Posted on 11/11/2004 5:18:36 PM PST by BansheeBill
After 34 years, POW reunites with rescuer
By JEAN GORDON
The Associated Press
On July 25, 1970, Warren Messer weighed 80 pounds and had turned blue. His knees were crushed and his feet and fingers were broken. He was struggling to hang on to life in a Cambodian prisoner-of-war camp.
Then he saw the eyes of the U.S. Air Force medic who had come to save his life. Through the years, he never forgot those eyes.
They belonged to Ronnie Scroggs, a Rutherford County, N.C., native. With the help of two other POWs he had rescued, Scroggs carried Messer through the jungle for three days, delivering him to a helicopter that flew him away for medical care.
Messer had been so brutalized that he couldn’t even tell Scroggs that the day of his rescue was also his birthday. In fact, Messer was in such bad shape that Scroggs expected him to die. But when Scroggs’ captain suggested a mercy killing, he couldn’t do it.
“He was laying on the ground ... I saw something in his eyes,” a tearful Scroggs said recently.
Over the years, Messer tried unsuccessfully to find the soldier who saved him. He mistakenly thought Scroggs was in the Navy, so he searched in that direction.
Neither was aware they were living 30 miles apart.
But just over a month ago, fate and an alert Veterans Services Office official intervened.
Messer, 57, who lives in Gaffney, often travels to Spindale, N.C., for counseling at the Veterans Service Office. He is a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Scroggs, 56, also visits the Spindale veterans office regularly, to talk about his benefits or the war, or to spend time with friends.
Veterans Services officer Marie Champion listened to both their stories through the years: How Messer had been rescued on his birthday, and how Scroggs, as a medic, had rescued 18 POWs during the 10 months he was in Vietnam. A light bulb went off.
But she wasn’t sure Scroggs was Messer’s rescuer. So she arranged for them to be at the office at the same time to see what would happen.
“I knew it was him when I saw his eyes,” Messer said. “A dying man sees only the eyes of the person helping him.”
“The last time I saw him, he was blue,” Scroggs said.
Messer said he also remembered Scroggs’ smile, and when Scroggs produced that smile again, the two wept.
“The chances of us seeing each other again was astronomical,” Messer said.
“For about 35 years we’ve blocked a lot of this out. We don’t talk about it too much. ... I have been depressed. Now this has really brought us closure.”
Messer had been in Cambodia doing reconnaissance missions for the Marine Corps when he was captured on Oct. 3, 1968, after being shot four times.
After Scroggs rescued him, it took him more than a year to recover from the physical wounds of his first reconnaissance mission. But Messer later returned to Vietnam to another tour of duty.
In fact, Messer is still in the Marine Corps, in the Foothills Detachment of the Marine Corps League in Shelby, N.C. “I’ll stay in the Marine Corps ’til they pull the flag across me,” he said.
Scroggs returned to Rutherford County and built a career with the Rutherford County EMS.
Messer, who received 17 Purple Hearts, is expected to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor by the end of the year.
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Awesome story. Thanks!
Awsome! Thanks!
17???? 17 Purple hearts????? and he went back??? I'm surprised they let him go back...
Thanks for posting this amazing story, Banshee.
Veteran's Day PING!!!
Note to Jean-Francois Kerry: What was that you said about 3 purple hearts?
Don't miss this one.
Incredibly moving story - thank you very much for posting it.
God Bless our Veterans!
WOW! I live in the same town as Warren Messer. (Gaffney SC) The name is so familiar. Now Gaffney is not only famous for Andie McDowell, and the Peachoid. We have a true war HERO to boot!
The alpha to Kerry's omega.
Bill thank you for sharing this story with us.
17 Purple Hearts and he still serves his country.
How lucky we are to share America with him.
No,this is the zenith,to Kerry's nadir.
The sublime to Kerry's ridiculous.
OMGoodness.
Now I'm weeping.
A GRAND true life story!
Note both men are Southerners!
Sniff....Sniff....
Thank you....
Real ones too.
Thanks for posting this.
I can't even imagine the pain and suffering this man endured, and he went back!
The Marine Corps builds men, and they built one helluva man with Warren Messer!
May God bless 'em all!
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