Posted on 01/23/2006 5:00:15 PM PST by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — His Army outfit thought he was dead, but Al Waller survived five months in a prisoner of war camp in Germany during World War II and was on hand Sunday afternoon to help hoist a POW/MIA Flag, along with a U.S. Flag that once flew over the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
About 50 people gathered for a sun-drenched ceremony in the parking lot of the Sierra Vista Elks Lodge for a ceremony honoring the new flags. Waller was a guest speaker.
Sierra Vista Mayor Tom Hessler, commenting on what he considered a small turnout noted that, unlike some nations, the audience was there by choice, not because the government required them to show up.
Hessler spoke about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and its guarantees of religious, political and press freedoms. The freedom of speech ensured by the Constitution should not include anything that “is against the decency standards of the community,” however, Hessler said.
Regarding the controversial issue of burning the U.S. Flag, Hessler said he was repelled by the act but was opposed to any attempt to amend the Constitution to prohibit flag burning.
“We need to be careful about what we forbid,” Hessler said.
Waller, commander of Sierra Vista American Legion Post 52, introduced two other World War II POWs in the audience — Jack Davis and Norm Wiseman.
Davis, a Marine Corps veteran, was captured by Japanese troops on Wake Island on Dec. 13, 1941 — his 21st birthday. He spent 3 1/2 years in captivity, with his weight dropping to about 100 pounds.
Wiseman served in the Army Air Corps and was shot down during a bombing raid.
Speaking of his own internment at a German prison camp, Waller said, “It was rough. There was no food, no petrol, and they walked us for three months.”
Waller later explained that because Russian troops were closing in on the prison camp, guards walked the prisoners around in circles in the nearby countryside. His weight went from about 170 pounds to about 140 by the time he was liberated in May 1945 by a tank unit.
After being liberated, the Army fed him nine high-calorie meals a day to fatten him up.
“We ate white bread like it was angel food cake,” he said after the ceremony.
Waller was captured in Belgium on Dec. 24, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge.
He’d been wounded two months earlier but returned to action after treatment in Paris and England.
His family and the 80th Infantry Division of Pennsylvania had no idea he was alive after his capture, because he was listed as “missing in action.”
“My outfit thought I was dead,” Waller told the audience.
Even after the war, Waller didn’t speak much about his captivity. There were no POW organizations then to shed light on troops missing in action.
Following his talk, Waller and Davis helped retired Marine Master Sgt. Michael Bianchino and Army Staff Sgt. Randy Maurer hoist the two new flags, while Elks Lodge organist Vincent Fernicola provided musical accompaniment on a portable electric piano.
Earlier, Monika Madden, who became a citizen in 1999, read a prize-winning essay on “What Old Glory Means to Me,” written by Kristen Faulkner, a sixth-grade student in Homer, Alaska, for a contest sponsored by Elks Lodge 2127 there.
“It is our hopes and dreams for a better world,” Faulkner wrote. Commenting on the importance of U.S. freedoms to her, Faulkner wrote, “Freedom is everything.”
Remembering!
Great stuff. Keep up the great posts.
For God's sake, back away, SR. Just back away!
:) HA!
BTTT
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.