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McCarty: Ex-POW group locked in a battle against time

Survivors urged to remember benefits won by an organization whose members’ average age is now 85 to 87

Ken Castor, the commander of the Dayton Chapter of American Ex-POWs, speaks to the members of the group attending the meeting.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Ken Castor, James and Janice Mills and Virginia Roberson, members of the Dayton Chapter of American Ex-POWs, look at the club's official scrapbook.

Ron Alvey Ken Castor, James and Janice Mills and Virginia Roberson, members of the Dayton Chapter of American Ex-POWs, look at the club's official scrapbook.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Bob Swinehart, a member of the Dayton Chapter of American Ex-POWs, talks to a fellow ex-POW during a meeting. They are meeting at the VFW Post 9927, located on Wilmington Pike.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Photos: Ex-POW club facing difficulties

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By Mary McCarty, Staff Writer Updated 8:32 PM Saturday, July 4, 2009

Bob West nearly starved to death during his captivity as a prisoner of war during World War II, wasting away from 170 pounds to about 110 — the weight of a skinny teenage girl. He subsisted on virtually no rations while being marched from Poland across Northern Europe to the Western front.

“A lot guys just laid down in the snow and just gave up,” the Brookville man recalled. “I did it too, but I always got up again. The will to live is very strong. Something inside you tells you to go on for one more day.”

West was richly rewarded for his tenacity. Now 88 years old, he has raised four daughters and welcomed eight grandchildren into the family. He will celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary this summer with his wife, Freda, who once wondered if her future husband would ever make it back from the front. “My letters started coming back, and for a long time I didn’t know how to pray for him,” she recalled. “I feared he might be better off dead.”

For most of his life, West assumed that nobody was very interested in his wartime ordeal. That changed 10 years ago when he joined the Dayton chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War, which has been meeting since 1981. Now, as the veterans are dying or facing health problems, the chapter’s very existence has been called into question. In fact, the chapter’s longtime commander, Ken Castor, communed a “last supper” last week in what he billed as the chapter’s final meeting. “I’m tired,” Castor announced to the packed meeting room at VFW Post 9927 in Kettering. “Mentally and physically, I just can’t do it any more. I’d be more than glad to support anybody who wanted to step up.”

The group’s Ohio commander, 86-year-old Maynard “Doc” Unger, zipped down from Cleveland to caution the chapter, “Not so fast.”

He acknowledged the problem in the state organization whose average age is 85 to 87, with membership dwindling from 1,500 at its peak to fewer than 1,000 today. Thirteen chapters, including Dayton’s, remain active, but chapters in Steubenville and Springfield recently closed.

According to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, the estimated number of living POWs decreased from nearly 36,000 in 2003 to about 32,500 in 2004, largely due to the estimated death rate of 10 percent for WWII veterans.

“They’re falling fast,” Unger acknowledged in his speech to the Dayton chapter. “You are not alone in wanting for leadership when the average age is 85 to 88, We can’t do the same things as we did before, and all the commanders know that.”

Unger urged his audience to remember all the medical and disability benefits that the American Ex-POWs organization has won for its membership. “If we give up now, and run into problems later, where are we going to go for help?” Unger asked, noting that a whopping 22 medical conditions — from frostbite to heart problems — have been tied to being a POW.

And that doesn’t begin to calculate the emotional toll on veterans and their families. “This is the only veterans group where the women and the men go to meetings together,” Unger noted. “At our meetings the women are overhearing things they have never heard before.”

Wanda James of Kettering noticed a distinct change in her husband, Glendale, after he started coming to meetings. “He used to wake up in the night with terrible nightmares,” she recalled. “The nightmares stopped after he started coming here.”

She believes that’s because his fellow POWs understand things she can’t. One day she casually said “I’m hungry,” and her mild-mannered husband snapped, “You don’t know what hungry is.”

She knew he was right; her husband weighed less than 90 pounds when the Russians liberated him. “He never told his story before coming here,” Wanda noted. “Now he has told his story many times.”

The Rev. Steve Thornhill of the South Dayton Baptist Church has served as chaplain for the group since he started attending meetings with his grandfather, Maynard Lawson. He urged the chapter to stay together and to reach out to family members for help with meals and planning. “We’re proud of what you guys have done and we haven’t forgotten it,” Thornhill said.

“I felt honored to be asked to help and I know many others would, too.”

In the end the group was swayed by Unger’s arguments and voted nearly unanimously to continue with their monthly meetings, at least until the state chapter holds its annual convention in August.

“This is very special,” Thornhill told the group. “It would be sad if you stopped meeting.”

Showing the true fighting spirit of the former POW, something inside them told them to go on for one more day.

Contact this reporter  at (937) 225-2209 or  

mmccarty@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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Whenever I see someone wearing a ball cap or sporting license plates stating they are a veteran of any war from WWII to the most recent, I always make the time to shake their hands, thank them for what they went through and welcome them home. I'm a 4 year (1972-1976) USAF Viet Nam "Era" vet who never saw any combat. I can only imagine what these guys went through, especially the P.O.W.s. God bless them always!!!

Dan Edwards
7:13 AM, 7/6/2009

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I am a 44 year old woman. I own my own home and I do landscaping for a living. I wasn't even born when you brave men fought for my freedom to live and own my own home and the freedom to do a non-traditional job. My grandfather told me of those days and I am proud to say that I live in a country where I can be free. Don't give up. Just one more day. I am fighting cancer and I understand just one more day. Thank you so very much for everything that I have.
Regina

Regina
10:03 PM, 7/5/2009

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Contact John Agenbroad/ Mayor of Springboro Ohio. John is truly a Veteran's Angel, see what can be done. We owe these BRAVE MEN a debt that we can never repay except coming to their aid. All VFW'S, AMERICAN LEGIONS, AMVETS AND ANYONE WHO WANTS TO SHOW THEIR LOVE AND APPRECIATION FOR WHAT THESES LOYAL AMERICANS DID FOR US. God bless these P.O.W"S,without them, just think where would we be today.

Jay
9:34 AM, 7/5/2009

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We will never forget what you men have done to keep our country free. I think many others need to hear the story to support you all till the end. Keep on meeting even if you need the help from friends,family or even your neighbors to get there so you can continue to bond and reach other to your brothers in arms. We thank you for your service and what you went though. God bless you and god bless america.

Jeff
12:58 AM, 7/5/2009

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