POWs from WWII vanishing, want memories to live
By Aaron Mackey
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
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To learn more about this event and the national organization that sponsored it, go to www. axpow.org/
When Joe Kerns came home from WWII after spending a year as a prisoner of war in Russia, he couldn't talk about it.
Not because his memories of a time spent winding through Siberia disturbed him, but because the U.S. government had classified the matter.
Kerns and nearly 300 other U.S. troops detained by Russia were forced to sign papers vowing that they wouldn't tell their families or friends about where they had been or why they had been listed as missing in action.
"We were clammed shut," Kerns said. "So much so that some guys forgot about everything."
Now the 87-year-old Kerns, a former Army staff sergeant who served as a gunner aboard a B-24 Liberator, is fighting to make sure people remember his story.
Kerns and a handful of other WWII POWs talked about their experiences and showed off memorabilia Wednesday at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System as part of an annual recognition day for prisoners of war.
Kerns' crew was bombing a Japanese-controlled island in the North Pacific when the plane had to land in Russian territory.
The Russians eventually took Kerns and about 50 other troops to the Russian mainland, where they crossed Siberia, sometimes packed into railroad cars and other times forced to march on foot.
In 1944, several Russian officials orchestrated an escape for the U.S. troops, who later found their way into Iran, where there was an American hospital.
When they came home, they were told to keep quiet because their imprisonment never officially happened, Kerns said.
It took 45 years and an act of Congress to formally recognize the troops as POWs.
"It was a big secret," Kerns said. "There was no public knowledge or records of our existence by the U.S. military or the Russians."
More than 130,000 U.S. troops became POWs during WWII, according to VA statistics. Of those, only 20,000 are believed to still be alive.
In Arizona, there are only about 300 WWII POWs left with a few dozen in the Tucson region, said Lewis Sleeper, commander of the Southern Arizona chapter of the Former Prisoners of War.
Sleeper, who spent a year in German POW camps after being shot down in a B-17 Flying Fortress, said the group was trying to raise awareness about the prisoners' experiences, before more died.
"We want to keep the organization alive and not let the people forget," Sleeper said. "Our legacy is going to be keeping this event going."
Besides educating the public about the plight of former POWs, the stories have relevance today, said Dick Cooksley, a former Army captain who survived the Bataan Death March.
"Everybody needs to know about history so they can be more aware of what these kids in combat are going through now," Cooksley said.
Find out more
To learn more about this event and the national organization that sponsored it, go to www. axpow.org/
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