News-Info-Alerts

Re: Former POW Awaits Acknowledgement

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 13, 2003

"Former POW awaits acknowledgement

BRIEN T. BOYCE , Staff Writer

Donald Schroder has his discharge papers from his service in the Army during World War II, but has yet to receive a medal or recognition as a prisoner of war. For serving his country during World War II, Donald Schroder was decorated with several medals, but he has yet to receive a medal that acknowledged him as a member of a select few - a prisoner of war.

Schroder enlisted in the Army at a mere 19 years old on June 26, 1944. He was sent to the front lines in Germany, and fought in the infamous Battle of the Bulge, the largest land battle Americans fought in during World War II. The battle lasted from Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 28, 1945.

More than 1 million men fought in the battle, including 500,000 Americans. While Germany had more than 100,000 soldiers killed or wounded, the United States lost 19,000 servicemen.

On Jan. 6, 1945, Schroder and others became captives of the German army. They weren't sent to a prison or concentration camp; rather, the Germans kept the POWs with them

"They kept moving us around to keep us ahead of our own (troops)," he said.

Schroder lost track of how many American soldiers were taken captive along with himself. He did remember the prisoners were used to cut wood for most of the day.

The POWs were never tortured, and were never threatened with execution. However, living conditions were horrible, and the soldiers were only given a half-piece of brown bread to eat every day.

As a result, Schroder's 175-pound frame shed 50 pounds, if not more, in three months. When he returned home, he weighed 125 pounds.

Life as a POW could have been worse, Schroder said, but being a prisoner wasn't a life. On March 29, the POWs decided freedom was worth the risk, and made a daring break. Schroder said when the guards left their post, the prisoners broke out of the building they were being held in.

Filthy, tired and unshaven, the men ran down a road, and as luck would have it, they encountered American troops. But since they were unrecognizable as G.I.s, Schroder said the Americans almost open fired on the POWs.

Once the POWs were identified, Schroder remembers the prisoners were given all the food they could consume. Ravenous, Schroder and the men ate, only to find out the food was passing through their systems almost as quickly as it was being consumed.

"So we couldn't eat very much, because we'd always have to use the bathroom," he said.

The POWs were free, but were far from being shipped home. Schroder remembers the former prisoners were to be transported to a hospital, but instead were sent back to the front lines.

It didn't take Army officials long to recognize the mistake, and the former POWs were removed from combat. Eventually, Schroder was put on a British ship - a trip, he said, that seemed like it "took forever."

Schroder finally arrived stateside in July. Still suffering from diarrhea, the former POW said he consumed 16 2-pound boxes of cheese to correct the problem.

He then married to his wife of 58 years, Olga, and was sent to Onawa, where he guarded prisoners until his release from the Army in November 1945.

Olga said her husband didn't speak much about his time as a POW until he encountered another former prisoner of war two years ago.

"I've heard those two talk it more than I've heard him (Donald) talk about it in the last 58 years," she said.

The POW Medal was approved by former President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and is normally awarded to any person taken and held captive after April 5, 1917, during World War I and II, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, and during Operation Desert Storm.

Since the POW Medal was created with a grandfather clause, all former POWs before 1986 were eligible to receive it. Schroder, however, has yet to be awarded one.

Don and Olga said he deserves it, but don't understand why he has never received one.

"I know he came back a very different person than when he left. They went through a lot," she said. "We don't realize what POWs go through."

©Daily Nonpareil 2003 "