On this day in 1951 my grandfather was captured and became one of thousands of POWs during the Korean Conflict. He remained a POW until he was repatriated on 3 Sept 1953. He spent 2 years and 9 months mostly at Chang-Song. He shared very few details of what happened to him during this time and it wasnt until I was in the Air Force myself that I was made aware of his military service, let alone that he was a POW and had received a purple heart. I just finished reading Unbroken and I have a much better understanding of who my grandfather really was and what he endured. The details provided in this book of the horror of Japanese POW camps during WWII peaked my curiosity as to the similarities of POW camps during the Korean Conflict. After reading this report on Korean War Atrocities,at loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/KW-atrocities-Report.pdf, and many other articles, I learned more than I wanted to and it sickened my stomach and broke my heart. My grandfather used to joke about not liking to eat turnips, I cannot remember him ever eating rice, and he told me in his grandpa humor that he always got up before the sun due to the Chinese putting a chicken liver in him that made him want to cock-a-doodle-do at sunrise (this was an experimental surgery forced on many POWs). He did tell me that he was deaf in his right ear because he had been pistol whipped for trying to escape and that he saw many of his fellow prisoners die. He only shared these few stories with me during a discussion I had with him regarding the Code of Conduct as it was created after the Korean Conflict as a guide for any military member captured...to which he only softly chuckled. He would not share much as he felt that the stories were inappropriate for a young lady such as myself to hear. Im so glad that I could not find any pictures of my grandfather but I found plenty of others. How men like Louis Zamperini were able to forgive is further testament to the kind of men they were. I do not know if my grandfather forgave his captors but I do know that he would give the shirt off his back to help anyone out. I would be fooling myself if I said I never saw my grandfather get angry or upset, but I never saw him lose his patience or his temper. I will say that he was one of my favorite people to be around growing up and I miss him. I am a better person for knowing him and I thank God that he survived the horror and abuse he endured as a POW. He never sought or received any recognition or compensation from the Army or the VA until I forced him to in 2011 shortly before he passed away. This was something he wanted to forget; however, we must never forget those that are MIA and realize that the struggle for those that were POWs and those that have witnessed the horror of combat is real even if their wounds are not visible.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 19:26:50 +0000
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