For almost as long as there’s been an observance, there’s been a rivalry over who celebrated it first. All told, more than 20 towns claim to be the holiday’s birthplace. One has even received federal recognition. In 1966, 100 years after the town of Waterloo, New York, first shuttered its businesses and took to the streets for the first of many continuous, community-wide celebrations, President Johnson signed Congressional legislation declaring that tiny upstate village the “official” birthplace of Memorial Day

Some other contenders include the following:

Warrenton, VA on June 3, 1861. The first Civil War soldier's grave ever to be decorated, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch article in 1906, for the first soldier killed in action during the Civil War. (John Quincy Marr at the Battle of Fairfax Courthouse.

Savannah, GA in July 1862. Women decorated the graves at Laurel Grove Cemetery of comrades who died at Battle of Manassas (First Battle of Bull Run).

Jackson, MS in April 26, 1865. One Sue Landon Vaughan is said to have decorated the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers. However, the earliest recorded reference to this event did not appear until many years after. Regardless, mention of the observance is inscribed on the southeast panel of the Confederate Monument in Jackson, erected in 1891.

Gettysburg, PA in 1863. The National cemetery dedication there included a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Some have therefore claimed that President Abraham Lincoln was the founder of Memorial Day.

Carbondale, IL in 1866. Returning veterans, inspired by the sight of a young woman with infants at a small, unmarked grave in a church yard cemetery placing flowers and kneeling in prayer next to it, organized a memorial service to honor those who had died in the Civil War. Colonel E. J. Ingersoll, and General John A. Logan of the Union Army, led a procession to the town's Woodlawn Cemetery, where a number of Civil War soldiers had been interred.

Columbus, GA in March 1866. Another Southern city named Columbus is credited by the United States National Park Service and numerous scholars for beginning Memorial Day observances in the South. The Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus members in a letter to newspapers in March 1866 asked for assistance in establishing an annual holiday to decorate the graves of soldiers throughout the South. It was reprinted by papers in several Southern states, and the plans were noted in newspapers in the North as well. On the chosen date, April 26, observances were held in Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Columbus and elsewhere in Georgia as well as Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Jackson, Mississippi.

Boalsburg, PA in October 1864. Only 100 miles away from Gettysburg, this small abolitionist community suffered multiple causalities throughout the Civil War. According to local historians, three local women, Emma Hunter, Elizabeth Meyer, and Sophie Keller, shared a bouquet of flowers on an autumnal Sunday and decorated the graves of their family members and friends. There are doubters of the veracity of Boalsburg's claim and its timing, but if true, the federal government might need to wrestle with the logistics of having to repurpose Memorial Day into a fall holiday.

On May 5, 1868, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, by then head of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of Union veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month, declaring it "Decoration Day," a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Logan is generally considered the leading figure behind the effort to recognize Memorial Day as an official holiday. (He would in time serve as a U.S. Congressman and Senator from Illinois and in 1884 was a candidate for the vice presidency.)

Headquarters Grand Army of the Republic,
Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868.

GENERAL ORDERS
No. 11

The 30th day of May, 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit

That first year, more than 27 states held some sort of ceremony, with more than 5,000 people attending a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. General James Garfield made a speech and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.

The country embraced the notion of Decoration Day. Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor the dead on separate days until after World War I.

It was yet not an official holiday, but many local municipalities and states adopted resolutions over the following years that recognized Decoration Day as an official holiday in their areas. By 1890, every former state of the Union had adopted it as an official holiday.

The first Memorial Day observation at Arlington National Cemetery was held on the portico of Arlington House. Photographers used cameras with two lenses to capture twin images and these were then printed side-by-side on card stock in a format known as “stereoview cards.” When viewed through a Holmes stereoscope (invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., father of the US Supreme Court justice), these cards yielded three dimensional images similar to 3D movies and images today. Arlington House, a stately mansion with a commanding view of the nation’s capital just across the Potomac River, was the former home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his family, confiscated by the federal government after the war. (Library of Congress)

For more than 50 years, the holiday was used to commemorate those killed just in the Civil War. With America’s entry into World War I the tradition was expanded to include those lost in all wars.

Memorial Day was not officially recognized nationwide until the 1970s, with America then embroiled in the Vietnam War. In 1968, the U.S. government passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which put major holidays on specific Mondays to give federal employees three-day weekends. Memorial Day was one of those holidays, along with Washington's Birthday, Labor Day and Columbus Day. The act also codified the name "Memorial Day" into law. The act officially went into effect in 1971

Preparing to decorate graves, May 1899 (Library of Congress)

In the years following the Civil War, Lincoln's aspiration that we should be a nation characterized by malice toward none and charity for all visibly manifested itself in the magnanimity of Americans on both sides of the conflict. After having fought so fiercely over the country both loved, each side collectively extended an olive branch to mourn and to honor the estimated 620,000 men who gave "the last full measure of devotion" in that bitter conflict. (We should do so well today.)

posted 5/28/22

---

A Note to Our Readers

After 80 years of serving veterans, and more than half a century of helping veterans and their dependents obtain the finest quality care and assistance in filing claims, the American Ex-Prisoners of War has made the difficult decision to cease certifying service officers as well as accepting new claims. The Veterans Administration OGC has agreed to put a notice on their website, and we are doing the same on ours with this notice. To our loyal NSOs, please accept our heartfelt gratitude for your years as accredited service officers with AXPOW. Many thousands of veterans and their families are also grateful for your help. Current, active claims will continue under our certification for the next couple of years as we wind down operations. Please let your claimants know that a new POA will need to be signed allowing you to continue representing them under another VSO’s accrediting authority.

Again, thank you for your service to the American Ex-Prisoners of War and all veterans.

Cheryl Cerbone
Chief Executive Officer
American Ex-Prisoners of War

posted 1/24/22

---

Recollections of Christmases Past

What are your fondest Christmas memories, made so many years ago? Mental images you carry with you even today, burned into your very identity. Likely, some from as far back as the impressionable years of early childhood. Warm and happy recollections, of moments that even today make the holiday season one of the more joyful events in your life each year.

Many of our AXPOW members carry different, and darker, Christmas memories with them from the dispiriting, and sometimes seemingly endless, times thrust upon them as incarcerated prisoners of war in foreign lands far from their homes.

National Archives at College Park
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Some members felt compelled to recall those memories in the first-hand biographies they wrote out for our POW Biography database. Still fresh enough in their minds so long after the fact. Memories they could not let go of, and which no doubt shaped them just as did those happy Christmas recollections absorbed in innocent years. (Although most were not that removed from those innocent years when they went off to serve their country and fight for its freedoms. The burdens of war are borne disproportionately by the young.)

These stories are ones of deprivation, fear and uncertainty, dislocation and discouragement, but also of abiding hope and a very American will to endure, outlast and overcome their present circumstances.

This year as you pause to pray, give thanks or just enjoy this happy seasonal lull in our daily routines, take a moment to recall and offer a prayer of thanks for the men and women, some still living in our midst, many now in our memories, for the courage and commitment they showed in the field and in prison camps to secure that way of life we remain free to live today.

Herewith, camp memories at Christmas time by POWs who fought in the European theater during World War II, as they themselves recorded them, drawn from the annals of our members' biographies.

Powers, Harry, Army Air Force, 390 Bomb. Group, 571 BS, captured Sept. 14,1943, Dulag Luft, Germany, Stalag 17B, Krems, Austria, Braneau, Austria, Interned 247 days, Age 20.

"I think the uncertainty of what the next day would bring, along with the starvation, cold temperatures, fleas, and the second Christmas of still being there and constant threats of being shot was the worst. We dug a few tunnels but somehow the guards always found out about them, so there were no escapes. We were there for twenty months until our eighteen-day march west to Braneau, Austria. We were liberated on April 5th by Gen. George Patton. My weight was down to about 114 pounds—we were always hungry."

Liner, Ernest G., Army Air Corps, captured Aug. 22,1944 in Germany, Stalag Luft 4, Interned 247 days, Age 23.

"Twenty-two men in our room and all of the rooms were alike. Each room had a little coal stove, and we got three bricks of coal a day. Bunks were built around the room, each three high and two wide. Peterson and I slept together, as most of us had one partner with whom we divided food, shared clothes and ate together.

Christmas time was coming, which made it harder for everyone. One guy in our room suggested that we start saving our food for the holidays. Then the idea came to make a cake for Christmas day. Each one of us would give something from our parcels such as powdered milk, chocolate, sugar, or salt. When the day came we had lots of food and a beautiful, big cake. Some men in another room had fermented sugar, raisins and other things to make alcohol, and we traded some of our cake for enough alcohol for all of us to have a couple of swigs. The alcohol was very potent, especially on our empty stomachs with that rich cake. Years later there an article about our cake appeared in The American Legion Magazine, December 1957.

Some of the men in our room had received musical instruments from home or they were able to get the guards to get instruments for them. These musicians would get together and play. At Christmas the Germans allowed us to use a large hall and the men with instruments gave a wild party. You should have seen the crazy dancing that was done. Until the last song, 'White Christmas,' was played. After that each one of us went back to our room with tears rolling down our cheeks.

We were getting some war news from a small radio, the size of a pack of cigarettes that had been smuggled in a piece at the time and kept secret all the time we were there. We could receive the BBC once a day on a certain wavelength. One person listened, and told some other men who, in turn, told other men in each of the other barracks to spread the news of the day."

Clark, John R, Army, captured Dec. 21. 1944 at Battle of the Bulge, Stalag 8A And 4B, Interned 113 days, Age 19.

"Clark's ordeal began with a three-day march from St. Vith, Belgium to Prum, Germany. They were given no food during the march. Finally, they reached a railhead, where they were loaded onto box cars, headed for POW camps. They had only been on the train for a part of the day before it had to stop because the American Air Force had bombed the trestles. The boxcars were moved to a siding. Later, an American P-51 shot up the train killing six and wounding 47. The soldier sitting on Clark's left and the one sitting on his right were both killed. Clark said the prisoners then broke the doors down and laid in the snow linking their bodies together to form the words 'USPW.' The plane came back and rolled its wing (in salute). This was the day before Christmas. We spent the night back in the rail cars. On Christmas, we got a half-loaf of bread and a spoon of jam. This was for two days.

After marching for three days they were put on another train. Again, they were bombed by their own planes but finally reached the prison camps. During in processing, a German officer took all of Clark's possessions, handing him a receipt for the few dollars and francs he carried. Clark managed to hide two things from the officer, which would become crucial to him as times got tougher. Inside the pocket of his field jacket, Clark hid a tiny note paid he had picked up at an USO canteen. He used this note pad to keep a diary of his captivity and record his thoughts during his ordeal. He also managed to hide a small New Testament."

Crawford, John J., Army, captured Dec. 19, 1944 at St. Vith, Stalag 9B, Bad Orb, Interned 104 days, Age 19.

"It was quiet for a few days. On the morning of December 19th they were shelled heavily. They were in a valley surrounded by trees. As John came out of the woods, his unit was told to throw down their guns.

Luckily John ran back and got his overcoat, as they marched for three days in the bitter cold. At night they slept huddled together to keep warm. They were finally packed into boxcars for more traveling. The group was bombed one night by their Allies who did not know they were in the cars. Their Sergeant managed to climb out open the doors and they all scrambled for cover until it was over.

On Christmas day, they arrived at their destination, Stalag 9B, Bad Orb, Germany. John's first meal was grass soup. Later they received potato soup, which was a little better. There was very little food, showers were few, and body lice were plentiful. After a shower, they put the same clothes back on. The toilet was a hole in the floor."

Freedman, Henry E., Army, captured Dec. 19, 1944 at Bliealf, Germany, Stalag Ixb Bad Orb, Stalag Ixa, Zeigenhain, Interned three and a half months, Age 23.

"Hank was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. After much walking and being loaded in 40X8 boxcars and bombed by the RAF on Christmas Eve, Hank arrived at Stalag IXB on December 25, 1944. He was transferred to Stalag IXA on January 25, 1945. After being liberated, Hank spent 3 to 4 weeks in hospitals in France. He had lost 55 pounds as a POW."

Jones William D., Army Air Corps, captured May 2, 1944 near Steyer, Austria, Dulag Luft, Stalag 17b, Interned 16 months, Age 20.

"To keep halfway sane I would count the grain in each board in the room. I spent a lot of time remembering the numbers on each board. Occasionally an ant or a bug would appear—it was a way to pass the time. When my last interrogation session had come, I sensed something was different, as I was given a 'Babe Ruth' candy bar, a 'Camel' cigarette from a fresh pack and seated before an SS officer. His English was excellent. He took a loose-leaf binder from a shelf behind him and announced, 'I know who you are—your mother's name is Blanche.' and you came from Manchester, Iowa. He showed me the newspaper item from the Manchester Press, my hometown paper.

I was later led to an open area awaiting the trip to 17-B. On arriving at 17 -B, we were photographed and assigned a number. My German prison number was 106244. I was issued two blankets—one was a lace curtain, the other part of a carpet. It was several weeks before I got my first pair of resoled GI shoes and the blankets replaced. For our 1944 Christmas Day meal we had our usual cup of hot water for breakfast, I had five potatoes, all the size of a quarter or less and hot water for supper. Each Combine of 10 men got a loaf of bread, which was divided into 10 slices. Trying to divide oddly shaped loaves of bread 10 ways was one of many problems.

I assembled a small crystal radio set. The powers in the camp wanted this outside source of information so I had help in getting needed items. The headset came into camp by a German guard for the price of a few cigarettes, as did the crystal. A coil was made by wrapping a Pepico tooth powder tube with wire and thread. The larger you made it, the greater the range, and a magnetized needle. Wiring in the barracks was such that we could unravel it. On barracks checks, etc., I carried the headset, which consisted of one earphone, around my waist. My set was working the night that news of D-Day came in. Each radio operator reported to a news team who in turn delivered the news to each barracks after all news was confirmed."

