News-Info-Alerts

Re: Ex-POWs Speak and Teach

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: October 03, 2003

"Three ex-POWs speak on experiences

By Bryan G. Robinson 1

Donald Dukeman, 79, of Salisbury Township, Lancaster County, served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945.

Harold "Brownie" McCarter, 78, of Honeybrook Township served as a paratrooper in the 17th Airborne from 1943 to 1945.

Garfield McCoy, 86, of Caln Township also served in the Army, from 1941 to 1944 in the 30th Division, 120th Regiment in Patton's Third Army.

Besides serving in the military during World War II, the three men also share another similar experience. All three were captured during the war, and served time in German prison camps.

Last week, the three spoke to members of the Coatesville Rotary Club at a meeting at the Coatesville Country Club.

McCarter said he was taken prisoner after being wounded at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. For the next six months from December 1944 until June 1945, he would be imprisoned in Stalag 4B on the Elbe River.

"The camp was fairly rough," he said. "It was near the end of the war and they weren't concerned about their prisoners."

The food, he said, was sparse. He said that they had turnip soup once a day, and twice a week, a piece of black bread. "That was about it. We didn't receive parcels from the Red Cross," he said.

However, he said he didn't smoke and as a result, he could barter any cigarettes he received for food. As a result, he said, he lost about only 50 pounds.

McCoy said that he himself lost only about 30 pounds while he was a prisoner at Stalag 7A in Moosburg, Germany. However, he related that he still didn't have much to eat, and that he was kicked and beaten several times while a prisoner of war.

Several times McCoy said he thought he would die, including once he and about 50 to 75 other prisoners were marched and made to dig graves. "They set up machine guns and we thought we were going to get shot," he said. "They put our serial number on a cross in case they wanted to shoot us."

Another time, he said he discovered candy bars in a railroad car near the camp and was almost shot by a Gestapo officer because of it. However, he heard a German couple in the background and the guard spared his life. He said that he wished he could have met the couple so he could have thanked them.

Dukeman, meanwhile, lost the most weight of the three men, starting at 175 when he went into the camp and coming out at a mere 90 pounds. He also related that he had two showers in eight months time, when he was in Stalag 4 from September 1944 until May 1945 when the camp was liberated.

Rotary Club member Bob Ford invited the three men to speak. He said he had been trying for years to get the three to talk at a club gathering.

Dukeman said that he thought it was important to talk after Ford asked him and the other two men to speak last week. "Our freedom isn't free," he said. "There has to be sacrifices. Some people don't realize how great our country is."

Asked why he survived, he said it was a couple of things. "I loved my country and I was married and I had my wife to come home to," he said.

"People should know what we went through," said McCoy. "They don't realize the things that we went through, such as we couldn't get a drink of water."

McCarter said he believed patriotism for the most part has gotten lost in the U.S. "It's a shame," he said.

He said that was why he thought it was important to tell others his story.

©Coatesville Ledger 2003"