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Ex-POWs share
honors, kinship
at Punchbowl
The 50th anniversary of the
By Leila Fujimori
'forgotten' Korean War was
also observed
Star-BulletinHalf a century ago, Tom Kappel and his army buddy Virgil Steele were captured by Chinese soldiers and spent nearly three years in a North Korean prison camp.
"They starved us and I lost 100 pounds in the first 45 days," Kappel said. His captors also hit him in the head with rifle butts, leaving him permanently disabled.
The two gathered with fellow former prisoners of war from the mainland and Hawaii yesterday at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl to be honored for their valor. Kappel said such ceremonies "always hit the heart."
The annual American Former Prisoners of War Recognition Day included a 21-gun salute and a missing man flyover. The event also marked the 50th anniversary of the Korean War, often called the "Forgotten War."
Addressing the ex-POWs, Brig. General R.E. Parker Jr. said, "When you survivors meet with others who survived such captivity, even if you served in completely different wars, separated by time, distance and circumstances, you share a kinship unique among the world's population."
POWs are "owed a tremendous debt of gratitude and honor" and what their sacrifices accomplished must be remembered, said Parker, commanding general of Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
About 35 former POWs actively participate in the Hawaii Chapter of American Ex-Prisoners of War, said Al Frumkin, commander of the group sponsoring the event.
Veterans are dying off, World War II veterans at a rate of a 1,000 a day, Parker said. But some former POW World War II veterans told their stories at Punchbowl.
World War II veteran James Miller, 77, recalled the day he was captured on German soil. He was flying out of England with the 379th Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force when his plane met 75 fighter planes head on.
"We bailed out and I was captured by a German farmer with a rifle," Miller said.
He only gave the Germans his name, rank and serial number, and his captors quit questioning him. He endured starvation and an 80-day march near the Baltic Sea in what he said was "the coldest winter in 40 years in Europe."
But many, like Hawaii resident Paul Phillips, a former Marine caught by the Chinese in Korea in 1950, were reluctant to share details of their capture.
"We really don't talk about the bad features," Frumkin said. "We don't belong to the 'Can You Top This Club.' We all starved exactly the same way."