Kravetz, Frank A., Army Air Corps, captured Nov. 2, 1944 at Hanover, Germany, Dulag Luft, Obermassfeld, Nuremburg, Moosburg, Stalag VIIA, Interned six months, Age 21.

"There would be no Christmas joy for Frank A. Kravetz in 1944, That Dec. 25, Kravetz was recovering from burns and shrapnel wounds to his legs in a makeshift hospital for Allied prisoners of war in Obermassfeld, Germany.

He had been a POW since Nov. 2, 1944 when his B-17 bomber went down over Hanover, Germany. When he had first reached the hospital, set up in an old school, conditions were bearable. But by Christmas Day, 1944, the hospital was jammed with new patients, most of them young American soldiers wounded and captured in the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's last-gasp effort to turn the tide of World War II in Western Europe.

Then the hospital was overwhelmed with patients. The newly wounded were laid on stretchers on the floor between the bunks. Supplies of food and medicine were running low. 'In fact, you had guys literally dying left and right,' Kravetz remembered. The new patients brought with them devastating news. Prior to Hitler's massive winter offensive, launched Dec. 16, 1944, it was widely believed that Allied forces would quickly bring Germany's war machine to its knees. But information brought by the new patients dashed any hopes that the Nazis were ready to quit fighting. 'The Germans were overrunning our troops,' Kravetz said.

Red Cross packages arrived in time for Christmas. Kravetz received a pipe and took tobacco from cigarettes to smoke it. Pitchers of beer were provided, and the Germans arranged for a midnight Mass to be celebrated in Kravetz's ward. Still, news of Germany's surprise offensive, which caught Allied commanders off guard, over-shadowed the gifts. 'Our morale at the hospital really went to a low ebb,' Kravetz admitted.

At one point I thought surely they were going to amputate my left leg because it was turning black,' Kravetz said, but a German surgeon saved the limb. Hanover's rail yards and train station were the targets of air raids by British and American planes. During the raids, Kravetz remained in bed instead of being taken to an underground shelter. 'Windows would shatter. Glass would fly. Beds would jump and everything else, it was just a horrible time to be alone. It would have been different if I had somebody with me to communicate with. I didn't have anybody,' Kravetz said.

From Hanover, he was taken to the hospital staffed by the Allies in Obermassfeld. By the end of January 1945, Kravetz was scheduled to come home on a Swedish repatriation ship. But after the Battle of the Bulge 'There were a lot more higher priority people so I went way down on the list,' he said. He was sent next to a POW Camp called Stalag XIIID. After several weeks, he and other captives embarked on a 15-day forced marched to Stalag VIIA in Moosburg, Germany.

'In the middle of February I arrived in Nuremburg, and was there until April 1 when we left by foot for Mooseburg (approximately 150 kilometers). We got there on April 15 and were liberated on April 29th.

The march was difficult. 'When you did stop to sleep, you slept in barns or under any kind of roof, whatever the Germans gave you. Or you just huddled together with someone else in the woods and just tried to sleep,' he explained. American forces liberated the Moosburg Camp on April 29, 1945. By then, Kravetz—who at the time of his enlistment had to lose weight to come in under the 175-pound limit—weighed just 125 pounds.

I remember the Stars and Stripes going up over the barracks, the swastika coming down' Kravetz recalled. '(U.S. Gen. George) Patton came in and told us, "Everybody stay put. Don't go roaming around the countryside because there are mines around. You fellas aren't in any kind of shape to be traipsing around a lot." For the first time in months, Kravetz ate a slice of white bread. The liberated POWs were also treated to hot chocolate. 'It made guys sick because it was too rich for them,' Kravetz recalled."

Hoag, Ralph E., Army, captured 12/23/42 at Long Stop Hill, Tunisia, Campo 98 Sicily, Campo 59 Italy Stalag 4B, 2B, 3B, 3A, Interned 851 days, Age 21.

"After motor patrols and a 600 mile truck ride across Algeria and Tunisia our Battalion met the German 10th Panzer Division at Long Stop Hill, near Medjez el Bab, Tunisia. We attacked at night, took the hill and found our unit was isolated when dawn came. Though a Corporal, I was a rifle squad leader due to the illness of our Sgt. On December 23, 1942, after several hours of rifle and grenade fire, low on ammunition and with several casualties, we surrendered . We were made to leave our wounded behind and instead made to carry German wounded to the rear. I was interrogated in Tunis by a German who had been a butcher in Chicago and returned to fight for the fatherland. On Christmas day, I was put into the anchor chain locker of an Italian destroyer which made the run to Palermo, Sicily. Spent a month at Campo 98, cold and with little food. Moved to Campo 59, Servigliano, Italy. After nine months, Italy capitulated, on Sept.10,1943, and I was free. After nine days I was recaptured by German paratroopers."

Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

"Someday soon, we all will be together, if the fates allow.
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow."

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

posted 12/20/21

---

Song Book

In 1697 the British poet and playwright William Congreve penned what would become the most misquoted famous line in the history of English literature. In his play The Mourning Bride he makes a broad characterization of the power of music over the human condition: Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

What has come down to us today from that elegant phrasing, literally more often than not, is "Music has charms to soothe the savage beast." And this is a not just a casual disservice.

First, truncating the line loses the full scope of its meaning, vastly constricting the broad arc of the author's intent. He wasn't just trying to say music is a good sedative, he was saying music has multifarious, almost magical charms. Acting as a soporific for a creature's dyspeptic excesses is only one of them and probably not even the most magical.

And second, he wasn't talking about animals.

A writer of his pedigree deserves more punctilious treatment by posterity. You may never have heard of William Congreve, but he was no fluke. Later in the same play he offered up another gem with enduring luster. "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." Two in one play! Positively Shakespearian. You knew who he was without even knowing who he was.

But mankind down through the ages did not need poetry to discern the ineffable interaction between the human psyche and the transformative power of music. It always had been and always will be recognized as a tonic for every range of circumstances confronting the human condition, even—maybe especially—war.

In America our wars have begotten catalogs of melodies that spoke to us, from rousing hymnals to both cheering and consoling ditties, and served to help both soldiers and their loved ones left at home to endure the struggles and uncertainties of their times.

Attention Amazon Shoppers!

Make any purchase through the Amazon Smile charity portal, and they'll make a donation to AXPOW—at no cost to you! Just use the link above, and designate part of your purchase price to help fund our POW support activities.

Try it next time you make a buy on Amazon. It's painless. It makes shopping more satisfying. And you'll help a great cause!

A fair number are barely if at all remembered, some not even widely dispersed far from their region of origin. Lost in the human clutter of time. After all, music as a business grew up pretty much alongside our country. There may have been catalogs but there was little hard copy storage at first. Before the American Revolution, popular music was pretty much an oral tradition. Most people's exposure to published music was confined to church, occasional concerts and local stage productions, and family and communal traditions.

The world's oldest known musical score, Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal, discovered in the 1950s on a clay tablet inscribed with Cuneiform text. You can hear it played on YouTube at Hurrian Hymn

(Photo author unknown. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Musical notation, written-down notes and tunes, was developed even before parchment or paper. A cuneiform tablet of musical notation dating back to 2000 BC was discovered in what is today modern Iraq and/or Syria. But until the 15th century all musical notation was produced by hand and obviously not very widely distributed. The first printed sheet music wasn't pulled off the presses until 1473.

The late 19th century saw a massive explosion of "parlor music," which generated growing interest in popular music, not to mention ownership of pianos and the wide dissemination of sheet music. And also piano lessons for children.

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, but by the early 20th century recorded music and its broad popular consumption hadn't yet arrived. Then in the 1920s came commercial radio broadcasting. People knew not only all the songs but how they were really supposed to sound. This improved their singing but also encouraged a finer appreciation for just plain listening to music and enjoying its benefits on an intimate, personal level.

Not surprisingly, that evolution can be traced through steady changes in the role and style of popular songs in American culture, from one war to the next.

The Civil War

Two songs most closely associated today with the Civil War, possibly thanks to Elvis Presley, are "Dixie" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Maybe even back then.

The former is now broadly associated with the Confederate cause, although the song was written as a minstrel piece well before the onset of the war and enjoyed broad popularity on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. It was a personal favorite of Abraham Lincoln, who had it played frequently at political rallies and also following the White House announcement of Lee's surrender. Lincoln, born in Kentucky, called it "one of the best tunes I ever heard."

The latter was an unabashed paean to the Union's opposition to the institution of slavery, written in 1861 for that purpose. The lyrics were the work of the abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe put to the tune of "John Brown's Body."

Civil War Sing-Along

Dixie
2nd South Carolina String Band (1850)

Battle Hymn of the Republic
Oak Ridge Boys' William Lee Golden and others (1862)

When Johnnie Comes Marching Home
Mitch Miller (1863)

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Joan Baez (1969)

(Click song title to play.)

Both songs could be, indeed were at the time, seen as anthems for their respective sympathies, "cause-related" songs espousing the existential ideals of their respective sides, and, at least in the case of "Battle Hymn," brimming with rectitude. "Dixie" was seen more as a song about pride of place, but just as serious an expression of sectarian loyalty and constancy.

American composer and bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield wrote "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" in 1863, early in the war, while serving in the Union Army. Like many people at the time, the author expected the Civil War to end much sooner than it did. The song was immensely popular and was also sung by both sides, but as the war dragged on, its relevance faded.

But by the time of the Spanish American War (1898) it was a national hit again, its triumphal temper no doubt easier to savor in a war where the enemy's naval fleet was entirely destroyed in a single battle.

Songs of a more personal nature, reflecting on the war's cost, casualties and personal loss certainly existed, but the thematic musical mainstream of America in the mid-19th century tended towards the martial and aspirational.

A very popular song outside of this mainstream, expressing grief over the price of patriotism, was written by a southern sympathizing Canadian musician. But "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was penned in 1970. Not so many philosophical odes like it written at the actual time of the war. Distress in that time was more likely to take the form of rage than sorrow, in the public square at least. Joan Baez's version peaked at #3 on the Hot 100 on October 2, 1971. She had nothing to do with the original composition and even got the lyrics wrong in a couple of spots. But pretty voice.

World War I

The U.S. was slow to enter the First World War. Fighting first broke out in the summer of 1914 between the "Central Powers," led by Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the "Allied Countries," Britain, France, and Russia. America was on the sidelines at the start. President Woodrow Wilson, elected two years before, was committed to American neutrality. He campaigned for reelection in 1916 on the slogan "He kept us out of war."

World War I Sing-Along

Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag
Nathan Lay (1912)

It's a Long Way to Tipperary
Albert Farrington (1912)

Keep the Home Fires Burning
John McCormack (1914)

Bless 'Em All
D Day Darlings (1912)

Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
United States Marine Band (1918)

Over There
George M. Cohan (1917)

Till We Meet Again
Henry Burr and Albert Campbell. (1918)

(Click song title to play.)

On May 7, 1915, a German U boat sank the British ocean liner Lusitania, killing more than 1,100 people including 128 Americans. In 1917, early in Wilson's second term, Germany greatly increased its attacks on American merchant ships and also attempted to meddle in U.S.-Mexican relations. This was enough to draw Wilson into the war on the side of the Allies. He called on Congress to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

Understandably, the war songs Americans heard on their Victrolas and newly acquired living room radio consoles at first bore a distinctly British or even French influence. The British style of war song was typically martial and upbeat, bursting with jaw-thrusting optimism. America's favorite songwriting patriot, George M. Cohan shortly rang up an American entry that did them all one better.

"Over There" typified Cohan's personal brand of super-confident, unflappable, "can-do" Yankee patriotism. It was an instant hit and galvanized the nation. It boosted enlistments and had sold two million copies of sheet music and one million recordings by war's end. Cohan was later awarded a special Congressional Medal of Honor.

But in an age when popular music in general was blossoming, America's wartime musical tastes were beginning to change. "Till We Meet Again" tells the story of a soldier and his sweetheart parting as he heads off to the front. It became a sentimental favorite towards the close of the war. It was recorded by Henry Burr and Albert Campbell and in 1919 was declared the number one song of that year. And it had legs. It was subsequently recorded by at least 77 artists, including Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Patti Page.

"Keep the Home Fires Burning," called by some War I’s greatest anthem, gained the hearts of the British public from its first public performance. By February 1916 over a million copies of the sheet music had been sold, and the song had been translated into at least six languages.

The words to "Bless 'Em All" were written by one Fred Godfrey from his experiences while serving with the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916 at Dunkirk during the First World War. At least that's his story. More likely he just wrote the words down. In point of fact, records suggest he didn't even join the RNAS until the following year. The song is thought to have originated in different versions, some quite salacious, as a popular protest song among airmen serving on India's Northwest Frontier.

Far from being the cheerful expression of good wishes to the military bureaucracy they're often taken for, the lyrics offer a derisive "so long" from jaded "time-expired" men to the officers and non-coms who made their lives miserable during their just-completed tour and a sarcastic "good luck" to their innocent, dewy-eyed replacements.

It wasn't recorded until 1940 and gained wide popularity, with some sanitized lyrics, among troops throughout the British Commonwealth and the general public during World War II. Others have also claimed authorship of the lyrics. The music, it is generally agreed, was composed by Robert Kewley.

World War II

By the 1940s America's musical mood was clearly turning much more up-close and personal. World War II's wartime music began to lean more toward feelings and emotion, romance and just "smiling through" in lieu of patriotic memes and morale-boosting. Not that patriotic and institutional songs disappeared from the scene.

He'd already made a songwriting name for himself in WWI with "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," but Irving Berlin would become World War II's George M. Cohan, memorably adding "God Bless America" and "This is the Army" to the national playlist. The former he, too, had penned back in 1918 as a young recruit but set it aside. In 1938, he revised it as a peace song (and what he called a prayer of thanks from a grateful immigrant), and it was introduced on a 20th anniversary WWI Armistice Day celebration radio broadcast, sung by Kate Smith.

