For a writer interested in sharing stories about military
veterans, it comes with mixed emotions to hear the experiences of veterans who
were former prisoners of war – happy to hear they survived, but saddened they
had to encounter such experiences.
Discounting physical and emotional issues, life expectancy
tables alone dictate that the number of former POWs from World War II is in
freefall. Nonetheless, a good number of
this select group live in North Carolina’s Triad area. Some I have not met, but others I have written about in the Greensboro News
& Record – Bill Beavers, John Koehne, John Anderson, Tommie Hinton, Pete
Edris, and Bill Gundersen come to mind.
On March 22, 2015, the North Carolina chapters of the
American Ex-Prisoners of War held their annual state meeting at Captain Bill’s
in Greensboro. Over 250 invitations went
out, 21 were able to come. Leaders were
pleased with the turnout -- the dynamics and attendance expectations of this
group are quite different from most.
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| NC meeting of Ex-POWs held in Greensboro, NC. |
Greensboro’s Bill Beavers, B-17 gunner, long-time friend,
and the first POW I wrote about was there.
Greensboro’s Jane Fredrickson was there, even though she had just lost
her husband (who was a World War II veteran) a few days earlier. Fredrickson was born in the Philippines and
along with her mother and sister were held as civilian prisoners of war for
three years. Her High Point daughter,
Ann Williams, brought her mother to the meeting. I haven’t written about Jane Fredrickson, but
hope to do so soon.
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| Jane Fredrickson, Greensboro woman, sister and mother taken as civilian POWs in Philippines at outbreak of WW II. John Mims survived Bataan Death March and imprisonment in the Philippines and Japan. |
Daughters of two deceased former POWs organized the
event. Lezah Arney’s father, John
Anderson, was a B-17 radio operator in the 8th Air Force, Toni Price’s
father, Tony Sanginite, was a mechanic with the 9th Infantry
Division. He was captured twice -- once
in Italy and again in Germany.
Greensboro’s Emily Boswell was in attendance. Both her brother and husband were B-17
crewmen shot down over Germany and captured.
Ironically, they went overseas together, flew from the same base in
England and were shot down just days apart. They spent three years together in
the same German POW camp.
Rocky Mount native E. Maurice Braswell was one of the first
out-of-towners I met, and I quickly introduced him to Bill Beavers – Braswell
was a B-17 tail gunner, Beavers was a B-17 waist gunner – both flew with the 15th
Army Air Force from Southern Italy.
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| B-17 Tail-gunner, Judge E. Maurice Braswell, and B-17 Waist-gunner, Bill Beavers reminisce about their POW days. |
Both flew missions over Ploesti, Romania, one of the most
fiercely defended Nazi oil and synthetics sources. Both their B-17s were hit over Ploesti,
Beavers made it to Italy before crash landing – Braswell’s B-17 went down near
Ploesti. (Beavers was shot down later
over Germany and captured.)
After the war, with a law degree from UNC, Braswell served
as district attorney and superior court judge in Fayetteville and later on the
NC Court of Appeals.
Paul Dallas was an infantry squad leader in the Army’s 45th
Infantry Division. He was captured
during the Invasion of Southern France and imprisoned in three different German
Stalags and one work camp before being liberated by the Russians at war’s
end. His weight dropped from 165 pounds
to 92 pounds, resulting in a three-week coma during repatriation. In addition to malnutrition, he was treated
for spinal meningitis, hepatitis and pneumonia in France before returning
stateside.
Dallas returned to his Mississippi roots and graduated from
Mississippi State University. His work
brought him to North Carolina, first with the Fayetteville Public Works and
later with the Lumbee River Electric Membership Cooperative. He has served in every national post of the
American Ex-Prisoners of War, including national commander. He and his wife currently reside in
Fayetteville, where he is working on a book about his experiences.
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| Mississippi native and former POW, John Dallas, is past Commander of the American Ex-Prisoners of War Association. |
Mr. and Mrs. John Mims were seatmates to my wife and me
during the luncheon meeting. I made
notes on everything at hand except my catfish sandwich. Mims, a full-blooded American Indian from
South Georgia, was in the Army and stationed in the Philippines at the outbreak
of World War II. He survived the Bataan
Death March, even though one arm was mangled from a bomb explosion. Japanese guards broke his legs with a bull
dozer blade after a failed escape attempt.
He was imprisoned in Japan when the war ended.
Mims married a Filipino he met before the war and retired
from the Army with 27 years of service.
They had three children, adopted two, and fostered 20 other
children. After 57 years of marriage,
his wife died. He has since remarried to
Nena, she is also Filipino. The Mims
live in Aberdeen, North Carolina.
POWs from the Korean and Vietnam Wars were in attendance as
well, I hope to write about them in future columns.
Without exception, each of the former World War II POWs I
talked with credited a higher power for their survival. Mims summed it up, “God has been mighty good
to me – for a long time!”
Ol'Harry
