News-Info-Alerts

Re: Ex-POWs Share Survival Stories

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: September 27, 2002

"Ex-POWs share survival stories
Thirty attend event held at VA center
BY JENNIFER MALONEY
jmaloney@herald.com

Joe Kusarik cannot recall his age, but the memories of his internment at a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II bring tears to his eyes.

''It was very bad,'' he said, speaking slowly so his slurred words could be understood. ``I was hungry most of the time.''

Kusarik, who has Alzheimer's disease and lives in a VA nursing home in Miami, was imprisoned near Berlin for more than a year before U.S. troops liberated him in 1945.

He was one of about 30 former POWs who attended a ceremony at the Miami Veterans Administration Medical Center on Friday to mark National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Miami's annual event is the largest gathering of ex-POWs in the country, said Susan Ward, a spokeswoman for the center.

A color guard of Vietnam veterans in green fatigues marched slowly past rows of ex-POWs and those who had come to honor them. The only sound was the rasping of one POW's respirator.

Later, Lt. Col. James Fairless, deputy command surgeon of the U.S. Southern Command, addressed the group. He stressed that POWs and MIAs -- those missing in action -- must not be forgotten.

''You're the ones who have endured the most,'' he said. ``You symbolize the strong resolve of the American people. That's what builds this country up.''

After the ceremony, some ex-POWs shared their stories.

Larry Carastro, who grew up in Tampa and now lives in Westchester, said his first application to become a fighter pilot was rejected.

'The psychiatrist said, `You'll never be part of an air crew. You'll crack up under combat,' '' Carastro recalled. ``I'd have liked that buzzard with me when I was shot down.''

It was his 32nd mission.

Carastro's plane was shot down near the Anzio beach head 20 miles south of Rome. A gunner, he jumped just moments before the aircraft exploded and had no time to flex his knees as the ground rushed up at him.

''I hit the ground like a sack of potatoes,'' said Carastro, whose back never fully healed. ``Twenty feet away, there was a German soldier pointing a machine pistol at me.''

For Carastro, it was the beginning of a battle to stay alive. In February 1945, he and 2,000 POWs began a forced march through the snow-encrusted landscape of northern Germany. The journey lasted two months and covered more than 3,000 miles.

Shortly after they reached their destinations, the Germans said they had to go back the way they had come.

As the column of prisoners marched out of the camp, Carastro darted into the sick tent erected for those too ill to leave. A few weeks later, they were liberated.

Cornelius Reagan evaded capture for several months after his plane was shot down over the island of Java on March 1, 1942.

Traveling by night in a stolen boat, he survived on tropical fruit, roots and animals that he ate raw because he could not light a fire. ''I thought maybe if I got to the ocean I could maybe steal a boat and get to Australia,'' he said.

Eventually, natives found Reagan and turned him over to the Japanese. He convinced them he was an Irish war correspondent by faking an Irish accent. He was taken to a political prison in Sukamiskin, where he was put on burial detail.

''We were kept pretty busy,'' said Reagan, who now lives in South Dade.

Reagan was liberated in September 1945. He weighed 92 pounds.

A tear ran down Kusarik's wrinkled cheek as he recalled how eager he was 60 years ago to see combat.

''I think they should try harder to bring an agreement without going into war,'' he said of President Bush's plans to oust Saddam Hussein."

CORRECTION - 26 JUN 04 :"• In a Sept. 26, 2002, story about National POW/MIA Recognition Day, it was incorrectly reported that German POW Larry Carastro, a West Miami resident, was sent on a forced march of 3,000 miles. The march that started in February 1945 lasted two months and covered 300 miles."