World War II Sing-Along

God Bless America
Kate Smith (1918)

We'll Meet Again
Vera Lynn (1939)

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Andrews Sisters (1941)

This is the Army Mr. Jones
Irving Berlin (1942)

White Cliffs of Dover
Vera Lynn (1942)

Till Then
The Mills Brothers (1944)

I'll Be Seeing You
Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (1944)

Lili Marlene
Marlene Dietrich (1944)

(Click song title to play.)

Smith and the patriotic fervor she stirred during World War II contributed mightily to the sale of over $600 million ($10.6 billion in today's terms) in war bonds during her marathon radio broadcasts. No other show-business star came near her as a War Bond revenue producer. And there were many trying.

Smith's star was dimmed in 2019 by criticism that songs done earlier in her career were racist in character. One was a 1931 rendition of "That’s Why Darkies Were Born." The other, a 1933 recording of "Pickaninny Heaven," made reference to watermelons. The New York Yankees discontinued playing her rendition of "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch of home games, and the Philadelphia Fliers removed the statue in Smith's honor that stood in front of their ice arena.

Both the revelation and the response may have been an overheated case of political correctness. The songs, while clearly patronizing by today's standards some 90 years later, hardly oozed racial disparagement. The first had been popularized by Paul Robeson, who, granted, may have been in a better position to carry it off. The second was from the movie Hello, Everybody! one of whose writers was Fannie Hurst.

It never remotely occurred to anyone to call either of those artists bigoted. The offending lyrics in retrospect appear more a reflection of an era than of racial animus. Smith herself gave an address espousing racial tolerance on CBS Radio in 1945. O tempora o mores.

Then there were the Andrews Sisters: Maxene, LaVerne, and Patty. They were already popular music headliners when the war began who remade themselves as Uncle Sam's boogie-woogie ambassadors extraordinaires, entertaining Allied forces extensively on bases in Africa, Italy and the U.S.

They too promoted war bond sales, with a rendition of Irving Berlin's song "Any Bonds Today?" They also helped actress Bette Davis and actor John Garfield found California's famous Hollywood Canteen, volunteering their time to sing and dance for visiting servicemen. They volunteered their time at the New York Servicemen's Canteen as well.

Their signature wartime hit, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," introduced in the 1941 Abbott and Costello film Buck Privates reached number six on the U.S. pop singles chart and is ranked No. 6 on the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century" list.

In 1944, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated a series of musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. They asked Marlene Dietrich to record a number of songs in German for the project and she readily agreed.

Dietrich, German-born but living in America since 1930, was by the time of the war a well-established Hollywood star. She had become an American citizen in 1939 and was appalled by Nazism.

One of her songs, "Lili Marleen" as it was titled then, became a massive success, not least on German-language OSS radio, where it was the station's theme song.

In addition to her OSS recordings, during 1944 and '45 Dietrich performed "Lili Marlene" extensively abroad while entertaining some half a million allied troops and war prisoners across North Africa and Europe, including in Germany. Filmmaker Billy Wilder once quipped she was on the front lines more than Eisenhower.

She re-recorded the song in 1944, and versions were released on Decca Records in the US and internationally, in both English and German, as "Lili Marlene, like her own name. She spread the tune all over the United States and Europe, via both radio performances and live shows. (Her original OSS recording remains to this day unissued.)

But Dietrich was actually late to the party with Lili Marlene. The first to record it, as "Lili Marlen," was a German singer, Lale Andersen, in 1939. Initial sales were not encouraging: only 700 copies. But that was to change, albeit by chance. After the Nazis overran Yugoslavia, Radio Belgrade, recommissioned as the German forces' radio station, commenced to playing the song over and over, primarily because of a lack of other recordings. And it quickly caught on with German soldiers throughout Europe and North Africa.

All except with Nazi propaganda Chief Joseph Goebbels. He didn't care for the song, the story goes, because it wasn't a march (how like a Nazi) and because he didn't like the German songstress, who, it was rumored, associated with Jews and openly criticized the Nazi regime. Gossip like that did a girl's musical career no good in Germany at that time.

But Radio Belgrade was getting bushels of letters from Axis soldiers all over Europe and Africa asking them to play it again. Allies, too, heard the broadcasts and were just as captivated. Many Allied soldiers made a point of tuning into Radio Belgrade just to listen to "Lili Marlen" at the end of each day.

Whoever that girl back home was that it reminded them all of, she must have really been something.

But Goebbels, undaunted, still wanted the song banned. However, the story continues, it turned out General Erwin Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, Germany's "Desert Fox," was one of "Lili Marlen's" many, many fans and "requested" of the radio station that it be played for his troops every night. So Goebbels backed off, and the song became Radio Belgrade’s signature sign-off, every night at 9:55 p.m.

And so it was that by the end of World War II, "Lili Marlene," thanks to two unlikely "Krauts" and one unlikely "Yank," was said to be, by whatever name, the most popular song in the world.

Vietnam

Wartime music in the '60s was a different affair. It was a frenetic time: civil rights struggles (sometimes tragically violent), generational mistrust, Watergate, unusually rebellious youth for whom Vietnam was an unpopular war, a disaffected drop-out culture and rampant mind-altering drug usage. In the words of Bob Dylan, "There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air."

How frenetic really? Consider that the Moon Walk, Chappaquiddick, the Manson murders and Woodstock all took place within weeks of each other in the summer of 1969. A year later, four students were killed and nine others wounded at Kent State University by Ohio National Guard troops. As it always does, the music of the times largely reflected those times. Often hostile and antagonistic. (When it wasn't about surfing and fast cars: this is popular music we're talking about.)

A hint of what was in store came in a little noted and probably poorly remembered 1966 song by Simon and Garfunkel. This uncomplicated and melodious young duo was hardly a protest act, and "7 o'clock News / Silent Night" was hardly a protest song. It provided an ironic interplay between the events of a typically disconcerting (and real) daily news report and the dreamy mood of a peaceful Christmas Carol.

The disjunction might be cheekily described in modern times as a "woke" moment. It was a harbinger of where we were going with Vietnam and the other thorny concerns of those tense times. Merry Christmas.

Creedance Clearwater Revival was a hot vocal group throughout the '60s and '70s and reputedly a huge favorite among servicemen in Vietnam as well as young people back home. A number of its songs, like "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Run Through the Jungle," "Bad Mood Rising," and Fortunate Son," were received by fans as more or less coded allegories about the war in southeast Asia.

John Fogerty, the band's front man, lead guitarist and principal songwriter, dispelled those beliefs. His songs often evoked an air of apocalyptic unease, but the source of the angst wasn't generally Vietnam. The first was about Fogerty's fears, eventually confirmed, over his band breaking up; the second was an alarmum about growing gun violence in America; and the third he was inspired to write after watching the movie The Devil and Daniel Webster.

The fourth song, "Fortunate Son," actually dealt with class distinctions in American society. In much the same vein as Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," released in 1984. Both songs had inferential ties to Vietnam (as in, the fortunate sons were not in Vietnam fighting) but those inferences were tangential to the core message of either song.

"Galveston," a song written by Jimmy Webb and popularized by American country music singer Glen Campbell, was unarguably about Vietnam, without ever mentioning the war by name. In 2003, it ranked number 8 in the 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music and number 1 on the country music charts. It reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the "Easy Listening" charts. It was certified gold by the RIAA in October 1969. Not bad for an unnamed war song.

"Ballard of the Green Berets" was a popular song that unabashedly cast both Vietnam and the military in a positive light. And was well-received for it. In 1966 it reached the No. 1 spot for five weeks on the Hot 100 and four weeks on Cashbox. It also reached No. 1 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart and No. 2 on Billboard's Country survey. "Ballard of the Green Berets" and "California Dreamin'" by the Mommas and the Papas were tied for #1 in the Cashbox end-of-year survey for 1966.

Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Tree" is about a man returning from prison, not Vietnam. But soldiers in-country appeared to relate to it in a big way just the same. The shoe fit, so to speak.

The origin of the yellow ribbon as a badge of constancy likely dates back to the 19th-century practice of women wearing a yellow ribbon in their hair to signify devotion to a husband or sweetheart serving in the U.S. Cavalry, which may have inspired the John Wayne movie "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon."

Vietnam War Sing-Along

7 o'clock News / Silent Night
Simon and Garfunkel (1966.)

Ballard of the Green Berets
Sgt. Barry Sadler (1966)

Fortunate Son
Creedence Clearwater Revival (1967)

We Gotta Get Out of This Place
The Animals (1965)

Galveston
Glen Campbell (1969)

Tie a Ribbon 'Round the Old Tree
Tony Orlando and Dawn (1973)

(Click song title to play.)

Their single made the top 10 song list in ten countries, and in eight of them it topped the chart.

According to the Folklife Reading Room of the Library of Congress, even though the song was released in 1973, there's no actual record of yellow ribbons appearing during the Vietnam War or any other conflict pre-1980. The tradition didn't surface broadly until 1980, when 52 American embassy workers were taken hostage in Iran.

One theory argues that the yellow ribbon as a modern sympathetic symbol began in 1975 with Gail Magruder, wife of Watergate figure Jeb Magruder. She put yellow ribbons around her porch to welcome her husband home from prison.

A senior member of Richard Nixon's Committee to Reelect the President, Magruder pled guilty to a single-count indictment for his role in the botched Watergate Hotel burglary and ensuing cover-up. He was sentenced by Judge John Sirica to a term of ten months-to-four years, of which he served seven months. And his wife was at home waiting for him, with a lot of yellow ribbon. Nobody really thought Magruder was the brains of the operation. He went on to become a Presbyterian minister.

Another song favorite of soldiers in Vietnam was "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" by raucous British rockers The Animals, fronted by the booming-voiced Eric Burton. The connection is obvious enough, but in plain fact, the song had absolutely nothing to do with the War in Vietnam. Another Animals recording, "The House of the Rising Sun," was also very popular in the camps in the Delta. Same with Jimmy Hendrix, who reputedly avoided Vietnam by pretending he was gay. (He was also known to have strong anti-communist sympathies.) Sometimes they just liked the music.

A modern-day interpretation of William Congreve tailored for the adolescent mind:
prepared by Sir Elton John and Bryan Adams.

posted 11/5/21

---

The Battle of the Bulge

Christmas season is coming around again, soon to be upon us. Minds will automatically start racing ahead to daydreams of holiday cheer, family reunions, good times with friends and a general bon ami of good will towards men and peace on earth. So it is every year as days grow short and the air grows chilly. And so it was as winter approached in 1944. Particularly vibrant that year was that last daydream: peace on earth. At long last, the second great war in the first half of the twentieth century was grinding towards an end. Like Christmas, drawing palpably close. Now would be a good time to reflect back on that dawning Christmas season, which instead turned out to presage one the darker periods of World War II, dashing hopes and holiday reveries. In early December 1944, German resolve was seen to be near exhaustion. The Soviets, for all of the mutual mistrust and growing rivalry among the Allies, was steadily moving in from the east, vivified by the Nazis' humiliating retreat from the very doorstep of Moscow. The western Allies, having liberated France, were advancing on the Brandenburg gate. The feeling was growing that the war in Europe was almost at its end. Then, on December 16, 1944 Germany sprang its Ardennes Counteroffensive, The Battle of the Bulge. The end of the war was just the beginning of the end of the war, it turned out. The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history. The battle's name came from of the westward-bulging shape of battle lines drawn on a map. The fighting lasted six weeks, from mid-December until the end of January. It was the largest land battle of World War II that the United States directly participated in. More than a million men fought in the counteroffensive: 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British. It would turn out to be the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front. Winston Churchill called The Battle of the Bulge "the greatest American battle of the war." But that's not what it felt like at the start. The allied command was caught completely of guard, and the surprise German attack broke through the front on its very first day. credit: Public domain Click on map to enlarge The Germans launched their attack in the densely forested Ardennes region comprising eastern Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg. American forces bore the brunt of the melee, which created higher casualties than any other operation of the war. Hitler's hope was that the counteroffensive would both halt Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and split the Allied lines, thus allowing German forces to encircle four Allied armies and force the West to negotiate a peace treaty more favorable to the Axis powers. Approximately 250,000 soldiers took part in the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans The Battle of the Bulge was fought in frigid weather conditions, with some 30 German divisions attacking battle-fatigued American troops across 85 miles of thick woods. It would be the costliest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered nearly 100,000 casualties. The Ardennes was hacked into chaos by the fighting as GIs dug in against the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. The timing of the attack was no accident. Freezing rain, snow drifts and record-breaking low temperatures gave an added stinging aspect to the Counteroffensive. "I was from Buffalo, I thought I knew cold," baseball Hall of Famer and WWII veteran Warren Spahn wrote in his book, The Love of Baseball. "But I didn't really know cold until the Battle of the Bulge." Another Nazi stratagem was to attempt to infiltrate the Allied troops and spread confusion and disarray. German paratroopers had been dropped behind US lines dressed like American soldiers. They changed road signs, cut telephone lines and fed U.S. troops false directions. "The Nazis were carefully groomed for their dangerous mission," Life magazine reported in 1945. "They spoke excellent English and their slang had been tuned up by close association with American prisoners of war in German camps." To combat infiltrators, U.S. troops learned to challenge suspected Germans with American trivia questions. On the morning of December 16, the German divisions struck, in heavy fog, along a 50-mile front. They were outfitted in white uniforms to blend in with the snow. They pushed American forces west, back nearly to the Meuse River, and surrounded the town of Bastogne in Belgium. The German offensive lasted for more than a month, yet the first four days accounted significantly for the outcome. The battle of the Bulge actually comprised a series of distinct separate regional battles as might be expected along such a long front. The Siege of Bastogne: The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp. In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven main roads in the Ardennes mountain range converged on the small town of Bastogne, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack. The siege ran December 20-27 at which point the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton's Third Army. The Battle for Clervaux: The battle for this town in northern Luxembourg lasted from December 16-18. German forces encircled numerically inferior American forces, and, after heavy fighting, forced them to surrender. The battle has been referred to as the Luxembourg "Alamo." The first tank battle of the Ardennes offensive ended in disaster for the Allies, who lost nearly 60 tanks to the Germans' four. Still, the stubborn resistance of the military units involved greatly slowed the German advance. Battle of Lanzerath Ridge: Fought on the first day of the Counteroffensive, near the town of Lanzerath, Belgium, this day-long conflict matched 18 men belonging to an American reconnaissance platoon, four U.S. Forward Artillery Observers, against a battalion of about 500 German paratroopers. The American reconnaissance men inflicted dozens of casualties on the Germans and bottled up the advance along a key route planned for the German SS Panzer Division that was spearheading the entire German 6th Panzer advance. The Germans finally flanked the American forces at dusk and captured them. One American, an artillery observer, was killed and 14 others wounded, while German casualties totaled 92. The Germans then fatally paused their advance, believing the woods were filled with more Americans and tanks. credit: Public domain Tanks and infantrymen of the Company G, 740th Tank Battalion, 504th Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, push through the snow near Herresbach, Belgium, January 28, 1945. Battle of St. Vith: The town of St. Vith stood at a vital road junction on the way to Antwerp. It was also close to the western end of the Losheim Gap, a critical valley through the densely forested ridges of the Ardennes Forest and a focal point of the entire German Counteroffensive. Allied troops eventually fell back from their defense of the town on December 21. Given that the Germans' plan was to capture St. Vith by December 17, the prolonged action in and around the town presented yet another major blow to their objectives. The Elsenborn Ridge: A ridge line east of the town of Elsenborn, Belgium was the main line of advance for Hitler's prized 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. However, units of First U.S. 1st Army held the ridge preventing German forces from reaching a vast array of supplies near the cities of Liége and Spa, Belgium and the road network leading west to the Meuse River and Antwerp. This was the only sector of the American front line where the Germans failed to advance during the Battle of the Bulge.

