News-Info-Alerts

Re: Student Project on POWs & US Responsibilities Goes National

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: May 09, 2003

"Student's project on POWs timely Study of 'rights, responsibilities of America POWs in Vietnam' entered in national contest

BY MICK WALSH Staff Writer

Mary Lu Funk was glued to her television set, watching former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch board an Air Force jet for transport to a military hospital in Germany for treatment of her wounds.

"I can't tell you how excited I was to see her freed from captivity," said Funk, a 17-year-old junior at Shaw High School.

Days later, as more former POWs were reunited with their families at Army posts in Texas, Funk again became misty-eyed as she watched the happy scenes unfold.

It's not that all of America hadn't celebrated the return of the handful of American soldiers held captive in Iraq. It's just that the theme of two major projects produced by Funk this spring dealt with "the rights and responsibilities of America POWs in Vietnam."

A pretty heavy topic for a teenager who was born 13 years after the conclusion of that war.

"As it turned out, my entries touched on a very timely subject, " said Funk, whose paper "Returned With Honor" has been entered in a National History Day competition next month in College Park, Md. "But I'd actually chosen the topic last fall. I really didn't know much about the subject of POWs at all. My dad sort of pointed me in that direction."

Funk, daughter of Russell and Sue Funk of Columbus, originally entered her study on POWs in the school's Social Sciences fair.

Her project, which included the 11-page paper she'll take to National History Day, captured first place and Best in Discipline in the state competition.

"I couldn't believe how much stuff is available on this issue."

But the heart of the project was her interviews with former prisoners of war, including Red McDaniel. No, not the veteran Columbus councilor.

Eugene B. "Red" McDaniel was held captive by the North Vietnamese from May 1967 through March 1973 -- a period of almost six years.

"You can do as much research on the subject as you want," Funk said, "but nothing beats hearing these men tell their stories. Col. McDaniel, for example, is considered to be the former POW who suffered the worst torture of all the men. And he talked about the conditions he and others lived in. It's scary. There's no way I could survive in conditions like that for as long as they did."

Funk even built, using McDaniel's instructions, a scale model of an actual North Vietnam prison cell, complete with the concrete bed on which the prisoners slept.

"You really gain an appreciation for the kind of conditions these men were faced with after making something like this," she said.

Funk quizzed the former POWs on the responsibilities they have as a prisoner, what they can and cannot say to their captors. She also examined the Geneva Convention to learn how prisoners of war are supposed to be handled. And how North Vietnam often abused the rights of the prisoners.

National History Day judging is the second week of June. But the lessons learned from her project will last a lifetime with Funk.

"Any time I hear or read about prisoners of war," she said, "I want to learn more. And not just about Vietnam POWs, but those in Iraq and those that are being detained by us in Cuba, too."


©Knight Ridder"