Re: Ex-POW Makes Trek to D.C.

Date: May 29, 2004

"UNSUNG HERO
Prison camp survivor heads to D.C. ceremony

By Jim Schultz, Record Searchlight

Eighty-one-year-old John Russell of Redding doesn't like big crowds or waiting in long lines, but he'll brave both today to witness the dedication of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Russell, joined by his wife of 56 years, Helen, or "Toots" as she prefers to be called, will be among the hundreds of thousands of veterans, spectators and participants paying tribute to those 16 million Americans who served during World War II and approximately 400,000 who died.

But Russell, a native who spent more than a year as a prisoner of war in Austria after his B-17 was shot down over the Baltic Sea in April 1944, makes no bones about his own military service.

For despite his Purple Heart and POW medals, Russell says he's no war hero.

"The heroes are still buried over there," he said.

Still, Russell, whose father was a World War I veteran and whose younger brother, Richard, fought at the Battle of the Bulge with Gen. George Patton's Third Army, is certainly an unsung hero.

For it was through sheer determination, a little luck, the Lord looking over him, as well as the saving grace of the U.S. Army 13th Armored Division, that he was able to survive the war, come home and raise a family.

But he had no doubt that he would outlive it, even when he was forced to parachute from his burning bomber or when he was a captive in the famed Stalag 17B prisoner of war camp near Krems, Austria.

"You don't give up," he said simply.

Russell is a retired SBC worker who was selected by the company, one of the larger monetary contributors to the World War II memorial, to be part of a 15-member delegation of veterans to attend the ceremonies.

Born in Anaheim, Russell, who was raised in South Dakota and then the Sacramento area, was only 18 when he went to work for the then Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. in 1942 to help build the so-called Defense Backbone Route, a military pole line extending from Klamath Falls, Ore., to Las Vegas.

Shortly after that was accomplished, Russell was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in December 1942.

After training at radio and gunnery schools, he and the newly formed 10-man B-17 crew were sent to England, joining the 563rd Bombardment Squadron, 388th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force.

On April 11, 1944, his crew left on its first mission, joining a 1,000-bomber formation that was ordered to attack targets in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Eleven U.S. bombers were shot down that day, including his own, he said.

Russell, who rarely spoke of his World War II experiences for about 40 years, still finds the words hard to come by as he remembers his fallen comrades in arms, who were only boys when they died.

Four of his crewmen were lost when their B-17 was shot down by German fighter planes and Russell, a staff sergeant who suffered head wounds from shrapnel, bailed out over the Baltic Sea as the interior of his bomber was engulfed in thick black smoke.

Tumbling through the clouds, Russell said he lost consciousness when he hit the water and woke up in a small office where a photograph of Adolf Hitler adorned a wall.

Russell was apparently picked up by a fishing boat and taken to the harbormaster's office.

From there, Russell was subject to interrogation by the enemy that included such forms of torture as heat "treatment" and isolation. He was eventually taken by train to Stalag 17, traveling past bomb-ruined cities.

Russell, who described traveling to the camp in an overcrowded and filthy boxcar, spent nearly the rest of the war at the stalag that held more than 4,000 Americans and nearly 30,000 British, Russian and other Allied prisoners.

Life in the POW camp was tough and tedious, he said, adding that the lack of heat in the winter, as well as the scarceness of food, made life that much more difficult.

Survival, he said, depended largely upon care packages from the Red Cross, which included such staples as canned meat, powdered milk and powdered coffee.

"The Red Cross parcels were our lifeline to getting home and surviving," he said.

With the war finally winding down and U.S. and Russian forces advancing upon Berlin, Russell said the camp's inmates were forced to walk 281 miles over three weeks in April 1945 to a site that was no more than land cleared of its trees.

Living out in the open, or in makeshift lean-tos, the POW's were rescued on May 2 by the 13th Armored Division.

"Those guys are beautiful," he said, his eyes tearing up and his voice quaking.

Upon his return stateside, Russell resumed working for Pacific Telephone and worked his way up through the ranks, retiring in 1982 as a switching manager.

Russell and his Shasta County native wife, who have three children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, hope to get a good view of today's memorial dedication, but simply being there is the important thing.

And just maybe he'll meet a GI from the 13th Armored Division.

Reporter Jim Schultz can be reached at 225-8223 or at jschultz@redding.com.
© 2004. Record Searchlight"