credit: Braun, USA / Public domain American 290th Infantry Regiment infantrymen fighting in snow during the Battle of the Bulge. Losheim Gap: Accounts of the Battle of the Bulge generally focus on the Siege of Bastogne and the Battle of St. Vith. But the Germans' primary ambitions were focused on taking the Losheim Gap, a narrow five-mile long valley on the border of Belgium and Germany. It is the only region conducive to military movement. In this region of thick forests, US troops halted the best of German war machine, including the 12th SS Panzer and the 3rd Fallschirmjager Divisions. Operation Bodenplatte: On January 1, the Luftwaffe attempted a campaign to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries. The goal was to gain air superiority during the stagnant stage of the Battle of the Bulge so that the German Army and Waffen-SS forces could resume their advance. It was originally planned for December 16 but delayed repeatedly due to bad weather until New Year's Day, the first day that happened to be suitable. Secrecy for the operation was so tight that not all German ground and naval forces had been informed of the operation and some units suffered casualties from friendly fire. In point of fact, while delivering harsh doses of reality to Allied Christmas hopes of a pending victory, ultimately the Battle of the Bulge was probably doomed from its inception. By that point in the war, Germany simply lacked the manpower and resources to maintain such an ambitious offensive for any sustained period of time, much less muster what would be required to reverse their by-then untenable defensive posture. As it turned out, the Counteroffensive wound up costing the Nazis more in lost men and expended matériel than it did the Allies, as expensive as it was to the latter. Len Fullenkamp, a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a professor of military history and strategy at the Army War College, postulates that Hitler mistakenly believed American commanders would not be able to respond the German Counteroffensive with necessary rapidity. Fullenkamp writes that the success of the German attack relied heavily on the presumption of temporary paralysis within the Allied high command. Hitler presumed his enemy's generals would have to clear counterattack plans through higher military and political channels as would have been the case within Germany's command structure. But General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, had long enjoyed the authority to act on his own initiative, which he did. On December 16, the first day of the Counteroffensive, Eisenhower ordered Armored divisions posted to the north and south of the Bulge into the flanks of the German offensive. Also, notwithstanding surprise, unpreparedness and early setbacks, Allied forces fought well enough to slow the German drive to secure the road network at Bastogne and to defend St. Vith and other key Nazi objectives. They held off German attackers for almost seven days, effectively stalling the German command's strategic timetable. On December 23, American forces began their first counterattack on the southern flank of the "Bulge," The encirclement of Bastogne finally broke with American units pushing from the north and south, and the German advance stopped. In addition, British paratroopers and infantry units began an attack on the western tip of the German advance. The Library of Congress website features an informative interactive timeline depicting key dates of "The Battle of the Bulge" as told through the actual daily situation maps made for the US Military VIII Corps. It can be reached by clicking on this map. On January 1, the Germans launched two new operations aimed at opening second fronts in Holland and northern France. The Luftwaffe launched its bombing campaign against Allied airfields and succeeded in destroying or severely damaging more than 460 aircraft. But in the process it suffered massive losses of its own: 277 planes. While the Allies recovered quickly from their losses, the Luftwaffe could not. The Battle of the Bulge was more than an embarrassing setback for the Allied military command. It proved a very expensive one for the country in general and in a very personal way for the men who fought in it. Early in the war the bulk of American POWs in Europe were pilots and bomb crews. While in the European theatre 93,941 Americans in total would be held as prisoners of war in all of World War II, in the Battle of the Bulge alone 23,554, mainly infantrymen, were taken prisoner by Germans —4,000 in one day. The most infamous massacre of American troops in World War II took place during the Battle of the Bulge: The Malmedy Massacre. On December 17, 1944, halfway between the town of Malmedy and Ligneuville in Belgium, an American battalion was captured by an SS force. About 150 POWs were disarmed and sent to stand in a field. About 80 men were killed by gunfire, and their bodies were left where they fell. Many prisoners escaped into nearby woods. Cost of the Battle of the Bulge in Lost Manpower and Matériel U.S. U.K. Nazi Germany 89,500 killed, wounded, missing or captured 1,408 (200 killed, 969 wounded, and 239 missing) 63,222 - 98,000 killed, wounded, missing or captured) 733 tanks and tank destroyers lost   554 tanks, tank destroyers and assault guns lost 1,000 aircraft lost, over 647 in December and 353 during Unternehmen Bodenplatte   800 aircraft lost, at least 500 in December and 280 during Unternehmen Bodenplatte Approximately 3,000 civilians killed (Statistics compiled by Wikipedia) The Malmedy Massacre is regarded as the worst atrocity committed against American troops during the course of the war in Europe. Why it happened is not entirely clear. No record of any order by an SS officer was ever found. The shooting of POWs was common on the Eastern front, but rare on the Western front. American forces recaptured the site where the killings took place in mid-January and recovered the bodies of the murdered soldiers. After the war, the SS soldiers were tried in the Malmedy Massacre Trial. Forty-two former SS officers were sentenced to death, although no death penalty was ever carried out. Most served sentences varying from 10 years to life imprisonment. POWs from the Battle of the Bulge were often among the lower ranks and generally not accorded the benefits of proper shelter during that winter. To make matters worse, many were subjected to long death marches as their captives maneuvered them away from advancing American and Russian armies. Men who were underfed and inaequately clothed, some without even shoes, sleeping in barns or open fields, succumbed in great numbers from exposure to the natural elements of the winter of 1944-45 and froze to death or died of dysentery during the forced marches. From a total of 257,000 western Allied prisoners of war held in German military prison camps, over 80,000 POWs were forced to march westward across Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany in extreme winter conditions, over about four months between January and April 1945. POWs from Luft IV marched 800 miles in 86 days from the Eastern to the Western Front and then back again. Estimates of the total who perished in the marches run to 3,000 or more. On January 7, Hitler began pulling back from the Ardennes. The last of the German reserves were gone, the Luftwaffe had been broken, and Russian troops were casting their shadows on Germany's eastern edge. Her defeat at last loomed, mere months away. But won at far greater expense than had been envisioned by Allied leaders, and a hopeful American public, in the waning days of 1944. On April 30, during the Battle of Berlin, the last major offensive of the European theatre, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. On May 8, the Allies accepted Germany's unconditional surrender, and 7.6 million soldiers began the ritual of demobilization. It took about four months, and many GIs complained about the slowness of the process. All that were coming home made it in time for Christmas 1945.

posted 11/14/20

---

In Their Own Words .... Personal accounts by POWs of their last—or first—moments of freedom and the personal challenges of capture and captivity that fell in between. These are the stories, penned from recollections or shared with family and friends, of the men and women who, in war, fell captive to enemy forces and were forced; to fight for their country in totally new and unexpected ways. 33 1/2 Months as a Guest of Der Fuhrer ... and a Week More as a Tourist, 55 Years Later by Rev. William W. Williams III I n the summer of 1942 I was the signalman aboard the SS Carlton, a Merchant Marine vessel bound for Murmansk, Russia with military supplies. She was sunk by a torpedo from a German U Boat on the morning of July 5 in the devastation of convoy PQ 17, 350 miles north of Norway. [Editor's Note: William W. Williams III was sailing as a member of the Navy Armed Guard. Armed Guard units were established in the early days of World War II in an attempt to provide defensive firepower to merchant ships traveling in convoy or alone. The ships and men of the merchant marine were what transported the war materiel, supplies, equipment and even troops needed to fight and win the war. The Merchant Marine suffered a casualty rate higher than any other branch of the military, losing 9,300 men. Most of the losses occurred in 1942. The United States Navy Armed Guard (USNAG) were U.S. Navy-enlisted gun crews (Gunner's Mates, Coxswains and Boatswains, Radiomen, Signalmen, Pharmacist's Mates and, toward the end of the war, radarmen serving at sea on merchant ships. The vessels in the Carlton's convoy was proceeding under a close British and US naval escort but were left unguarded and then scattered after covering cruiser forces withdrew to intercept a German raiding flotilla. The convoy subsequently lost 24 of its 35 ships in a week of daylight attacks by German U-boats and aircraft, and the Carlton was one of those lost.] courtesy Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. SS Carlton I was one of 24 "rescued" by German seaplanes (the rest of the crew drifted, rowed and sailed for nearly three weeks, landed in Norway, and joined us in Milag-Marlag Nord much later.) (Copyright unknown) SS Carlton aflame after being torpedoed in Arctic Ocean. We who were picked up landed in Kirknes, Norway, and were incarcerated in Stalag 322, a camp for dissident Norwegian schoolteachers. I was given a dog tag hammered out of a tin can with the number: 322/1927, my identification for the entire time—I still have it! On a German cargo ship we reached Oslo, Norway. On a larger and faster ship we came to Aarlborg, Denmark, and by train to Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Because we were the first Americans to be captured, and there were no American camps at the time, we were taken to Milag-Marlag Nord, in Tarmstedt, a short way from Bremen, a stalag for British Navy prisoners. Non-commissioned officers were not required to work, and I could have remained there for the rest of the war, but I wished to escape. So, I exchanged identity with a British seaman who was being forced to work. In April 1943, posing as Henry Rose of England, I went by train to Charlottenhof, Obersilesia, to work with a small group of prisoners repairing an irrigation canal. Five days later, another prisoner and I walked off the job. We thought we had everything planned, except that we didn't know about the tracking dogs in the next village. They soon found us, and we surrendered and were separated. I was taken to Stalag 8B in Lamsdorf. A short time after, I was called to headquarters, presented with my original dog-tag (322/1927), and sentenced to five days solitary confinement on bread and water for escaping and trying to confuse my kind "rescuers." I never found out how they discovered the switch in identity. At that time (April 1943), an American Army sergeant and I were the only Americans in 8B. Because we were non-British, we were housed in compound 10 with prisoners from India, Australia, New Zealand, North Ireland, Greece and Canada. The Canadians were from the Black Watch Division and had been captured in the failed landing at Dieppe, France. Because of circumstances surrounding their capture, they were forced to wear handcuffs day and night. [Editor's note: As the only sailor in camp Bill was affectionately given the nickname "Seaweed," which stayed with him for the rest of his days and is inscribed on his gravestone.] While in 8B, I began attending church services and was called into the Christian ministry. After the war, I returned home, went to college and seminary, and am now a retired American Baptist minister. In February of 1944, I was transferred to Stalag 2B in Hammerstein, Pommerania, an all American camp. I became the acting chaplain when the present chaplain was repatriated. In this capacity, I went out of the camp for many weekends to hold services at the various arbeits kommandos. I was in the city of Danzig in January of 1945 when the Russian army broke through on the Eastern Front. The city was evacuated, and I was on the last train to leave the city. By early February, the Russians were approaching Stalag 2B, and the camp was abandoned by the Germans. We were placed in groups of three hundred or more and headed west on foot. [Editor's Note: In the final stages of World War II in Europe, as the Soviet Army advanced into Germany, Allied POWs, without adequate rest, shelter, food, clothing and medical supplies, were force-marched westward in groups of 200 to 300 in the so-called "Long March." German authorities had decided to evacuate their POW camps in order to delay liberation of the prisoners. From a total of 257,000 western Allied prisoners in German military prison camps, over 80,000 were forced to walk across Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany in extreme winter conditions over a period of some four months. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of German civilian refugees, most of them women and children, as well as civilians of other nationalities, were also making their way westward on foot. January and February 1945 were among the coldest winter months of the 20th century in Europe. The march from Stalag VIII-B (referred to as the "Lamsdorf Death March") was similar to the better-known Bataan Death March (1942) in terms of mortality rates. Official sources estimate that 1,121 U.S. POWs did not survive.] After wandering around for sixty days, we crossed the Elbe River at Domitz. On April 14, we were strafed by American planes and I ran away. I was lucky to come upon an American outpost and was free at last! [Editor's Note: (The following account was provided by Rev. Williams's daughter.) "After he escaped and made it to the American army encampment, Bill played an instrumental role in rescuing the 300 prisoners he had left behind. He led an army truck convoy back to where his fellow marchers had become pinned down in a firefight with German soldiers. He was in the front seat of the first truck waving frantically to his friends, who at that point must have figured they had pretty much run out of luck."] By truck I went to Hildesheim, by plane to LeHavre and Camp Lucky Strike, where I rejoined some of the men from my ship whom I had not seen since my first escape. By plane together, we went to England and by ship to Boston, MA and home. Epilogue: For many years after my return, I entertained the hope of revisiting the sites where I had been held as a prisoner of war. Finally it became possible. My son William W. Williams IV and I flew out of Logan airport in Boston on Oct. 10, 2000 at noon and landed at Tegel in Berlin. We picked up our rental car and headed for Bremen where we stayed the first night. In the morning we traveled east to Tarmstedt, the location of Milag-Marlag Nord, just eighteen miles away. It had been a camp for enemy Navy and Merchant Marine sailors and was where I spent the first nine months of my captivity. During my 33 1/2 months I was also in Stalag 344/8B in Lamsdorf, Obersilesia for ten months, and lastly in Stalag 2B, Hamerstein, Pomerania for twelve months, followed by a sixty-day march in the winter of 1945, from which I escaped. To conserve travel time, we decided to go to 2B next and then to 8B before returning to Berlin for the trip home. MILAG-MARLAG NORD: Our first stop in Tarmstedt was at a bank to exchange some currency, and begin our inquiry to locate the camp. No one in the bank could speak English, but as I am still conversant in Deutsch, I said I had been a "Kriegsgefangener" there in 1942, and wanted to visit the area. An elderly farmer was in the bank cashing a check. When he heard the word "Kriegsgefangener" he came right over to us and said "Warten sie hier, bitte", and then went to the telephone.

