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Re: The Valentine's Day Gift

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 14, 2003

"Valentine's Day holds special significance for Marietta couple

By KATE YORK


MARIETTA - Ken and Irene Newton are together this Valentine's Day, but that's a gift they don't take for granted.
Circumstances on Valentine's Day 60 years ago nearly kept the couple from ever meeting and experiencing 55 years of marriage.

"Things crop up every day that take me back to that," said Ken Newton, now a resident at the Inn at Marietta with his wife.

The experience that Newton can't forget is the 26 months he spent as a prisoner of war during World War II.

On Feb. 14, 1943, 22-year-old Newton, a member of the 168th Regiment of the 34th Infantry Red Bull Division, was on the front line in the battle of Kasserine in Tunisia, Africa, when the soldiers were told to hold the line at all costs. Supplies were cut off and soldiers were told if they left the line, they would be shot.

After their regimental commander was taken prisoner, Newton and the others spent three days in the line with no food or water before a message was dropped from the air reading "you are cut off, travel west to the best of your ability."

"By that time, all you thought of was bread and water," Newton said. "You didn't know what the next minute was going to bring."

The minutes and days brought capture, as Newton was taken as a prisoner of war by German forces on Feb. 19 after traveling through enemy lines.

He spent 26 months as a POW, while friends and family at home in Morgan County wondered if he was still alive.

"Being a POW is an experience only another POW could understand," Newton said.

More than a month of his time was spent on a boxcar known as the "hell train."

Built to hold 40 men, about 70 were jammed in with no supplies and only two outdoor breaks in 37 days.

"Half of the men would stand up so that the other half could sleep and then they would switch," said Irene Newton.

After arriving to work at a government farm in Poland in August, Newton had his first chance to feel full since Valentine's Day.

"I had the job of feeding pigs (sour milk and potatoes)," he said. "I figured if it didn't hurt them to eat it, it wouldn't hurt me. That was the first time I didn't have hunger pangs in months."

Newton was freed April 13, 1945, and soon found another significance to Valentine's Day when he returned home to meet his future wife in 1947.

"We met in October, were engaged by Christmas and got married in March," Irene Newton said.

"It didn't take long."

Her husband's experience as a POW has had a profound experience on her as well, Newton said, even inspiring her to write a poem.

"When POWs come home they are heroes of a special kind, for they bring back memories etched deep in the mind," she wrote. "Just ask the wives of POWs for they have a story to tell, for they loved and married men who spent time in earthly hell."

The secret to a happy decades-long marriage is patience, she said.

"You just have to live through your ups and down," she said. "You have to respect each other and love each other."

And although the Newtons appreciate each Valentine's Day that comes and goes, Irene said just having the day together is enough for her.

"I'm sure he's brought me candy or something over the years," she said, "but I don't remember anything specific. I just remember being together."

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