News-Info-Alerts

Re: Reunited - 59 Years Later

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: September 03, 2003

"Sharp eye reunites ex-POWs

By SUE NOWICKI BEE STAFF WRITER

Bill Lockhart knows what a small world this is.

A story about the former World War II prisoner of war appeared on the front page of The Bee on June 29. The article included a portrait of him sketched on Jan. 21, 1944, by fellow POW Les Breidenthal in the Stalag Luft 3 prison camp.

Last week, Breidenthal called The Bee to get in touch with Lockhart, who lives in Modesto.

Breidenthal lives in Eugene, Ore., and he and Lockhart had not seen each other since they were liberated at the end of the war.

"It's a strange story," Breidenthal said. "A colleague of mine has a former student who now lives in Turlock. He recognized my name and wrote to his former professor, sending along the article. John McManus, a retired professor of music, very nicely sent it to me.

"He taught woodwinds (at the University of Oregon). I taught voice, opera and so on. His studio and mine were adjacent, so we got to know each other."

Actually, the story is even stranger than Breidenthal knows. McManus' former student, John Weddle, is a music professor at California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock. He moved to the area a year ago.

Weddle said Saturday that McManus was his band teacher from the time Weddle was in elementary school. When Weddle was a freshman at the University of Oregon, McManus began his first year of teaching there.

"We go back to 1960," he said.

He read the story about Lockhart and thought McManus would be interested -- not because Weddle recognized Breid-enthal's name, but because his former prof also flew in B-17s during World War II.

"I thought he'd enjoy reading about it. He really did -- but there was more to it than I thought. He noticed Les' name and sent it on to him."

Breidenthal was surprised to see his 59-year-old sketch in print.

He was shot down over France on Sept. 23, 1943, and was free for about six hours; he was in a car with French Underground members when a German patrol stopped them.

"I was 20 years old when I was shot down," he said. "I was the youngest B-17 command pilot flying in the European Theater. I was shot down on my second mission."

His crew survived; the Underground had more success in getting two of them back with U.S. forces.

Breidenthal said he drew portraits in many POW logbooks. "I must have done dozens," he said.

What interested him about Lockhart's sketch, he said, was that Lockhart had been injured by shrapnel that left a scar under his left eye. Breidenthal heard about that injury for the first time last week, but noticed that he included the scar in Lockhart's prison camp portrait.

Sketching came naturally to him.

"I think I drew before I talked," he said. "I was doing portraits in fourth and fifth grade. In high school, I had drawings around two classrooms -- literary figures in English and historical figures in history."

But his main focus became singing. He attended college for 1 1/2 years in Kansas before his service in World War II. After his return from the war, he completed bachelor's and master's degrees in music education at Columbia University in New York. He later traveled to Rome, where he studied under a Fulbright Scholarship for more than five years.

He eventually earned a doctorate and ended up at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Although he lost one eye due to complications following surgery and has limited vision in the other due to macular degeneration, Breidenthal continues to draw and sculpt.

At a recent fair, he said, he won blue ribbons for portraits of Mark Twain and an elderly African-American man.

His call last week to Lockhart surprised the Modesto man.

"I never expected to hear from him again," Lockhart said. "I had no idea where he lived or if he was still alive. A friend of mine, another POW, was trying to trace him. But the only address we had was his parents' address in Kansas.

"I intend to stay in touch with him," Lockhart added. "It's a small world. I was happy that the article put us in touch."

Bee staff writer Sue Nowicki can be reached at 578-2012 or snowicki@modbee.com.

Copyright © 2003 The Modesto Bee"