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Re: Their Emotions Have Outlived Their Comrades

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: September 20, 2003

"Veterans honor POWs, those still missing

By TOM HELD theld@journalsentinel.com


Their emotions have outlived their comrades.
Veterans Remember

This is the first year it has hit me how few fellows we have left. We're going to the other side one by one. When it comes time to say goodbye to one of our members, that's the hard part. - Fred Broussard, 80, of Shorewood, a survivor of a German prison camp in World War II

That was the poignant observation of the gray-haired men who gathered Friday to honor their fellow prisoners of war and those who didn't come back, the thousands of men and women left missing in action.

Their movements slow and halting, their voices slightly strained, seven members of the Milwaukee Barb Wire Chapter American Ex-POWs commemorated the National POW/MIA Recognition Day at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The men formed a small corps of veterans, sharing tears, laughs and patriotism with about two dozen friends and relatives.

"This is the first year it has hit me how few fellows we have left," said Fred Broussard, 80, of Shorewood, a survivor of a German prison camp in World War II. "We're going to the other side one by one.

"When it comes time to say goodbye to one of our members, that's the hard part."

Though smaller in numbers, the former POWs remain powerful in their message: honoring those left behind and sympathizing with those who returned to face lingering emotional and physical pain.

Irv Glick spent two years as a German prisoner in World War II. He survived long marches in record cold, intense hunger and inhumane sanitary conditions.

"I don't know if it was prayer, faith, stubbornness or will, but the fact that we did survive is indicative of the strength of Americans," Glick said.

Glick's strength was tested again after he returned to build a new life in the Milwaukee area.

He found that depression, guilt, emotional emptiness and isolation afflicted him and thousands of other former POWs. The sacrifices they made for their country seemed to continue decades after the war ended.

Still, Glick and the other former prisoners consider themselves fortunate. They returned.

According to the Defense Department, more than 78,000 soldiers remain on the rolls of those missing in action and unaccounted for from World War II. Another 8,100 soldiers are on the MIA list from the Korean War, and 1,882 from Vietnam.

The families of those missing in action face "a grief that does not end," said Chaplain Norman Oswald, who offered an opening prayer for the recognition ceremony.

"Those soldiers sacrificed so we can enjoy what is so often taken for granted," said Richard Gibson, the director of the mental health program at Zablocki. "We extend our gratitude."

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