William W. Williams III, USNAG Signalman, at ease He had asked me to wait while he called the Burgermeister (Mayor), who knew all about the prison camp and would like to meet us. We got in the car and followed him to the mayor's house. What a stroke a luck! We could never have found it by ourselves. The entire area had been demolished and obliterated and planted to forest some forty years ago. The mayor took us in his own car down an old logging road to one lone barracks that had been preserved in the middle of the forest. It was now a private dwelling. That is all there is left of a compound that held Royal Navy sailors and Merchantmen since 1940 and the crew of my ship which had been sunk in 1942. Incidentally, the area is now called "Westertimke." A single barracks: all that is left. The mayor told us of the editor of a nearby newspaper who had collected a documentary of the camp. After good-bye to the mayor and the farmer, we headed for the town of Zeven, and found the newspaper office. The editor himself was not available, but had left word for one of the staff to take us upstairs to the archives and show us newspaper size photographs of the camp taken through the years. On the table was a documentary brochure that had been printed and was for us to take home. STALAG 2B HAMERSTEIN: Our next destination was Stalag 2B. That was the last camp I was held from Feb. 1944 to Feb. 1945, when it was abandoned in the face of the Russian advance from the East. The camp was broken up into groups of three or four hundred men and marched on foot westward, wandering seemingly aimlessly until we reached Saltzwedel some sixty days later. That's where I left the column and liberated myself into the hands of an American gun emplacement. I remembered most of the towns through which we had passed: Stargard, Stettin, Neubrandenburg, Teterow, Gustrow, Parchim, Ludwigslust, Domitz. Starting with Saltzwedel, my son and I retraced my footsteps in reverse, crossing the Elbe River at Domitz, where we spent the night at a country inn. I was anxious to see again the town of Parchim where our march group passed the end of an airport runway lined with fire engines manned by women, and from which experimental jets took off. After the war, it was occupied by the Russian military who used it as a military air base. Now it again is a Polish town. The airport has been completely modernized and has scheduled weekly international flights to Spain. As we wound our way eastward to Stettin, where we stayed overnight, I recalled we had been herded into barns at night to sleep and were now passing the very ones in which we had stayed. Hamerstein is no longer on the map. It is now a town called "Czarne." Reverend Williams in Czarne, formerly Hamerstein We inquired at Town Hall, and one of the employees graciously drove us to the campsite. Like Marlag, it had been leveled and planted to trees. Because thousands of Russian soldiers had been imprisoned there too and had perished through disease and neglect, during the Russian occupation the mass graves had been dug up and the bodies reburied with markers. In a small park there is a tall memorial marker and as far as the eye can see there are the grave markers with the hammer and sickle emblem. The town has a public relations booklet which contains a short history of Stalag 2B and a picture of the memorial park. Credit: MOs810 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) Okonecczyzna (Stalag IIB Hammerstein) marker in Czarne Memorial Park, Czarne Memorial Park, plaque at base of monument Czarne Memorial Park, with Hammer and Sickle gravemarkers STALAG 344/8B LAMSDORF, OBERSILESIA: Before going to Stalag 8B, Bill and I took a side trip to Gdansk. I was there on a preaching mission out of 2B in Jan. 1945 when the Russian army broke through on the eastern front. Because of the Russian advance, the entire civilian population was evacuated. I was on the last train to leave the city on my way back to 2B. After spending the night in Gdansk, Bill and I headed south to Lamsdorf, now Lambinowisce, the site of Stalag 8B. The Lamsdorf camp complex was created during the Franco-Prussian war and operated during the First and Second World Wars. Soldiers from all the armies fighting Germany were imprisoned there. During WWII, around 300,000 prisoners of 50 nationalities passed through Lamsdorf. It is now an elaborate POW museum similar to our Andersonville. Credit: Julo / Public domain Central Prisoner of War Museum (Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych) Nearby there is a huge public park where thousands of Russians had been housed, and where they died by the thousands. In the midst of the park there is a huge monument commemorating all the prisoners of all the wars. The site where the British (4,000) and the Americans (2) were held is now a Polish army artillery range and not accessible to the public. The staff at the museum was glad to see me as the first confirmation that there had been any Americans there at all. I was there for ten months from May 1943 to January 1944, where I did 5 days solitary on bread and water for having escaped originally. The museum has publications and videos and a website well worth visiting. www.cmjw.pl/en/lambinowicki-rocznik-muzealny Before returning home, Bill and I spent two nights and a day seeing the sights of Berlin.

The trip: both ways.

Westbound march, on foot (1945);    Eastbound stops, by car (2000). Distance: 355 mi. (571 km)

posted 7/8/20

Statement of The American Ex-Prisoners of War before the Committees on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate/U.S. House Of Representatives, March 3, 2020

National Commander Robert G. Certain
Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Cerbone
Legislative Officer Charles Anthony Susino

Chairmen Mark Takeno and Jerry Moran, and members of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs committee and guests, my name is Robert Certain, National Commander of the American Ex-Prisoners of War. Thank you for the opportunity to express our comments today.

Our legislative agenda has been very consistent year to year. It is based on the earned benefits of the veteran for serving their country, never using the word "entitlements" in the same sentence as veteran. Its center is healthcare and fair compensation to the veteran and their family.

We are grateful for the efforts of this committee and this Congress over this past year. You have stepped up and passed several key pieces of legislation in support of our veterans. Your time is scarce and other major Congressional agendas often displace the attention on veterans' needs so we ask for your patience, persistence, and unwavering support.

Three major initiatives became law in 2019.

The first: Full Military Honors Act of 2019. This act ensures that a veteran shall receive full military honors if the veteran (1) is first interred or inurned in Arlington National Cemetery, (2) was awarded the medal of honor or the prisoner-of-war medal, and (3) is not entitled to full military honors because of such veteran's grade. This was a long time coming and is just recognition for those heroes who gave so much for their country, regardless of rank.

The second allows this nation to live up to the promise that we will never forget those still missing in action. Prominent federal buildings and national war memorials will now fly the iconic POW/MIA flag alongside the American flag throughout the year thanks to legislation signed into law in November. The proposal, passed without objection in the House and the Senate earlier in 2019, is designed to help highlight the continued sacrifice of military families whose loved ones are still unaccounted for overseas, estimated at about 82,000 individuals.

And importantly for the surviving partners of our veteran heroes: The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2020 completely eliminates the Widow's Tax after three years. No changes will take place in calendar year 2020. In 2021, one-third of the SBP will be restored. In 2022, two-thirds will be restored. On January 1, 2023, the SBP will be completely restored and surviving spouses will receive their SBP and DIC payments in full. Again, this was a long time coming and will positively affect nearly 65,000 surviving military spouses.

Thank you for your efforts.

Unfortunately, an equally important initiative has been overlooked by Congress for nearly three decades. The flat rate Dependency and Indemnity Compensation has not been increased since 1993.Compared to other Federal survivor programs, DIC lags behind almost 12%. The current DIC flat rate is 43% of the compensation of a fully disabled single veteran. Other Federal survivor programs provide a survivor annuity of 50-55% of retirement pay to the surviving spouse. We propose a 12% increase once or a "Sunset Provision" of 3% each for 10 years for DIC to become equitable with other Federal survivor programs.

In 2020, DIC is $1,340.14 a month, or about $16,082 per year. Pretty close to the poverty level for our most fragile citizens.

We receive calls from widows who, because DIC is so low, they must abandon the homes where they lived with their veteran spouse. We get calls from our surviving spouse members who want to "cancel the magazine. I can't afford to pay for it." When we tell them that the magazine is paid for by their life membership dues, they are grateful. For most, the magazine is their only connection to the Ex-POW experience. We also get calls from the children of ex-POWs. They want to know what benefits are available over the stipend they get through DIC. Their mothers are nearly destitute. That is not fair to all veterans and certainly not fair to widows of EXPOWs.

Below is a letter received as this testimony was being written: Dear Cheryl (CEO Cheryl Cerbone)

As a dependent of a former Ex-POW, I am reaching out to you after reading your most recent letter in the bulletin.

My mother, Theresa Hoffmann, is a widow and soon to be 98 years old. My dad, Edward I Hoffmann was a POW for 42 months during WW II. He was with the 59th Coast Artillery and captured on Corregidor. Dad passed away in February 1998 from malignant tumor behind his eye. He was 100% disabled Veteran.

I moved my mom to Scottsdale, AZ from Omaha, NE four years ago when she could no longer care for herself. Here in Phoenix we have "assisted care homes" which are much more affordable than those larger care facilities. Mom ran out of her Long Term Care Insurance in 2018. At that time I had to negotiate with the owner of the care home a cost that mom could afford which then I had to move her into a shared room. Mom had some money in her savings which I have been supplementing to cover her room, board & care.

In August, I had to find a different assisted care home because the owners decided to build a bigger brand new home on the same site. The cost was going from $3,600/month to $5,500/month, so I no choice but to find another care home that would care for her at $3,600/month.

Mom is bedridden and although she is somewhat mentally aware, her body has given up on her. Fortunately, the new care home is just around the corner from where my husband and I live. My brother also lives with us who has multiple myeloma and we transport him to doctor appointments and kidney dialysis 3x a week. I walk over daily to help feed mom dinner.

Currently, I am supplementing mom's monthly care from her remaining savings of $8,900. Her current DIC is $1,956.00; SS is $1,180 and she has a small pension of $285.00/month which = 3,421.00/month. The difference is $179.00 a month. She will run out of her savings in 49 months. Upon her death, I will most likely need most of that savings to transport her body back to Omaha to be buried with my dad at the cemetery where he is placed. No cremation as she wishes.

My plea is an increase in her DIC for $179.00 a month more for her. I had to move her from Omaha to one assisted living home and three different rooms negotiating costs. Then negotiating again with another assisted care home because she doesn't have the funds for the care she needs this time in her life. This shouldn't be the scenario for a widower of a former POW.

My parents were very involved and volunteered their time at the VA hospital as well as organized the POW Chapter in Omaha. Mom was adjunct secretary of the POW Chapter as well as chairperson for many, many years. Both are life time members.

In hopes of Congress listening at your March testimony, perhaps this letter will help. All she needs is $179.00 a month to continue her care. If this plea should fall on someone else's ears, please let me know. I'm afraid Congress couldn't care less as they are more involved with impeachment hearings than a 97 year old widow of a former POW and disabled veteran.

Thank you for taking the time to hear me out and for all that you do for our Ex-POW's. Sincerely,
Mary (Hoffmann) Rumer

Do your mothers have to live like this? Could your mothers live on this? don't think so.

There are two bills currently before this Congress: HR3221 with 14 cosponsors and S1047 with just 4 cosponsors. Both of these bills were referred to YOUR committees in April 2019. One year ago, with no action except shuffling to subcommittees. You owe it to these most vulnerable of our citizens to do more and do it now. We should not and can not be a nation who abandons the surviving spouse of its veterans.

And along this line, did you know that in order to be eligible for DIC, the veteran must have been rated as 100% totally disabled for a period of 10 years? Many years ago, this requirement was changed for ex-POWS to 1 year, but the vast majority of the 778,000 who currently are rated at 100% still had to meet that 10-year requirement. It takes years — sometimes decades — to increase disability ratings to 100%. And by that time, the veteran is usually in poor health overall. We want this Congress to look at reducing the period from 10 years to 1 year for ALL veterans.

There are other concerns we have as well. In 1981, Congress passed Public Law 97-37 entitled "Former Prisoners of War Benefit Act." This law accomplished several things. It established an Advisory Committee on Former Prisoners of War and mandated medical and dental care.

As Past Chairman of the Advisory Committee, I am concerned that the FACA (Federal Advisory Committee Act) term limits has resulted in the VA Advisory Committee on Former POWs being populated by well-meaning people with no real understanding of or passion for former POWs. That, coupled with the virtual lack of attention from the last several VA Secretaries, has relegated this Committee to the back burner of VA attention back burner of VA attention by moving it from the Secretary's office and placed several levels down under the Veterans Benefit Administration. That placement has made it easy to ignore and its recommendations easy to lose. Some of the unresolved issues when I timed out as Chairman.

