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Re: Frostbite, Famine and Forgotten... No More

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 26, 2003

"Major recalls years as POW

by jerri kost-brouse, Staff writer

MILTON - Major Bill Baumer is among the thousands of veterans worldwide who have never forgotten what has been dubbed "the Forgotten War." He couldn't forget if he tried - because of that war, Baumer lost not only several years of his life, but his fingers, part of his foot and ears.

Baumer is a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. Following WWII, he returned to the area and received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Bucknell University. Then, he reenlisted in the Air Force because he wanted to continue to fly. Working his way up in the commercial air industry didn't appeal to him - Baumer said he wanted to be in the first pilot's seat right away.

"I decided to make the Air Force my career," he said.

Last month, Baumer joined fellow veteran Capt. Murray Lewis in recounting his experiences in the Korean War for residents at Nottingham Village, Northumberland.

This is his story.

It was the early part of the 1950s and two wars - the Korean War and the Cold War - were being fought simultaneously. In an effort to battle the Cold War, Baumer was part of Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron - a photo reconnaissance group gathering as much information from the air as possible. In June 1952, Baumer was promoted to operations manager.

Baumer volunteered for an assignment as a combat aircraft commander in RB-29s, flying out of Japan. He was gearing up to return home when he made a choice that would affect the rest of his life.

"I was ready to come home," he said. "I had an assignment in the United States."

But the night before Baumer was set to return home, he flew a combat mission as a voluntary instructor pilot.

"They needed an instructor pilot for one flight because they had just resumed leaflet dropping," said Baumer.

"I could have said 'no,' but I liked to fly, so I said 'yes,'" said Baumer.
The leaflets, being dropped across the river from Antung, China, were a method of informing people that they were going to be raided.

"We were telling them to head for the hills," he said. "We didn't want to kill civilians in that town."

The plane was just rounding the final town when several migs and anti-aircraft guns started firing. Pretty soon, two engines were on fire. Baumer and another pilot were expected to bail out of the plane, but before he made it out, he was struck in the leg. Baumer said he attempted to relay the information that he had been hit, but others couldn't hear him through their oxygen masks. He could feel the blood squishing in his boot.

After a few minutes he jumped head first out of the wheel well and pulled his rip cord.

"The rip cord only came out so far," he said. "Then it stuck."

Frantically, Baumer reached up with both hands and gave the cord a hard yank.

It released and his chute opened. Looking down, all Baumer remembers seeing is two parachutes below him. Looking up, he saw his plane disappear with two trails of white smoke.

About that time, Baumer said he began thinking about how he was going to land in the pitch dark.

"I couldn't see the ground," he said.

Once he hit the ground, Baumer tried to gather his parachute, but gave up when he realized he had lost so much blood that he could no longer stand. The bullet had hit a main artery and Baumer was losing a tremendous amount of blood.

In an attempt to get help, Baumer said he began shooting off distress shots.

After emptying his gun, he began to wonder how he was going to survive.

"It was January and very cold," he remembered. "I thought, if I don't do something, I'm going to be in trouble."

He tried to build a fire, but failed. He did his best to stay warm by shoving his hands under his armpits, but eventually succumbed to sleep and lay down in the snow. It was the cold snow that kept him from bleeding to death, he said.

At one point, Baumer worried his nose might freeze, but then he realized the warm air from his breathing was keeping the rest of his face warm enough to prevent frostbite.

The next morning, Baumer woke to the sound of some ducks and an engine whistle. He thought he was being rescued.

"I called out and some farmers came upon me," he said.

The farmers tried to stand Baumer up to walk, but he couldn't stand on his own.

So, they retrieved a long board and rolled him onto it and proceeded to carry him back to a nearby house. There he was reunited with some of his crew.

"I was numb all over," he recalled. "My men didn't even recognize me and I realized I must have looked pretty bad."

He was soon transferred to Antung Hospital, where he spent the next eight months receiving medical treatment. There, military officials tried to get Baumer to sign papers and release information, but he refused.

While in the hospital, Baumer was subjected to routine interrogations, but he refused to give up anything more than his name, rank and serial number.

Baumer remembered the two men who interrogated him as playing a "good cop, bad cop" routine.

"One was really nice and talked to me, the other was threatening," he said.
The guard tasked with watching over Baumer was also a bit threatening. Baumer said on more than one occasion the man drew his gun and pointed it at him.

Throughout his hospital stay, doctors performed "auto amputation" on parts of Baumers fingers, his left foot and part of his ears.

"That means they let nature take its course," he explained.

Baumer talked about the difficulty of watching those parts of his body disappear.

"The first time I saw it, it was quite a shock," he said. "Each time they took the bandage away, I could see where the good skin separated from the bad skin and sometimes could see bone."

It was then he was told that at some point, his leg would be amputated as well.
Following his amputations and a few operations, Baumer and the rest of his crew were taken to a Chinese prison in Peking. Transported by train, he arrived covered with bed bug bites. As he readied to leave the train, Baumer said he was shocked when the guard leaned over and squeezed his knee.

"It was as if to say, 'good luck buddy, you're going to need it,'" said Baumer.

Once imprisoned, Baumer remained in solitary confinement for 14 months. He was interrogated again and again and was rarely given any reading material, other than communist propaganda produced by groups in the United States.

Finally, Baumer was given a brief meeting with his defense council. The man advised him to plead guilty to flying into Chinese air territory.

"He said that's how I'd get the best treatment," said Baumer.

But Baumer wouldn't do it.

Dressed in a black uniform, he and the other members of his crew were taken to court where they faced a tribunal on charges of espionage. They were sentenced to terms ranging from four to 10 years, based on rank. Baumer got eight years.

He was held for another two years before being released.

During his time as a prisoner of war, Baumer remembered the type of food he was forced to eat. It wasn't bad, he said, but it wasn't good, either.

"We ate soup with black flies in it, rice that had rice worms," he said.

Upon his return to the United States, Baumer was admitted to Walter Reed Army Hospital and was medically retired from the Air Force in 1956. He continued his career counseling in secondary education and retired again in 1983.

JERRI KOST-BROUSE: 570-742-9671
jerri@standard-journal.com "