NOT FORGOTTEN: POW/MIA DAY CEREMONY AT MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE Published Oct. 7, 2008 By Will Alexander 452nd Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. -- March ARB held its annual POW/MIA Memorial Ceremony, Sept. 19, in the Cultural Resources Center. After the colors were posted and 4 AF Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Steven O'Brien gave the invocation, five members of the March Field Honor Guard performed a moving POW/MIA (Missing Men Table) Ceremony, designed to remember the missing and to symbolize their presence "in spirit." Honor Guard members marched at a ceremonial pace down the center aisle toward a table with five empty chairs beneath the stage. Each member carried a cover representing the "brothers and sisters" from each of the five services who never made it back home from the wars. The table, covered with a white cloth, was set with five plates, five glasses, a ribbon wrapped bud vase with three roses (red, white and yellow), a candle, and a bread plate containing a slice of lemon beside a pinch of salt. As Samuel Barber's pensive "Adagio for Strings" played over the sound system, Honor Guard members gathered around the table, placed the covers on the plates, and lit the candle. "May we be worthy of the sacrifices of the men and women of the armed services," said guest speaker Michael Goldware, a local attorney who is heavily active in veterans affairs. He briefly told the stories of three Vietnam POWs - Capt. Lance Sijan, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Christian and Seaman Apprentice Doug Hegdahl - who he said typified "magnitudes of courage" and "an indomitable spirit" that can't be taught. THREE CAPTIVES Air Force fighter pilot Capt. Sijan's F-4C crashed in a ball of fire over Vietnam in 1967 after a malfunction caused the plane's ordnance to detonate prematurely. With no survival kit, no food, little water, a fractured skull, a mangled hand and fractured leg, he evaded capture for 46 days by crawling down a rocky limestone karst on his back. He was captured on Christmas Day. "It didn't take his captors long to figure out that without too much effort on their part - it was either prodding or poking or twisting or turning his arms and legs - that they could send shards of excruciating pain through every fiber of his being," said Goldware. "His cries of pain and anguish and torment could be heard throughout the camp. His fellow prisoners knew they could do nothing to help him ... but he knew he could do something for them. In all these torture sessions, Capt. Sijan could repeatedly be heard threatening his captors." After several escape attempts, Capt. Sijan was held in Vihn, Vietnam, moved to Hanoi, and died in captivity in January 1968 after suffering from disease, exhaustion, and malnutrition. But he never gave up information to his captors. "You cannot teach courage of that magnitude," said Goldware. He also spoke of Lt. Cmdr. Mike Christian, captive with Senator John McCain, who was severely beaten after his captors discovered he had used a bamboo needle to sew an American flag on the inside of his shirt that he and fellow prisoners used to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at meals. After the torture, his cell mates cleaned him up as best they could. Later, with both eyes nearly closed from the severe beatings, they saw him with that bamboo needle, sewing another flag, straining to see his project in the dimly lit cell. Goldware ended his speech with a story about Seaman Apprentice Douglas Hegdahl who, with the help of Air Force prisoner Joe Crecca, memorized the names, capture dates and method of capture of all 256 fellow prisoners to the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm." "He virtually assured the safe return of every one of those POWs," said Goldware. 'WARS ARE TERRIBLE' But the guest speaker didn't need to describe what it was like to be a POW to everyone in his audience. A few had their own stories to tell. Dwight Lambert, William Nipper, and Edgar McDonald were among the former POWs who attended the March ARB ceremony. All served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, flew on B-17 bombers, were either shot down or crashed in hostile territory at different times during the war, and were captured by enemy forces. "If war ever came again and I got shot down, I'd crawl home on my hands and knees before I'd allow myself to be captured again," said Lambert, 87, who was on a mission as a radar navigator before being shot down over Germany, Feb. 4, 1944. "If war ever came again and I got shot down, I'd crawl home on my hands and knees before I'd allow myself to be captured again." DWIGHT LAMBERT "I wouldn't give you the experience for a million dollars, but I wouldn't do it again for $10 million." Lambert, who was 23 at the time, was one of 8,000 American prisoners being held at the Stalag Luft I prison camp in Barth, Germany, a small town on the Baltic Sea. He was housed in the North 1 compound of the camp in an old wooden barracks with twelve 15 by 20 rooms (six per side), where guards crammed in 16 prisoners to a room. The prisoners' personal space was in one of eight double-decker beds. "To be quite honest with you, we suffered from three things more than anything else," said Lambert. "We were cold, we were hungry, and we were bored ... bored stiff! I guess you can say our main function was to figure out a way to escape." After 15 months of captivity, he never did escape, but as it turned out, he didn't have to. On April 30, 1945, the prisoners woke up to find that their guards had fled the compound after hearing that the Russians were about to overrun