• the failure, inability, or unwillingness of the VA to coordinate its list of "former POWs" with the DoD list, with many more names on the VA list than is justified
• the poor outreach efforts of the VA to find and include known (by DoD) POWs into the VA disability and healthcare system
• the failure of the VA to insure the initial and ongoing training of a medical team (to include MD, PA, NP, RN, social worker) to treat and care for former POWs in each and every VAMC
• the failure of accountability of the VA for APPROVED VAPOW Committee recommendations made over the course of the last 25-30 years.

Every committee member with long experience and strong connection to the former POW community has been removed from the Committee, along with their corporate knowledge. I never received any report from the VA about the approved recommendations and where they stood in current practice and enforcement. In our opinion, the Committee should be exempt from term limits and its membership should be limited to former POWs, their spouses or children, members of the Pensacola Mitchell Center team, and a certified VA POW doctor.

We strongly recommend that Congress pass legislation (possibly titled the John S. McCain Disability Act) to declare all former POWs, as verified by the DoD, to be rated by the VA at 100% disabled from the point at which the legislation is enacted, without further protocol exams. This is totally consistent with the POW list of presumptives passed by Congress over 30 years ago.

For the veteran population as a whole, I would also ask for assistance.

Decades ago, Congress looked to increase the disability compensation percentages for World War I veterans as they became aged. It is time to again look at this for veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. All veterans rated at more than 50% disability would automatically be rated at 100%. This Congress is young for the most part. There are only two members of this Committee older than I am; only four members who are my age. The average age of the World War II veteran is 97. Korean War veterans are 88 and Vietnam veterans are well past retirement age at 73. From nearly 25 million who served during these three conflicts, fewer than 3 million are still alive. We need to look closer at "caring for those who have borne the battle."

Additionally, the "veterans means test" for access to health care must be eliminated. Should a veteran who worked two or three jobs to provide better for his family later be deprived of healthcare? Each has served his country and earned the same benefits so let us not deprive any deserving veteran of healthcare.

It is most insulting to us when we hear the use of the word entitlements regarding any benefits to the veteran. These are all earned benefits where the veteran has served and sacrificed. Calling them "entitlements" relegates the program to a handout and needs to be eliminated from the language used for veterans.

During wartime, there have been civilian POWs held in enemy prison camps, often side by side with our military prisoners of war. In WWII, wives and children were also held with their husbands and fathers. The parents were often individuals working on government contracts building facilities for the military which lead to their capture. To date, they do not receive any compensation nor health benefits other than dental resulting from their imprisonment. Over time, the numbers of these individuals has reduced dramatically yet, there is time to do the right thing and include them within the VA healthcare system. This is deserving treatment for those civilians imprisoned because they were supporting our military operations. It has been decades since a bill has been introduced to correct this long overdue injustice. We ask that you take action in this Congress.

We are a small organization. Since our founding on April 14, 1942 after the Fall of Bataan, we have worked to bring attention to and support for Ex-Prisoners of War. At the height of our membership, we had 33,000; today it is less than 9,000. In fewer years than we would like, our concerns will not be heard: our needs will not merit attention by Congress.

Looking toward that future, The American Ex-Prisoners of War chose Andersonville National Historic Site and the National POW Museum at Andersonville, Georgia as our legacy. We have been intimately involved with the creation of the museum since the 1980s and are the lead organization in providing assistance—both financial and physical—to that site. In 1994, we lobbied Congress to legislation authorizing the US Mint to create a commemorative silver dollar. The proceeds went to construction of the National POW Museum, with an endowment for future maintenance. The museum is one of the largest in the National Parks system. Along with the National POW/MIA Memorial at Riverside, California, we feel secure that the sacrifices made by American prisoners of war will never be forgotten. And we thank past Congresses' actions in designating these as national sites, assuring they will serve unique positions in history honoring our heroes.

Additionally, we strongly support the efforts of Honor-Release-Return and The Ride Home, but challenge you to increase results. Since the early days of the 20th Century (WW I) the United States has left more than 100,000 Military personnel either in the hands of our enemy or unaccounted for on the field of battle. Despite the well-publicized/ verbalized policy "Leave No Man Behind," we have only accounted for approximately 10,000 of those over the last eight decades. Honor-Release-Return is committed to bringing the accounting of the remaining Missing in Action to a close. The Ride Home, Inc. pays tribute to Former American POWS and the families of those Americans still Missing in Action. National POW/MIA Recognition Day, the third Friday in September, reminds us of the sacrifices our soldiers and their families make for our country every day and our responsibility to let them all know that WE WILL NOT FORGET. Combined conflict totals in the last century equal more than 120,000 prisoners of war repatriated and more than 83,000 still listed as MISSING IN ACTION.

Efforts in North Korea have stalled; the last unilateral turnover of remains was in 2018. There were 10 recovery missions in Southeast Asia in 2019, 4 in Vietnam, 5 in Laos, 1 in Cambodia, but the work is slow and time is running short. It has been 45 years since hostilities ceased.

The vast majority of those missing from World War II may never be recovered. And we don't even pursue World War I.

We can and must do better. You must make it so.

We also work closely with the P.O.W Network. The P.O.W. Network was originally formed 30 years ago as an educational group to maintain the focus on the POW/MIA issue. Over the years, maintaining the almost 4000 biographies of those prisoners or missing during Vietnam has taken a backseat to answering daily questions on false claims of heroism or POW captivity. The mission now is to see that those recording history will be held accountable. Facts, not cover-up or fairy tales must be the most important basis for these historical efforts, be it POW/MIA or veterans military claims. According to The New York Times, the Department of Veterans Affairs paid disability benefits to more than six hundred people falsely claiming to have been POWs in the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. The number of stolen valor cases reported to the FBI has tripled in the last decade. In fact, more imposters lie about earning high military declarations for battlefield bravery than the actual number of real-life hero recipients. These imposters trade on tales and the trappings of military valor to secure privileges such as career advancements and even unearned veterans' benefits.

This is unacceptable on virtually every level. Before awarding benefits to anyone claiming to be recipients of military medals, particularly Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, or Prisoner of War, the VA must check first with the Department of Defense for verification of such claims. Only after verification shall benefits be granted.

Several pieces of new legislation are important and continually improving all facets of the Veterans Administration operation is necessary. We often speak at this hearing about how the VA needs to improve and model its methods about particular successful and efficient industries. We need to get to where we use the term operational excellence and VA in the same sentence. For an organization that large it takes time, but we need to focus on select areas to build some successes to point at. As an attachment to this statement, I am including the latest VA Pocket Guide. I don't know how many of the members of this committee have seen or read it. Please take a few minutes and imagine the people who depend on both the VA system and you.

Thank you for your time and attention in support of ex-POWs and all veterans—deserving heroes every one.

The Pueblo Marks a Fifty-Second Anniversary. In Absentia.

The oldest commissioned vessel in the U.S. Navy is the USS Constitution. Known affectionately as "Old Ironsides," this wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate is also the oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat in the world today. She was launched in 1797. She acquitted herself with distinction in the War of 1812, capturing numerous merchant ships and defeating five British warships. Today, still seaworthy and with a crew of 60 officers and sailors, USS Constitution participates proudly in ceremonies, educational programs, and special events. She is berthed at Pier 1 of the old Charlestown Navy Yard at one end of Boston's Freedom Trail and is open to visitors year-round (free tours). The Navy's second oldest commissioned vessel leads a life considerably less glamorous. The USS Pueblo has the dubious distinction of being the only commissioned ship of the U.S. Navy being held captive by a hostile power. Launched in 1967, she is today moored in the Potong River in Pyongyang, where she, too, serves as a museum ship, but of a different sort: part of North Korea's "Victorious War Museum." On January 23, 1968 the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) was attacked in international waters by North Korean forces. Eighty-two surviving crewmembers were captured and held prisoner for eleven months. The ship that would become Pueblo was originally christened in 1944 as a U.S. Army vessel. She was an 850-ton general-purpose small-cargo ship. During World War II she, with a sister ship, saw duty to the South Pacific theatre. Mothballed after the war, she was transferred to the Navy in April 1966 and renamed. Shortly after, she was converted to a research ship and re-designated AGER-2 (part of the Navy's Auxiliary General Environmental Research program). Following training operations off the U.S. West Coast, Pueblo departed for the Far East to undertake electronic intelligence collection and other duties. On the day of her capture, the USS Pueblo was running an electronic surveillance mission for the National Security Agency some 14 miles off the North Korean coast when she came under attack by gunboats and warplanes. One of her crew members was killed and her captain and 10 others were wounded in the melee. The North Korean vessels attempted to board Pueblo, which was slow and heavily outgunned, but the U.S. ship managed to maneuver to thwart their attackers for over two hours. A submarine chaser then opened fire with a 57 mm cannon, and smaller vessels fired machine guns into Pueblo, which at that point signaled compliance. credit: Laika ac from USA / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) The Pueblo moored in 2012 (before being moved to its present spot) at Taedong River dock in Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People 's Republic of Korea. It now serves as a tourist attraction. The Pueblo was not meant to be configured for battle. Her defensive posture was as a civilian merchant vessel. Her armament consisted of two M2 Browning .50-caliber machine guns, which were wrapped in cold-weather tarpaulins. The ship's ammunition was stored belowdecks. The guns were unmanned, and no attempt was made to man them. According to a National Security Agency monograph, the machine guns took at least ten minutes to activate and only one crew member had ever had any experience with such weapons, and that gained while he had been in the Army. The Pueblo followed the North Korean vessels as ordered, but stopped immediately outside North Korean waters. She was again fired upon, and a sailor, fireman Duane Hodges, was killed. The ship was boarded and crew members had their hands tied and were blindfolded, beaten, and prodded with bayonets. Pueblo was taken into port at Wonsan on the eastern side of the Korean Peninsula, and the crew was moved twice to different prisoner of war (POW) camps. Upon release, the crew reported that they had been starved and regularly tortured while in North Korean custody. This treatment turned worse after the North Koreans realized that crewmen were surreptitiously extending their middle fingers in staged propaganda photos. credit: photo by Joseph A. Ferris III The USS Pueblo's starboard side (facing the water), at Taedong River dock in 2012: not nearly as well tended as the port side facing the dock and visible to tourists. The captain, Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher, was psychologically tortured and put through a mock firing squad. Eventually the North Koreans threatened to execute his men in front of him unless Bucher agreed to confess to his and the crew's transgressions. Korean authorities failed to catch the meaning of some of the phrasing the captain used in his hand-written confession. "We paean the DPRK [North Korea]. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung." Negotiations for the release of the crew that took place at Panmunjom were lengthy and difficult. At the same time, U.S. officials had to be concerned with conciliating the South Koreans, who expressed discontent about being left out of the process. Following 11 months of captivity, an official apology by the United States government (later retracted), a written admission of spying and an assurance the U.S. would not conduct spying activities in the future, the men were taken to the southern edge of the Demilitarized Zone. President Lyndon Johnson had considered a number of aggressive response plans, including a nuclear option. But with the U.S. bogged down militarily, at the height of the Vietnam war, no retaliation would be forthcoming. Johnson was persuaded that diplomacy was the best option for getting the Pueblo's crew home safe.

credit: U.S. Navy / Public domain The U.S. Navy signal intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2) off San Diego 19 October 1967. At length, after 335 days of confinement the crew was allowed to walk across the "Bridge of No Return" into South Korea. Many were crippled, malnourished and half blind from their detention. But they were at last free. The ship was not; North Korea held onto that. In 2006, a suit was filed in the U.S. District Court on behalf of crew members under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which provided an exception to the immunity of foreign states. Their lawyers claimed compensation under the Justice for Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Act, an act originally designed to benefit the Iranian hostages. They argued that it be construed more broadly to include their four clients from the U.S.S. Pueblo. In 2017, the court awarded the three surviving crew members $16.75 million each, and Bucher's estate $12.5 million for the abuse suffered during capture and the "physical and mental harm that (they) likely will continue to endure throughout the rest of their lives." In 2018, more than 100 crew members and relatives subsequently joined a lawsuit, filed in a federal court under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which allows suits against state sponsors of terrorism for torture, hostage-taking, personal injury or death. North Korea has not responded to the lawsuit, but plaintiffs are eligible for relief from a US government fund set up to support victims of terrorism. President Trump added North Korea to the list of countries designated as state-sponsors of terrorism in 2017 (after it was removed from the list in 2008 by President Bush), re-opening the window to litigation against Pyongyang under the 1976 Act. There has never been a great clamor to try to persuade North Korea over the return of the ship itself, so there she sits. Some former crewmembers have sought to call attention to this fact. Richard Rogala is one of those crewmembers. His story eventually came to the attention of Billy Cox, a writer for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida). When the U.S. announced that on April 2018 it had seized North Korea's second-largest cargo ship for violating sanctions, Rogala suggested exchanging that ship for the Pueblo. "The Pueblo shouldn't be a propaganda museum," he told Cox. The Herald Tribune story recounts: "More than 51 years after the Pueblo's seizure, America's confiscation of North Korea's "Wise Honest" freighter is stirring dim hopes for an exchange among the 60 survivors, thanks at least in part to a symbolic Congressional resolution introduced in the House on June 20, 2019. "Like so many Americans, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube (R.-Sarasota, the resolution's sponsor, knew little about the incident until Rogala pulled him aside following a county veterans' meeting that April. "'Rick brought it to my attention, I looked into it, and it was a surprise to me that, over all these years, we had done no work to get the vessel back,' says Steube, an Army veteran." Rogala, like most of the captives had been beaten and placed on starvation rations during the ordeal. While he was not in the infamous "middle finger" propaganda photo, one morning he was called to the door of his cell and suddenly punched in the mouth and knocked to the floor. "I didn't see it coming," he said. "They asked me something in Korean and I must have answered 'yes' when I should have said 'no.' They started kicking me to get me up, and when I did, someone blasted me in the mouth again." credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pueblo_(AGER-2) As part of the North Korean Government's efforts to use their captives for propaganda purposes, crew members were bathed, shaved and given clean clothing for staged press conferences. The aim was to illustrate the humane treatment being provided by their captors. Several of the crewmen in the photos and film, however, can be seen with extended middle fingers. They told the North Koreans it was a Hawaiian good luck sign. Later, the captors learned of the significance of "the finger," and administered additional beatings to many of the crew. "Within hours of the announcement of the capture of the "Wise Honest," Sen. Cory Gardner, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia, began tweeting for a ship swap. Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton, who introduced a symbolic resolution last year similar to Steube's, echoed the senator's idea. "Prior to President Trump's Memorial Day summit in Japan in May 2019, National Security Adviser John Bolton fired up the crewmembers by telling reporters 'Maybe now would be an appropriate time to talk about return of the Pueblo.' But no high-level statements have been issued since." Nor has Rogala heard any more on the subject since. "Time is running out," he lamented recently. "A lot of our guys are losing their enthusiasm. It's been so long, and we're all getting older, tired of pushing it." "The people in Washington at this point have other things on their minds, both in general and with North Korea specifically." As of this writing, approximately 55 of the original 82 officers and men still survive. Rogala mentions that the Pueblo Veterans Association will meet for its 52nd anniversary reunion in September 2020. "We'll see then whether it's still a hot topic for them and how much they still want to pursue." He's not optimistic. But he's not lost hope. Maybe sometime in the next fifty years.

posted 2/27/20

---

Last Mass

by Richard A. Stratton (USN ret.)

