Re: 59 Years Later, Medals Awarded

Date: February 18, 2004

"Two receive POW medals
Veterans Affairs secretary travels to Louisville

By SHELDON S. SHAFER
sshafer@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Fifty-nine years after their release, two World War II veterans received prisoner-of-war medals in Louisville yesterday from Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi.

"It's quite an honor. I never thought I'd get it personally from the secretary," said James K. Miller, 79, a former Army staff sergeant who was taken prisoner in eastern France in January 1945 and was held five months in two German stalags until he was freed that May. "I thought I'd get it (the medal) in the mail."

Allen V. Jones, 83, then a second lieutenant serving as a bombardier on a B-24 shot down over Germany in June 1944, said that he was not even aware that he was eligible for the POW medal until a friend recently advised him.

"It never dawned on me. I'm rather pleased" to have it presented by Principi, said Jones, who was liberated in April 1945.

Principi said presenting the two medals was "a very emotional experience. It is important to honor these men and women who sacrificed, especially former POWs. They suffered a great deal, and most of them (from World War II) don't have a lot of time left."

Principi presented the medals yesterday during a meeting of the Louisville chapter of the Military Officers Association of America. More than 150 members and guests attended the luncheon at Wildwood Country Club.

Kenneth Slye, chapter president, said he "shot off an invitation" to Principi to address the group. "I thought it would go in the bottom drawer," but within 24 hours, he said, he received an e-mail from Principi himself accepting the offer.

Principi did double duty yesterday in Kentucky.

He spent the morning touring Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in Lexington that are proposed for reorganization in a preliminary report of an independent commission he appointed.

He said he also talked yesterday with veterans who use the hospitals.

An asset realignment commission made a preliminary recommendation last summer that the Leestown Road campus of the Lexington Veterans Affairs Medical Center be closed, and its services be moved to the already crowded Cooper Drive VA hospital next to the University of Kentucky.

The Leestown Road hospital provides outpatient mental health services to veterans from Central and Eastern Kentucky and it has a 61-bed veterans' nursing home, plus a primary-care and eye clinic.

More than 100 people showed up to express concerns about the recommended realignment at a hearing in Lexington in September.

The commission's draft report also called for studying whether to replace or renovate the cramped, 50-year-old hospital on Zorn Avenue in Louisville.

Principi said at a news conference that he expects to receive the final report today. He said the final decisions are his, but he declined to forecast what they might be.

He said it is costly to operate and maintain the aging Leestown site.

Principi said his mission is to ensure that veterans receive the best health care with the money available.

The department is emphasizing the treatment of veterans at small, well-dispersed clinics instead of at large urban hospitals, he said, noting that it has set up nearly 700 outpatient clinics across the country since the mid-1990s.

Principi said he hopes to make aging veterans aware of the services available to them and "to make sure we are well positioned to meet the burgeoning health demands of veterans."

Even though his department's budget has increased more than 30 percent since President Bush took office, that has been more than offset by the continued rise in health-care costs, he said.

"It is important to modernize, to improve efficiency and to keep up with changes in technology," said Principi, 59, a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran.

Miller, a retired photographer, said he lost 50 pounds in captivity and was struck twice by guards with a rifle butt, once in the head and once in the groin.

Being a POW made him appreciate having the basic necessities, he said.

Jones, a retired manufacturer's representative, called his imprisonment in a camp designed for 30,000 people that held 100,000 "pretty gruesome."

But he said he never really felt he was mistreated during his captivity.

©2003 The Courier-Journal"