News – The Fifth Field

One Last Chance

They are POWs and MIAs: Prisoners of War and Missing in Action. In the United States, Prisoners of War are our brothers and sisters, who were captured by the enemy – pretty straight forward. Missing in action, on the other hand, may be the most misunderstood casualty classification, as it can mean several different things. A soldier initially listed MIA, may have been killed, or captured by the enemy, or deserted. It can be transitory; a soldier may at first be declared MIA. but later the enemy announces that they have the soldier as a POW, and that could take a long time, or never come at all. It can even occur when a wounded, unconscious soldier, who has lost his dog tags, is evacuated to an American medical facility. His identity is temporarily unknown, and if his unit does not know what happened to him, they report him as MIA, even though he really isn’t.

At the end of World War II, 79,000 Americans remained unaccounted for; the bulk MIA. Many MIA had, in fact, been killed, but their remains never recovered. Knowing that each family must come to closure, after the war, the US military waited one year after the soldier was first declared missing in action, and, if remains still had not been found, the War Department declared that he was deceased, in part because both Germany and Japan were occupied and their POW camps no longer existed. Many families disagreed and spent decades hoping their loved one would someday walk through their door.

The War Department is now the Department of Defense. Within DoD, the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) was established to manage prisoner of war/missing in action personnel affairs. In 2015, DPMO, and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, merged into the new Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to streamline accounting for missing US personnel from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Cold War, Gulf Wars, to recent conflicts.

They do an outstanding job identifying remains of US military personnel around the world, using DNA and other cutting-edge forensic technology, so that many families can finally reach closure. Part of the reason for that great work is that concerning actual identification of remains, politics takes a back seat. However, coming to grips concerning US military personnel, captured by America’s enemies, but who have never returned home and may still be alive, is riddled with inertia and political roadblocks. In fact, the way that America has dealt with her recent POWs is enough to make George Patton, Omar Bradley, Hap Arnold, and Bull Halsey wanna puke.

We talk a good game – speeches on National POW/MIA Recognition Days – pontificating “former foes that have become friends,” but let’s get real; Germany and Japan do not have any American POWs and haven’t since 1945. The bad guys, Russia (formerly the USSR), North Korea, Vietnam, and the People’s Republic of China) have never been tight friends of America. How did they get our folks? In World War II, some US air crew flew “shuttle” missions into the USSR – then our ally against the Nazis – refueled, and flew back to England. But not all of them returned, so what happened to them? According to the Veterans’ Administration, we had 7,140 POW’s during the Korean War. Of these, 4,418 returned to the US, some 2,701 died in the camps, and 21 refused repatriation. How do we know 2,701 actually perished? We don’t.

DPAA lists that 684 POWs returned home alive from the Vietnam War. But a 1979 Defense Intelligence Agency account stated that a former North Vietnamese intelligence officer reported that about 700 Americans still remained in Vietnam as a “strategic asset.” That’s six years after the war ended. We can argue till the cows come home which of the thirteen US Presidents – Republican and Democrat – knew how many of our soldiers were clinging to life in hellholes in Russia (Vorkuta), North Korea (The Death Valley Camp), Vietnam (Briarpatch) and the PRC (Air Pirate Prison). Or didn’t want to know. Maybe they thought that the “greater good” for America was to say, “I know nothing; nothing personal – just wouldn’t be prudent.”

How many POWs are still alive? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? People I trust, including physicians – who understand prolonged malnutrition, exposure to the elements, disease, etc. – offer that given their ages and situation, it is likely none are alive, unless they later assimilated into the area and made new lives. But I have seen an official report, that a repatriated American, “reported that, etched into the wall of Krasnaya Presnya Prison in Moscow, he saw the name of a Major Roberts or Robbins, with his American address and the inscription, “I am sick and don’t expect to live through this….”. To borrow a famous line: “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?” Yes, I am. It may just be one POW, but that’s not the point.

The way I figure it, we have one last chance to maybe set things right – even if only one American POW remains alive to come home. President Trump is the most unconventional President the US has ever had. Some folks like that; some folks don’t. Many of his ideas are not just out of the box – they are light-years outside. He’s a dealer. What better time for the “art of the deal” than for the President to privately meet with these leaders to return all living POWs to us right now. We aren’t interested in assigning blame, or reparations, or shown where they are buried with some cock-and-bull story of how they died. It’s really simple, those still alive and held against their will – we want them home, now! So here’s the deal…

When Quotes Are More Important Than Numbers

A great many “war books” are fairly dry reading; lots of numbers and the “Big Picture.” Dying Hard is written from a much narrower point of view, where names are more important than numbers – one small unit – Company B, and their story is not dry! Nowhere is that more evident than in its many quotations — from people you have read about, such as General George Patton, to just soldiers in Company B. In no particular order, here are a few.

