News-Info-Alerts

Re: 30 POWs - Their Stories

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 31, 2002

"Words, photos tell story of 30 POWs
Vietnam-era exhibit debuts in Coronado

By Ursula P. Watson

Taylor Baldwin Kiland and Jamie Howren Quinn have been best friends since childhood. Kiland followed family tradition and served in the Navy and Quinn married into a Navy family.

They stayed close over the years, and their shared experience with military life led them to create the exhibit, "Open Doors: Vietnam POWs Thirty Years Later."

The Museum of History and Art in Coronado is the first stop for this traveling exhibit, which opened this week.

Kiland said the idea for the exhibit came while she worked on Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in 2000. "I knew there must be stories on how they (POWs) rebuilt their lives," Kiland said.

It took 18 months to interview and photograph 30 men from all branches of the military, including McCain and Federal Trade Commissioner Orson Swindle.

Of the 30 ex-POWs featured, seven live in San Diego County. Kiland wrote 500-to 800-word features to accompany the black and white photographs taken by Quinn.

One of the first interviewed for the project was retired Capt. C.E. Ev Southwick of Scripps Ranch.

The former Navy pilot was shot down over Thanh Hoa and captured in 1967. He was taken to Hanoi, where he remained for nearly six years.

Southwick is now retired, spending time with his family, golfing and fishing. He believes the exhibit is one way to offer insight about prisoners of war.

"When people find out that you (were) a POW they look at you differently," Southwick said. "They ask themselves, is he really all there?"

In Coronado, Kiland and Quinn interviewed retired Navy Vice Adm. Edward Martin and his wife.

Martin, like Southwick, was a POW for nearly six years. He said while the exhibit focuses on 30 men, the unsung heroes are their wives and families.

"It was harder for them because they didn't know what the future held," Martin said. "We knew that there were only two outcomes: that we would make it or we wouldn't."

Martin's wife, Sherry, credits Sybil Stockdale, a founder of the National Association of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, for giving wives of POWs a voice during those years.

"The government wouldn't let us speak," Sherry Martin said. "She took the mantle upon herself."

Stockdale's husband, retired Navy Vice Adm. James Stockdale, spent eight years in captivity, four of them in solitary confinement. The Stockdales, who live in Coronado, shared their story in the book "In Love and War."

Stockdale said the exhibit shows how prisoners of war "prevailed in society."

"I don't think society knows the story, and I think that Taylor and Jamie have made a tremendous contribution," she said.

There are many stories of survival, but not all of them are happy ones.

Kiland said the men reveal their foibles, character and spirit. Some are cancer survivors, recovering alcoholics or divorced. Others lost children and spouses to death.

The exhibit brought its own stresses to Kiland and Quinn, who are each $25,000 in debt. But both say the project is invaluable.

"People who see this exhibit will be able to identify with these men," Quinn said. "They are average everyday stories that can help people realize that they are not alone. They can get through it."

The exhibit will be on display through Nov. 12. The museum is asking for a donation of $4 per person. For more information, call the Museum of History and Art in Coronado at (619) 435-7242.

© Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. "