Prisoner Of War

Edwin S. Huson, a career member of the Maryland National Guard and a World War II prisoner of war, died Wednesday of interstitial fibrosis at the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 83 and lived in Kingsville. Born in Dallastown, Pa., he moved to Franklinville in Baltimore County as a teenager and attended Bel Air High School. Before entering the Army in 1942, he earned his General Educational Development certificate. As a member of the 8th Army Air Corps, 92nd Bomb Group, 327th Bomb Squadron, Mr. Huson was a technical sergeant stationed in England, where he served as a waist gunner on a B-17 bomber.

It's been seven years since retired Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale served -- like a fish out of water -- as Ross Perot's running mate in the 1992 presidential race.During a visit this week to his alma mater, the Naval Academy, the former test pilot and prisoner of war was more in his element, talking enthusiastically and poetically about how pain shaped his life.Stockdale spent three days lecturing to and having lunch with midshipmen who weren't even born when he was released from a North Vietnamese prison in 1973, after 7 1/2 years of torture.

Kazuo Sakamaki, 81, who was taken prisoner of war in his midget submarine by U.S. forces right before Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, has died in Tokyo, a veterans group said yesterday. Sakamaki, the first Japanese to be taken prisoner in World War II, died Nov. 29, but his death was not announced then at the request of his family.Gordon Teter, 56, president and chief executive officer of Wendy's International Inc., died Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.

George J. Wonneman Sr., 80, former prisoner of warGeorge J. Wonneman Sr., a Baltimore native who spent more than three years in a Japanese prison camp during World War II, died yesterday of complications from a heart attack at Cape Coral Hospital in Cape Coral, Fla. He was 80.Mr. Wonneman attended City College and worked for 39 years as a conductor for the Pennsylvania Railroad, a career interrupted by World War II.Serving as a corporal in the Army Corps of Engineers, Mr. Wonneman helped build airstrips in the Philippines.

Gerald "Dode" Bemrick Sr., retired supervisor of maintenance at Fort McHenry and World War II prisoner of war, died Sept. 15 of heart failure at Veterans Medical Center in Baltimore. The Brooklyn Park resident was 87.He worked at Fort McHenry for 40 years and retired in 1973.He served as a grenadier with the Army in Europe during World War II and was a prisoner of war near Munich. He was liberated by American forces and discharged in 1945.Born in Superior, Wis., he moved to Baltimore in 1920 and graduated from City College.

Adolf Galland, 83, one of Germany's most famous fighter pilots during World War II, died Friday at home in Germany after heart surgery.He is credited with shooting down 104 Allied planes during World War II.After his release from an American prisoner of war camp in 1947, he became an aviation consultant to Argentina and later to West Germany.Phil Regan, 89, the "singing cop" who left the New York City Police Department to star on Broadway and in Hollywood musicals, died Sunday in Santa Barbara, Calif.

William E. Chamberlain, an Essex attorney who became a prisoner of war in Germany at 17 after using his older brother's birth certificate to enlist in the Army Air Corps, died Sept. 23 of cancer at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 68 and lived in Parkville."When his father found out that he had enlisted, he went down there to try and get him out, and he begged him to let him stay in," said his wife, the former Marilyn Stover, who met her husband when they were attending Hamilton Junior High School and a teacher cast them as the lovers in a play.

The crowd cheered, the band played a patriotic tune, and passengers waved to those waiting below as the S.S. John W. Brown pulled into port in Baltimore yesterday, bringing home nearly 400 men who fought in World War II.Of course, it was 50 years after the war ended.But to many of those taking part, this re-enactment of a wartime homecoming was an emotional experience as real as the day they returned in 1945."It gives me goose bumps," said Doris Cornes, of Kingsville, as her husband Edward waved from the restored Liberty ship as a couple tugboats nudged it into dock near the Harborview condominiums off Key Highway.

HANOI, Vietnam -- As a former American prisoner of war looked on yesterday, a bulldozer began demolishing the walls of one of the world's most famous prisons, the "Hanoi Hilton," to make way for an office building and hotel."

The time has come to end the U.S. economic boycott of Vietnam, which was imposed on the Communist North in 1964 and the whole country upon the fall of the South in 1975.On the reason for keeping the embargo -- pressure on Hanoi to disclose facts on Americans missing in action during the Vietnam war -- the balance of argument has swung in favor of ending the embargo. On other issues, ending the boycott is clearly in the U.S. national interest.The Senate voted, 62-38, across party lines to urge President Clinton to end the boycott.