their position. "They didn't want to get captured by the Russians, if they could help it," said Lambert. "They figured that they'd all end up in a salt mine and never to be heard from again if the Russians captured them. They wanted to get captured by Americans." The Russians poured into the compound about 10 days later and liberated the prisoners. "There were about 550 prisoners who disobeyed the rules by senior officers to stay in the compound," he said. "They hitchhiked, stole bicycles, rode cows, horses - anything they could ride on. They headed to Paris and beat us there." Lambert talked about what remembering POWs and the missing in action means to someone who's been through it. "It's important to remember because wars are terrible things," he said, choking up nearly to tears, as if scenes played in his head that he didn't care to talk about. "And you have to remember the sacrifices made by so many, many people. They say that if you don't learn about what went wrong, you'll do it again. Maybe there'll be a better realization of what's at stake. Nations have to learn how to get along better ..." Like Lambert, the B-17 that tail gunner William Nipper served on in an aborted bombing over Italy, was shot down by enemy fire in 1944. It was his fifth mission of the war. When the anti-aircraft guns ignited incendiary bombs onboard his plane, blowing it apart, Nipper deployed his parachute and landed in a tree in Yugoslavia. To him, the fact that he even had the parachute on was a small miracle. "I couldn't fly with my parachute on because the guns were in place and too close to me," said Nipper, 83. "So I always laid it down beside me in the plane. Just 10 seconds before we got hit by anti-aircraft guns, something told me to grab down and snap my parachute on. So I leaned back just enough to get the parachute on. If I had not done that, I would have fell out and died - killed!" The "lucky" 19-year-old was immediately captured by commandos, eventually taken to Stalag Luft IV, was moved to Stalag Luft I, and was liberated in 1945 when the Russians overran the camp after he endured eight months of captivity. "When you say POW, it doesn't mean anything to a lot of people," said Nipper. "But the harshness that we went through in that eight months of captivity is something probably that a lot of people wouldn't be able to go through. I think it's (POW/MIA Day) a well set off day to honor people who served as POWs and to honor those who are still missing." Edgar MacDonald, 86, agreed, but added that the stories should be passed on. "I think it's important that the younger generations hear about all these things," said McDonald. "I think they should be recorded. You talk to some of these young people and they don't even know World War II existed. They can't imagine what happened to individuals - each individual has their own story." MacDonald's story began on Aug. 19, 1943 after the B-17 he served on was shot down over Italy. It was his 36th mission of the war as an 18-year-old waist gunner. "We lost almost all of the planes in our squadron that day," he said. "It was a very rough mission. We bailed out, landed in our parachutes and the civilians tried to kill us. There was another waist gunner; he had his leg shot off but he got out of the plane somehow and died in the hospital." MacDonald was taken to that same hospital, but unlike the others, he spent all 37 days of his captivity there. His injuries were too severe to be taken to a POW camp. "When Italy surrendered, they abandoned me in the hospital," he said. "They left, and the Germans knew I was there, and they tried to come and get me because they were retreating real fast. The doctor at the hospital hid me because he knew the Germans would come and take me. He disguised me as an Italian - blond hair, blue eyes - it was hard to do. The Germans came in the room where he hid me but they didn't recognize me and they left." The U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division captured the town on Sept. 27, 1943, and he was evacuated to American lines. "Lately, I think people are getting more interested in what happened in all of the wars," said MacDonald. "I think it's getting more popular because people are more interested in it." March ARB used its ceremony to remember POWs and MIAs. Before Staff Sgt. Hilda Agyemang placed a symbolic wreath on the stage during the ceremony, and a detail from the Honor Guard conducted a firing salute, Senior Master Sgt. Theresa Higgins, 452 ASTS, read a poem "In Memories' Loving Arms." She read in part: "Like seasons and the changing wind, The wars have come and gone, Soldiers die in freedom's name, Their sacrifice is done. "But for the ones who stay and fight, Even though their war is through, Their names are not forgotten, Because of me and you. "And when the bugle blows the call, The sound that saddens hearts, Remember those that are away, In memories' loving arms." TABLE CEREMONY SYMBOLISM 5 HONOR GUARDS represent the five branches of the service. WHITE TABLE CLOTH symbolizes the purity of their intentions to respond to their country's call to arms. 3 FLOWERS: The red for those who gave their lives; the white for those who returned and are with us; and the yellow for those who are missing and, we pray, they return soon. RIBBON ON THE VASE reminds us of the yellow ribbon worn on the lapels and on the breasts of thousands who bear witness to their unyielding determination to demand proper account of our missing. SLICE OF LEMON is on the bread plate to remind us of the bitter fate of those not with us. SALT UPON THE PLATE symbolizes the tears from families and loved ones who continue to keep the faith as they wait.