By the time I deployed for my war—the Vietnam War—on the USS Ticonderoga, Carrier Air Wing Nineteen, Attack Squadron One Ninety Two (CVA-14; CAW 19; VA-192) —there were not too many noticeable changes. My best friend, Michael Estocin (MOH) and I attended Mass on the forecastle of the Ticonderoga every day we were not on the flight schedule . Seated on folding chairs scattered between the two anchor chains, we followed along with the new order under the guidance of our Priest chaplain, figuring that he would not lead us astray. Circumstances reached a confluence wherein I had the opportunity to shoot myself down in January 1967 (flying an A-4 Skyhawk as part of an armed reconnaissance mission over Thanh Ha Province). Mike had the opportunity to martyr himself in July 1967, taking the mission of a new kid the day before they were to come home and never returning Mike had volunteered for his hop and, strangely enough, I had volunteered to take Mike's hop when I was shot down. He had a critical shipboard meeting to attend. So we had not gotten to attend Mass that day. Based on my own personal experience, the North Vietnamese communists were a brutal, inhumane, power-hungry group of misanthropes. Americans they captured in Southeast Asia were tortured, beaten, starved, isolated, denied medical care and humiliated beyond belief, except when it served the interests of the communist propaganda machine. It was not a racial thing. They meted out the same treatment to their own people who dared to dissent as well to as the Republic of Vietnam patriots who dared oppose them. They inflicted (and continue to inflict) the same punishment on Chinese Vietnamese, native populations and those of mixed race. At the urging of American peace groups, the communists decided some favorable propaganda was needed around Easter time of 1967. One spring evening they dressed me up in their "mess dress" striped-pajama prisoner uniform (the uniform of the day was black boxer shorts and T shirt) and at bayonet point marched me off to the interrogation room. The timing was not unusual, as the most feared interrogations occurred after dark. They sat me down on an interrogation stool and told me that I was to meet a priest and make my "Easter Duty." In the Catholic Church, "Easter Duty" traditionally referred to the rule that required each practicing Catholic to go to communion once a year. And to do so meant that one also had to go to confession unless he was free of mortal sin. The practice was that everyone went to confession and communion at Easter time no matter what. In retrospect, the communists had in mind that I would confess my "war crimes" and receive communion as a visible sign of my repentance. Stratton making his Easter Duty in an interrogation room, decorated for the occasion at the prison Maison Centrale ("The Hanoi Hilton"). The interrogation room was decorated for Easter as only an infidel could imagine with a bunny rabbit. The guards trotted an elderly Vietnamese gentleman dressed in priestly garb into the interrogation cell. I asked him: "Ubi est domus tui?" [Where do you live?] He replied: "Hanoi." At that point the interrogators burst into the room obviously telling him to "shut mouth." But his reflexive response to my crummy Latin convinced me that he was indeed a Catholic Priest. He appeared to be startled at the intrusion of the interrogator and aghast at the follow-on film crew. The Priest via sign language offered me the opportunity to receive Communion. I accepted the invitation and dropped to my knees. He placed a host on my tongue, the cameras rolled, the lights went out. The Priest got the hook. I was marched back to my cell. At least I received the host on my tongue&nmdash;for the last time as a normal protocol. The propaganda war was heating up over Communist mistreatment of prisoners in North Vietnam. The Red Cross was denied entry to the prisons. Amnesty International never even tried. The internal and international communist position was that American fighting men were "The Blackest of Criminals," "Air Pirates" not entitled to any protections under international law. However, the Hanoi government recognized that the war was going to be won by turning the American people against their own government. As a result the communists had to put on a propaganda front acceptable to American dissidents. Christmas 1967 was their next opportunity. Sometime in December, well after dark, I was told to suit up in my "Mess Dress" again. Nothing good ever happened after dark. At bayonet point I was marched off into a weapons-carrier sized vehicle. I was very nervous. The last time a night time trip like this happened, Doug Hegdahl and I were similarly mounted up, driven to a soccer stadium, exposed to a howling, out-of-control crowd, assaulted in the vehicle and driven off to the Plantation Prison. This time I disembarked at what I found out later was the Hanoi Catholic Cathedral. I was marched into a side door near the rear of the church. They placed me half way down the nave on the Gospel side isolated from everyone else. The place looked like it could hold about 800 to 1,000 congregants. There were maybe 100 people in church. There were perhaps 10 other POWs also in their Mess Dress garb scattered about. The cameras were there. It was obviously a Roman Catholic house of worship. One could never expect to find such an automatic identification in that day and age except by accident. Jesus, Mary and Joseph were in their appointed places. The tabernacle was centrally located with a burning red candle clearly visible indicating the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. There was a Crucifix and it was where it belonged, centrally located above and behind the altar. Various and sundry Saints (Peter, Paul, Teresa, Francis Xavier) were all visible and identifiable. The sanctuary exuded the tradition and magisterium of over 400 years. I was in a spiritual refuge. "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." An interrogator barked at me: "Go visit the barn!" I was initially nonplussed until I realized he meant the creche at the altar rail. I had no desire to contribute to the success of their propaganda effort, but since I was in a losing situation, I should try to get some benefit out of it. I saw one of our guys approaching the altar rail so I took off to join him. The VC wanted to keep us separated but could not overreact in front of the cameras. The other guy was Jim Mulligan. We knelt there side by side and swapped information as to where we thought we were located, who was our SRO (Senior Ranking Officer), who was in our prisons and when we thought the war would be over.

POWs Mulligan and Stratton "visit the barn" in Hanoi's St. Joseph's Cathedral at Christmas time to exchange Christmas greetings and share intel. This is where I found out that a small group of super-resistors were under the shadow of the walls of the Ministry of Defense opposite our jail (the Plantation Prison main gate, 17 Ly Nam Dai). Jim reaffirmed the resistance posture advanced by these leaders. The Mass started and progressed according to the Pre-Vatican II rubric of the Roman Ritual. After the Priest read the gospel of the day and gave a brief homily in Vietnamese, one of our more malicious interrogators, known as "The Rabbit," took the pulpit, and gave his English "Communist Christmas Sermon." Its essence was that baby Jesus, a good communist of a working class family, being born into poverty, was persecuted by the capitalists. He and his family were forced to flee Bethlehem for their lives in their Jeep into Egypt to avoid the American Imperialists and the Yankee Air Pirates. It was a most inspiring sermon; it made one weep with laughter. credit: Arno Kohlem [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] St. Joseph's Cathedral was one of the first structures built by the French colonial government in Indochina. With a Neo-Gothic architectural style said to resemble Notre Dame de Paris, it was opened in December 1886 and is the oldest church in Hanoi. Today there are nearly 4 million Catholics in Vietnam. St. Joseph, the father of Jesus, is considered the patron saint of Vietnam and Indochina. credit: Wikimedia Commons, Gryffindor [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] Interior of Hanoi's St. Joseph's Cathedral in a recent photo. The rest of the Mass went the way it had gone according to the Church of my youth, my seminary days (six years) and up until Vatican II. It was invigorating, reinforcing, inspiring, reassuring, encouraging and inspirational. I was not required to sing, shake hands, swap germs, jiggle, dance, listen to guitar-based protest songs, watch pagan dances on the altar, listen to the priest play the flute, raise my arms in an "alleluia," stomp my feet, clap my hands, or listen to the latest bloviation of the Bishops regarding their personal version of current fads in political correctness or inclusiveness. When Mass was over, the POWs were held in their places and then removed in such a way that they could not come in contact with each other. We had had one more shot to communicate at the Communion Rail after "the barn" visit, but then we were on our own. I was marched back up the center aisle towards the back doors and then pushed off to the left to exit a side door. There was a group of Vietnamese crowded into the inside main entrance. A woman pushed a ten-year-old child towards me as I turned left. He came over and held my hand as I walked towards the left exit. My guard backhanded the youngster away from me. I went off by myself into the darkness not realizing that I had just attended my last traditional Roman Catholic Latin Mass: December 1967. Fast-forward to March 1973. Among the reception team for Operation Homecoming at Clark Air Force Base there was to be a Chaplain of your choice. I don't remember the name of the guy I was talking to or much else except that he was a Jesuit. He was playing the role of the "good ole boy," using his first name and wearing sports clothes. I made a general confession and received Communion. But I was confused by the lack of specifics I received when I expressed interest in hearing about the state of the American Catholic Church as of that date. About six months after my return I figured out that the Church of my youth had gone the way of the world and was no more. The Episcopal High Church and Lutheran liturgies were more traditional than the succession of the Catholic entertainment fads and circuses-in-the-round being passed off as "The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass." My Church had left while I was gone, or else it had been hijacked. Guess this marks me as a Traditionalist, but I realized I had, in fact, attended my last Catholic Mass of the "Old Dispensation" at bayonet point in St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Hanoi, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, December 1967. How about those sour apples! Postscript: In 2007, I came across a traditional Tridentine Mass** offered at the Immaculate Conception Church, downtown Jacksonville, Florida. I have been attending with great appreciation most Sundays of the year. credit: AndrewAvitus [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)] The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is a parish church in the Diocese of St. Augustine. It serves Jacksonville's oldest Catholic congregation. The current building dates to 1910, an example of Late Gothic Revival architecture. The first building was destroyed by Union forces in the Civil War. A second was destroyed along with most of downtown Jacksonville in the Great Fire of 1901. It only took forty years! (In Honor of: Rev. Charles Costello OMI, Novice Master) ---- * MOH: Medal of Honor. ** Also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Usus Antiquior, the Roman Rite Mass that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. The Tridentine form of the Mass is available only occasionally in Vietnam.

posted 12/30/19

---

Crueler than Fiction: Building the Trans Burma Railway

Blowing the bridge in the climactic scene of The Bridge on the River Kwai called for $50,000 worth of explosives and six different camera locations, one of them aboard the train crossing over at the critical moment. Cameramen started their cameras and then had to jump for their lives clear of the explosions.