Milton O. Price Sr., a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. statistician who had been a prisoner of war during World War II, died of a heart attack Saturday at Perry Point Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He was 89. Mr. Price was born in Baltimore and raised on Garrett Avenue. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1937, he served for four years in the Naval Reserve before he began working at BGE. Drafted into the Army on April 23, 1941, Mr. Price was to have served one year of active duty.

Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale, a pilot who died in 2005 at age 81, is perhaps best known for his heroic turn as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Shot down while on a mission Sept. 9, 1965, he landed in a small coastal village, where he was beaten by a mob. He spent the next 7 1/2 years in the Hoa Lo Prison, where he was kept in solitary confinement for four years, tortured and denied medical care. Yet Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking naval officer at the prison, managed to organize a system of communication and help buoy the spirits of his fellow prisoners.

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - "624787." In his first national campaign ad for president, Sen. John McCain is shown reciting his rank and serial number as he lies in a Vietnamese hospital bed as a prisoner of war. The ad describes him as "a real hero." Let's be clear: Senator McCain is running for president as a war hero who plans to win the campaign based on character and honor. On the surface, it seems churlish to critique the idea of a war hero. And criticizing a tribute to courageous and self-sacrificing soldiers would be disrespectful.

BERTRAM JAMES, 92 Made "Great Escape" Bertram "Jimmy" James, one of the few British prisoners to avoid being executed for joining in the "great escape" from a German prison camp in World War II, died Jan. 18 at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in central England after a brief illness. Mr. James was a pilot on a Wellington bomber that was shot down near Rotterdam in the Netherlands on June 5, 1940. He was captured the next day. Attempting to escape, he once remarked, "was our contribution to the war effort."

Oliver Ames Lothrop Jr., a retired Westinghouse manager who wrote of his four-month confinement in a German World War II camp, died Sept. 4 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while vacationing on Nantucket. The Towson resident was 84. Born in Newton, Mass., he completed his freshman year at Williams College before enlisting in the Army. "I had no desire to become a commissioned officer. ... I wanted to survive without taking the responsibility for others," he wrote in 2004 in an account of his World War II experiences as an infantryman.

NEW YORK -- Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels including Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island. His death was reported by Morgan Entrekin, a longtime family friend, who said Mr. Vonnegut suffered brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago. Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction.

Edwin S. Huson, a career member of the Maryland National Guard and a World War II prisoner of war, died Wednesday of interstitial fibrosis at the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 83 and lived in Kingsville. Born in Dallastown, Pa., he moved to Franklinville in Baltimore County as a teenager and attended Bel Air High School. Before entering the Army in 1942, he earned his General Educational Development certificate. As a member of the 8th Army Air Corps, 92nd Bomb Group, 327th Bomb Squadron, Mr. Huson was a technical sergeant stationed in England, where he served as a waist gunner on a B-17 bomber.

Dr. Louis Haberer Tankin, a retired Baltimore urologist who wrote of his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II, died from complications of a stroke Thursday at Ruxton Health and Rehabilitation Center. The Pikesville resident was 92. Dr. Tankin was born in Baltimore and raised on Milton Avenue near Patterson Park. As the son of a surgeon, he was from an early age interested in a medical career. "He didn't want to be a doctor for money or status. He wanted to be a doctor because he loved and wanted to help people," said a son, Alan C. Tankin of Newburg, Mo. He was a 1932 graduate of City College and earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1936.

LEE GORDON, 84 Escaped Nazi prison Lee "Shorty" Gordon, believed to be the first American prisoner of war to escape from a German prison camp during World War II, died Tuesday at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Menlo Park, Calif., of complications from recent stomach and kidney surgery. Mr. Gordon had made two failed escape attempts from Stalag VIIA, including one on a bicycle while yelling the only German he knew, "Heil, Hitler." He succeeded Oct. 13, 1943, according to historian Robert C. Doyle.

Joseph Julius "Peppi" Simmeth, a retired Bel Air butcher who as a German World War II prisoner spent six years in Soviet captivity, died of cancer Saturday at his Bel Air home. He was 83. Born in Passau, Germany, he enlisted in the German army at 17 and fought on the Eastern Front. In a 2003 talk at John Carroll School in Bel Air, Mr. Simmeth recounted his wartime experiences, including the winter siege at Stalingrad, where the German army was defeated. Days before Stalingrad fell, he was sent to fight at Kursk, a battle that involved nearly 400 tanks.