A few words about this site...

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My brother Tim and I many years ago decided we wanted to record our father's experiences as a POW during World War II and keep it as a legacy, not only to him, but to all of his comrades that fought in that terrible conflict.

 

After Dad returned to the states and was released from duty, he married my mother, Mary Beth Newcomer, and attended Purdue University, majoring in Chemical Engineering. After graduation, he was employed with the Upjohn Company (now Pfizer) for 36 years before retirement. After retirement, my Dad and Mom spent the next 28 years in service to mankind, working on projects all over the world through the World Missionary Service and through the International Red Cross's Disaster Relief Program. 

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Sadly, my father passed away August 13th, 2019 just prior to what would have been his 97th birthday. At the time of his death, my mother and he had enjoyed 74 years together as husband and wife.

 

Like many vets of that time period, it took Dad a number of years to open up about his time as a POW, but, when he did, the stories started pouring out. He had captured much of what happened to him in a series of diaries that he kept during that period, some pages being reproduced here. My brother went through all of them and painstakingly transcribed their contents into a narrative that was the basis for this site. He also sat my father down in front of a video camera and had Dad recount his adventure in timeline form from start to finish, which allowed my brother to ask about specific experiences on the fly, getting more detail to add to the story.