The Bridge on the River Kwai was released in 1957 by Columbia Pictures. The movie was based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai (1952), written by French author Pierre Boulle and based on the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-1943. It was a wildly successful movie, winning seven academy awards including Best Picture. It was the top money maker of 1958, beating out Peyton Place. The film has demonstrated considered staying power over the years. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. It is included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made. The British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th Century. The movie is almost entirely a work of fiction. Reality was far more grim. The River Kwai bridge as seen from the tourist plaza (NNE side) in Kanchanburi, Thailand in 2017. The railway bridge that inspired the movie didn't cross the river known at the time as the Kwai. Boulle — who would later write another novel that turned into a highly successful movie, Planet of the Apes — had worked in Malaya and was interned for a time by the Vichy French in Hanoi where he himself suffered severe hardships and forced labour. However, he had never been to the actual location of the Burma railway. He knew its route ran parallel to the Kwae River and just assumed that it was the Kwae that it crossed. The dramatic destruction of the bridge depicted in the film was purely a creation of the screenwriters. In the movie's most dramatic scene the newly-finished bridge is blown up by the British POW Colonel who had built it. That, too, had no parallel in reality. At the time of its filming, the explosion scene ranked as the most expensive special effects shot in movie history. Rather than use a miniature, the production crew opted to build a full-sized bridge in a valley in Sri Lanka. They wired $50,000 worth of explosives onto the span and to the train that would run along it. Six cameras would cover the shot, one of them aboard the train. The cameramen were to start their cameras and then jump clear of the explosions. On the first filming attempt, one of the cameramen failed to get away and the explosives weren't triggered: the locomotive was run off the end of the bridge into a pile of sandbags. Two days later, after necessary repairs, the shot was ready again. This time, everything went according to plan: the bridge went up in a spectacular fireball, and the train plunged dramatically into the deep gorge below. The movie's first two screenwriters had to conceal their identidy because they were on the infamous Hollywood Blacklist for past political views, real or imagined, and were prohibited from working in the US film industry. One of the seven academy awards the film won was for Best Adapted Screenplay, which put the Academy in an awkward position. It gave the statue to the French author Boulle, who did not speak English. (Foreman and Wilson eventually received Academy Awards as well, posthumously.) What is true is that in 1943 a railway bridge was built by Allied POWs and Asian forced laborers over the Mae Klong river (which would be renamed "Khwae Yai" in the 1960s following the film's success) at a place called Tha Ma Kham, five kilometres from Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Actually, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden one and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. Both bridges were used for two years, until they were destroyed not by saboteurs but by Allied bombers. Neither looked anything like the bridge in the movie. The steel bridge was repaired and is still in use today. These bridges and many others were critical parts of a 415 km rail line referred to today as the Trans Burma Railway (TBR.) It was constructed starting at its two ends simultaneously: Thanbyuzyat in Burma and Nong Pladuk in Thailand, north to south along the western edge of Indochina, which we now call Southeast Asia. Once completed, it would link the Thai and Burmese railway systems. Owing to the inhumanely harsh condisions attendant to its construction it also gained the name "Death Railway." The purpose of the railway was to give the Japanese military a much-needed land route for expanding their supply lines. It was needed to compensate for reversals suffered at sea against resuscitated Allied naval power. Supposedly many Japanese viewers resented the film's story-line, that incompetent Japanese military engineers had to turn to British expertise to plan and complete the bridge on time. The Japanese were in fact expert engineers. The POWs were nothing to them but manual laborers. The railway was finished ahead of schedule, an extraordinary accomplishment given the extreme conditions, circumstances and terrain. Dysentery, malaria, beriberi, fungal infections known simply as "jungle rot" and savage cholera epidemics were routine. Over one-fourth of the entire workforce is believed to have died during construction. At the turn of the 19th century the British had surveyed a for such a rail route but concluded the project was too difficult, costly and dangerous to build through such dense jungle and wild and uneven topography. But pressing strategic needs and an unexpectedly surging POW population (aggregated from victories in Malaya, Singapore and the Philippines) gave the Japanese strong motivation to tackle the challenge. (Using POWs for war-related work was illegal under the Geneva Conventions, but Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita had extracted a promise from British General Arthur Percival, as part of the Singapore surrender terms, that he would not object to what in effect became forced labor.) One thing the movie got dead right was that the project was built with slave labor including impressed locals and massive numbers of British and U.S. POWs. An estimated 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilian laborers and about 61,000 Allied prisoners of war were subjected to forced labor during construction. Truly accurate figures will never be known. About 90,000 civilian laborers and more than 12,000 Allied prisoners died. This according to Wikipedia reports.

The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, is dedicated to exploring the wider history of the railway. Its estimates are that over 13,000 prisoners of war perished between late 1942 and late 1945, and it calculates the death toll among Asian laborers probably exceeded 100,000. Everyone agrees the working conditions on the "Death Railway" were beyond appalling. Dysentery, malaria, beriberi, fungal infections known simply as "jungle rot" and savage cholera epidemics were routine. Starvation rations, overwork, poor or no sanitation and systematic brutality on the part of Japanese and Korean engineers and guards were the normal conditions of the day. Prisoners were described by some observers as nothing more than walking skeletons. Medical facilities and drugs were practically non-existent. Over one-fourth of the entire workforce is believed to have died during the actual construction. At a spot called Konyu, a 500-yard stretch of railroad was laid in a gap that that had to be carved through a mountain ridge by hand with picks and shovels. Of the 1,000 men who began the initial digging, only 100 survived. From July to October 1943, desperate to finish construction against a deadline, Japanese engineers forced the pace to the point where many men were working virtually around the clock—as much as 62 hours work in a 72-hour period. Rest days were a rarity. The first POWs to go to Burma were Australians. They worked on airfields and other infrastructure initially before beginning construction of the railway in October 1942. The first POWs to work in Thailand at the southern terminus were British soldiers. More POWs were imported from Singapore and the Dutch East Indies as construction advanced. Construction camps housing at least 1,000 workers each were established every 5-10 miles (8-17 km) of the route. Workers were moved up and down the railway line as needed. The real bridge on the "River Kwai" (actually built over the Mae Klong river). Aerial photograph shows severe damage to the middle spans caused by Allied bombing in May 1945. U.S. POWs represented a very small part of the overall POW contingent of the sixty-some- odd-thousand POWs assigned to the TBR. They came mainly from just two sources, the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery and the survivors of the sunken Navy ship USS Houston. Both groups were captured on the island of Java in March 1942. In all, 534 soldiers from the battalion and 368 survivors of the Houston were taken as prisoners of war. They remained so for 42 months until the end of the war. Most of them were sent to Thailand to work on the Railway, Of the 902 soldiers and sailors taken captive, 163 died in captivity. The parent organization of the 2nd Battalion was the 36th Division, Texas National Guard. The majority of the men in the battalion ranged from 18 to 22 years old. The 2nd Battalion was the only U.S. ground force sent to the Dutch East Indies. The mission was to help the Dutch defend the islands against an invasion, which in fact began February 27, 1942 On March 8, the allies in the Dutch East Indies surrendered and 32,500 soldiers were taken prisoner, mostly Dutch, British, and Australian, and 534 members of the 2nd battalion. The USS Houston was at sea when the Pacific War began and spent the first two months of the war escorting convoys from Australia to the Dutch East Indies. On February 3, 1942 the Houston was damaged in an air attack at the Battle of Makassar Strait which killed 48 men. The Houston also participated in the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February before being sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait, February 28 - March 1, along with the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth and the Dutch destroyer HNLMS Evertsen. 696 crew members died; the remaining 368 were captured by the Japanese Country of origin POWs Number of deaths UK, British India or crown colony 30,131 6,904 Netherlands or Dutch East Indies 17,990 2,782 Australia 13,004 2,802 United States 686 133 Total 61,811 12,621 MacPherson, Neil. "Death Railway Movements" JJ Karwacki, a retired US Army Colonel living in Kanchanaburi, worked with The Thai-Burma Railway Centre and Museum to as precisely as possible document the numbers of US POWs who worked on the TBR, the numbers of U.S. deaths and those liberated, name by name. His detailed findings go so far as to identify the cause of death and final resting place of each person in his database. He puts the number of US POW deaths at 131: 65 from the Army, 62 from the Navy and 4 from the Marines. The total number of US POWs who labored on the TBR, he concludes, was 779, mostly as noted from the 131st FA and the USS Houston. . There were also 28 from the 39 survivors of the sinking of the Merchant Marine ship SS Sawokla who were sent to the TBR (all were liberated) plus one civilian volunteer pilot with the Flying Tigers. He likewise survived. If the ambitious engineering feat pulled off by the Japanese in the Southeast Asian jungle was ruthless and brutal, it was also short lived. When the war ended, the railway was confiscated by the British. On January 16, 1946, the British ordered Japanese POWs to remove a four-kilometer stretch of rail between Nikki and Sonkrai. The railway link between Thailand and Burma was separated to protect British interests in Singapore. The line was closed completely in 1947, but the section between Nong Pla Duk and Nam Tok was reopened ten years later and still operates to this day. The British government sold the functioning railway and related materials to the Thai government for 50 million baht ($1,575,746 in current U.S. dollars). The Burma section was sequentially removed, the rails were gathered in Mawlamyaing, and the roadbed was slowly reclaimed by the jungle. Hellfire Pass: a railway cutting on the railway noted for harsh conditions and the heavy loss of life suffered during construction. The name was supposedly inspired by the sight of emaciated prisoners laboring at night by torchlight, said to evoke a scene from Hell. Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

posted 3/17/19

---

Statement of Charles A. Susino, National Director/Legislative Officer, American Ex-Prisoners Of War, Before the Committees on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate/U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., March 7, 2019

AXPOW Legislative Officer Charles A. Susino

Chairmen and members of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and guests, my name is Charles A. Susino, National Director/Legislative Officer of the American Ex-Prisoners of War.

I thank you for the opportunity to express our concerns today. Many of you knew my father, Charles Susino, Jr., National Commander of our organization for many years. It was his voice that urged many of you to do the right thing on behalf of all veterans. I will attempt to channel that voice today. This past July, my family and I, and the veteran community as a whole, lost the strongest advocate on behalf of those who cannot speak to you directly. Many of you knew my dad from his years of testifying. He professed to me and others, "It's about the deserving veterans receiving want they earned ."

So it is on that theme that I proceed.

First, we wish to acknowledge the passing of a great American, the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush this past November who proudly served this country both in the military and in public office.

We are grateful for your efforts over this past year. This Congress has stepped up and passed several key pieces of legislation in support of our veterans with respect to health care, compensation, and public awareness. We look forward to a productive 2019-20 as the 116th Congress works on our behalf.

If you disagree with us—either here today in testimony— or as we work for our fellow veterans, please say so and we will respect your position. Otherwise we ask for your unwavering advocacy on these issues.

We draw your attention to several bills which we believe have special merit and request your active support.

• The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act HR 299 & 203 needs to be passed. It is beyond reasonable when the exposures endured by servicemen and women to dangerous chemicals and toxics takes decades for the government to acknowledge and act. There is a long track record with Agent Orange and other chemicals, yet exposure, treatment, and compensation from 50+ years ago is still being debated. Fortunately the courts have agreed with the navy servicemen who were located within the waters of affected southeast Asia country that certain diseases should be a presumptive.
• The previous Bill S 1990, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Improvement Act must be reintroduced. Its purpose was to amend Title 38, United States Code, to increase amounts payable by the Department of Veterans Affairs for dependency and indemnity compensation, to modify the requirements for dependency and indemnity compensation for survivors of certain veterans rated totally disabled at the time of death, and for other purposes. For many of our veteran' spouses, DIC is the only source of income and critical to their quality of life. We need to do better by them.
• We must reintroduce the National POW/MIA Flag Act to amend Title 36, United States Code, to require that the POW/ MIA flag be displayed on all days that the flag of the United States is displayed on certain Federal property. We must honor those who have served our nation courageously, including those who have not made it home.
• Full Military Honors Bill has been reintroduced in this session and needs to be quickly passed. The Bills, in both the House and Senate, would provide full military honors for the funeral of an eligible veteran who:
  1. is first interred or inurned in Arlington National Cemetery on or after enactment of this bill,
  2. was awarded the medal of honor or the prisoner-of-war medal, and
  3. is not currently entitled to full military honors because of such veteran's grade.

  We understand that Arlington Cemetery has quietly adopted the provisions of these Bills for Medal of Honor recipients; however, they are using the excuse of long waiting periods to deny expansion to former POWs. We feel it should be up to the families to make that decision.

  "Gold Star-Families Remembrance Day." March 2, 2019 marks the 90th year to honor and recognize the sacrifices made by the veteran and their families who gave their lives to defend freedom.

  While all present would agree it is demanding work to get the support to provide Bills to Congress for their consideration and ultimate passage however that is only the first step. The veteran's health benefit experience and improvement to their quality of life is a measure of Congressional action and the VA's timely and effective implementation. Implementation within a high performing organization. A high performing organization can only exist within a framework and culture of strong and accountable leadership and employees, modern systems to support the information needs, and continuous improvement. We believe these shortcomings continue to prevent the veteran receiving what they deserve.

• It is not modern for a IT system to allow you to schedule a physician appointment yet does not allow to cancel or reschedule.
• It is not modern for a treating physician to explain that I know the medicine you need but you need to see a different specialist to receive that care.
• It is not modern for veterans to be denied multiple medications because the physician explains, "That is the VA policy."
• It is not modern for a veteran to wait weeks for an appointment with their primary physician for a routine illness. Does the public wait weeks to see their physician for routine illnesses such as an ear ache or a sinus infection? Of course not and neither should the veteran.

Many would agree the modernization and culture are the most difficult to achieve. If that is the case than we need to provide the approach including the appropriate metrics to measure the level of attention both from within the VA and its oversight: Congress.

In 1981, Congress and the President passed Public Law 97-37. It mandated VA health care for veterans with service connected disabilities as well as other special groups of veterans. It included veterans up to WWI, some 58 years after the end of the war. WWII ended over 75 years ago.

We have asked you for the better part of the last decade to revisit the special groups and update to include veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Cold War, and our recent conflicts in the Middle East. We have requested for many years with no movement on the part of Congress. The political landscape is ever changing and this President may see it appropriate and fair treatment for those that have kept our country free.

Thank you for your attention.

The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs B234 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-9756

The Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Russell Senate Building- Room 412 Washington, DC 20510 Majority Staff 202-224-9126 Minority Staff 202-224-2074

Members Democrats: Congressman Mark Takano (CA-41), Chairman Congresswoman Julia Brownley (CA-26) Congresswoman Kathleen Rice (NY-04) Congressman Conor Lamb (PA-14) Congressman Mike Levin (CA-49) Congressman Max Rose (NY-11) Congressman Anthony Brindisi (NY-22) Congressman Gil Cisneros (CA-39) Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14) Congressman Joe Cunningham (SC-01) Congresswoman Elaine Luria (VA-02) Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) Congressman Colin Allred (TX-32) Congressman Collin Peterson (MN-07) Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Northern Mariana Islands) Republicans: Rep. Dr. Phil Roe (R-TN), Ranking Member Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-FL) Rep. Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa) Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) Rep. Dr. Neal Dunn (R-FL) Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) Rep. Steve Watkins (R-KS) Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL)

Members Republicans: Johnny Isakson (R - GA), Chairman Moran, Jerry (KS) Boozman, John (AR) Cassidy, Bill (LA) Rounds, Mike (SD) Tillis, Thom (NC) Sullivan, Dan (AK) Blackburn, Marsha (TN) Cramer, Kevin (ND) Democrats: Jon Tester (D - MT), Ranking Member Murray, Patty (WA) Sanders, Bernie (VT) Brown, Sherrod (OH) Blumenthal, Richard (CT) Hirono, Mazie K. (HI) Manchin III., Joe (WV) Sinema, Kyrsten (AZ)

---