“I don’t make the infantryman look noble because he couldn’t look noble even if he tried.” (Bill Mauldin)

“We kept asking ourselves, Why me? Why do we have to keep on until we all get killed? (Al “Hawk” DiRisio, Company B)

“The Army is good for one ridiculous laugh per minute.” (Ernie Pyle)

“They wish the hell they were someplace else, and they wish to hell they would get relief. They wish to hell the mud was dry and they wish to hell their coffee was hot. They want to go home. But they stay in their wet holes and fight and then they climb out and crawl through minefields and fight some more.” (Bill Mauldin)

“Because legends don’t die with a bang; they die with a whimper.” (Author)

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” (Bruce Lee)

“There are no atheists in foxholes.” (Dwight Eisenhower)

“We’re going to have to dig down deep to find our hard core of scrappers.” (George Patton)

“You don’t want the Vienna Boys Choir in an infantry platoon.” (Author)

“To me, there is no higher accolade that one can bestow than to refer to an individual as a dogface soldier.” (Lindsey Nelson)

“There is an agony in your heart and you almost feel ashamed to look at them.” (Ernie Pyle)

“Hell’s bells, Brad [General Omar Bradley]. I’m wastin’ my talents with all those featherbed colonels in the rear.” (Colonel Harry “Paddy” Flint)

“Any bastard can be born and then just die, that just happens to you, but it takes a man to achieve immortality through battle.” (George Patton)

“Nobody beat me. We were playing pinochle. It’s a rough game.” (J.J. Sefton)

“Ah, the Air Force gets the glory. And the Navy gets the cheers. But all the dogface ever gets is mud behind the ears.” (Mel Blanc, Private Snafu)

“Neither an officer’s job nor a sergeant’s job in infantry-combat is more important than the other; they just do different things that complement one another.” (Author)

“Isn’t it wonderful what you can do with Spam?” (Bob Hope)

“It was cold and raining and blowing vigorously, and before us stretched the dark tree wall of the Snow Eifel where the dragon lived.” (Ernest Hemingway)

“The reason the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices it on a daily basis.” (Some German general)

“Now every second man in it was dead and the others nearly all were wounded. In the belly, the head, the feet or the hands, the neck, the back, the lucky buttocks, the unfortunate chest, and the other places. Tree burst wounds hit men where they would never be wounded in open country. And all of the wounded were wounded for life.” (Ernest Hemingway)

“It’s like what Bing Crosby said, ‘The further up front you get the snappier the salute.’ Well that shows he didn’t get very far up because we don’t even salute up here.” (Jack Jewell, Company B)

“We don’t have corporals in this outfit. So within a week you’ll be a sergeant or be dead.” (Jack Dunlap, Company B)

“Hear the One-Five-Fives a barking; Hear the angry shrapnel whine; The airplanes they will help us; To saturate the swine; We’ll have our Christmas dinner; In a big Berlin hotel; While Hitler and his buddies; All sweat it out in Hell.” (lyrics to song composed by soldiers of Company B, sung to the tune Wabash Cannonball)

“Stop worrying. Everything is going to be all right now. They’ve sent in the first team.” (LTC Wallace Wade, former head football coach Alabama Crimson Tide)

“Coffee with Hawk; it ain’t “Puttin’ On the Ritz.” But when you’re standing in the wet snow in your foxhole, your hands are freezing, your nose is running, and your eyes are tearing-up – because your heart is aching for home – that cup of hot coffee just might be worth a million bucks to you about now.” (Author)

“Charge!” (Lieutenant Louis Benoist, Company B)

“The first time you quit, it’s hard. The second time, it gets easier. The third time, you don’t even have to think about it.” (Paul “Bear” Bryant, head football coach Alabama Crimson Tide)

“Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone.” (Jiddu Krishnamurti)

“Listen you son of a bitch; you better not die on me!” (Jay Lavinsky, Company B)

“The rifleman fights without promise of either reward or relief. Behind every river there’s another hill – and behind that hill, another river. After weeks or months in the line only a wound can offer him the comfort of safety, shelter, and a bed. Those who are left to fight, fight on, evading death but knowing that with each day of evasion they have exhausted one more chance for survival. Sooner or later, unless victory comes this chase must end on the litter or in the grave.” (Omar Bradley)

“There is simply not enough marble and granite on God’s green earth upon which to truly record the sacrifice that American soldiers made for their comrades, their families, their fellow citizens, and for millions of people they never knew around the world.” (Author)

“A soldier can be a hero and a hero can be a legend and a legend can make a superman out of a soldier.” (Memorial for Colonel Harry “Paddy” Flint)

What isn’t shown here is the context in which the quotation is found. When you read Dying Hard, you’ll know why they’re all important. Dry? By the time you finish, you may even be wiping a tear from your eye — some from laughing and some not.