News-Info-Alerts

Re: WW II Ex-POW to receive Purple Heart

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: May 06, 2002

"Former POW ambivalent about getting Purple Heart
By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News

Loren Brantley has always been a lucky man.

He survived three years of internment by the Japanese during World War II. He witnessed the Bataan Death March and the bombing of Nagasaki, and he has lived to be 85 years old, while most of his buddies from that era have died.

"The good Lord has always watched out for me," said Mr. Brantley of Plano, a retired steelworkers union representative.

IRWIN THOMPSON / DMN
Loren Brantley, who will get a Purple Heart on Monday, has received other medals for his military service, including the Bronze Star. Most recently, he was able to persuade the U.S. government of his right to a Purple Heart by producing – almost six decades after the fact – two witnesses to brutal beatings he received at the hands of the Japanese.

A representative of the U.S. Marine Corps will present Mr. Brantley with the Purple Heart, the nation's oldest military medal honoring soldiers wounded in the service of their country. The presentation will occur in a brief ceremony in Plano on Monday morning.

The requirement that medal applicants find two witnesses, in lieu of official documentation, is becoming increasingly difficult for veterans.

"It's difficult now even for Vietnam vets," said Jay Phillips, spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a private organization dedicated to helping and honoring the medal's recipients. "I wouldn't say it's becoming uncommon, but time is running out."

The Purple Heart, which was first commissioned by George Washington and was revived in the 1930s, is awarded for more than just battlefield wounds, Mr. Phillips said. Prisoners of war who were severely beaten are also eligible.

IRWIN THOMPSON / DMN
Mr. Brantley served in the Pacific with Marines during World War II. Mr. Brantley was a Marine private on Corregidor when he was captured May 7, 1942, the day after the island fell to the Japanese.

His captors put him to work in a steel mill, where he took advantage of his guards' absence one day to sabotage the coke furnace.

"I put it out of operation," he said. "I got beaten up pretty bad for it. They would have killed me, but they knew they had violated their own rules by leaving me alone."

When he had been beaten so severely he could no longer stand, he was strung up by his wrists and beaten some more. Starvation and brutal treatment continued for more than three years.

On Aug. 9, 1945, Mr. Brantley was working 10 miles outside of Nagasaki when he saw an American plane drop a bomb. It created an explosion the likes of which none of the prisoners – or captors – had ever seen.

"We didn't know what it was. We thought they had hit a fuel dump," he said.

Although far enough away to have survived the atomic blast, he still carries marks from the radiation burns on his body.

The day after the bombing, the behavior of his captors markedly changed.

"They started giving us all this food. It was like they couldn't feed us enough," he said.

American prisoners soon were freed. Mr. Brantley's weight had dropped from 195 pounds to 87 pounds.

He returned home to Texas, where he did his best to forget the war.

"I never talked about it," he said. "Some of my neighbors never even knew I was in the Marines."

A few years ago, he learned he was eligible to receive the Purple Heart. He wrote to several elected representatives but said he received little help.

John Cook, Collin County service officer whose job is to help veterans, heard about Mr. Brantley's request and helped him complete the proper paperwork.

Finding two witnesses proved relatively easy. Mr. Brantley had kept in touch with other former POWs, who were able to write letters vouching for his ordeal. One of the witnesses died only three weeks after writing the letter.

"It's getting more difficult for these guys to find witnesses," Mr. Cook said. "World War II vets are dying at a rate of about 1,000 to 1,500 per day."

Mr. Phillips said former POWs often have an easier time than other medal applicants. Because they spent so much time in confinement together, they have tended to stay in touch over the years.

"But the government has to act fast. A lot of these guys won't be around," he said.

Time ran out on Ginner Grant, 87, of Mesquite, who died April 14. Mr. Grant was a Marine corporal who was also captured at Corregidor and held in Japanese prisons until the end of the war.

RICHARD MICHAEL PRUITT / DMN
James Grant holds a photo of his father, Ginner Grant (standing), while in the military. He believed he was eligible for a Purple Heart and built a barbed wire enclosure around a flagpole in his front yard to dramatize his plight. But he was unable to find a sufficient number of witnesses, according to friends and family members.

"He never said a bad word about the Marines or the government. He was just disappointed he never got his medal," said Mary Mollenhauer, a former neighbor.

His son, James H. Grant, 54, of White Settlement, said he intends to write letters to continue the effort in his father's behalf.

RICHARD MICHAEL PRUITT / DMN
James Grant shows a cup etched by his father with a nail during the three years he was a Japanese prisoner. "I want to get it just so I can hang it on the wall," Mr. Grant said. "If he's looking down on me, he'll say, 'Yeah, you finally did it.' "

Mr. Brantley said he regards the Purple Heart with ambivalence.

"I'm glad I'm getting it," he said. "I feel like I've earned it, but when I see all the misery that went with it ..."

His voice trailed off.

Mr. Brantley said he was initially reluctant to apply for the medal, believing that the people who deserved it were those who had died in combat. And he said he fears the medal ceremony will revive memories he has spent years suppressing.

"I don't look forward to it," he said of the ceremony. "It's digging up history, and I don't know that I want to do that. But I have grandsons, and I think they'll like it."

E-mail: dflick@dallasnews.com "