Posted on 07/10/2004 5:05:12 PM PDT by SandRat
Al Felsen, left, who served most of World War II as a prisoner of war, talks on Friday about his experiences with George Timmons and Brig. Gen. Warner Sumpter. Sumpter presented Felsen with a Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal and the Philippines Defense Medal. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review)
FORT HUACHUCA - For more than three years in the 1940s, Al Felsen suffered under the brutality of Japanese guards in a number of camps after he was captured in the Philippines.
Felsen has been trying for years to receive a Purple Heart Medal for the wounds he received while a prisoner of war.
On Friday, the 84-year-old Sierra Vistan received the long-awaited medal given to military personnel wounded by the enemy. The medal was presented by Brig. Gen. Warner Sumpter, acting commander of the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca.
Sumpter said pinning on the Purple Heart Medal, along with a second Bronze Star Medal and the Philippine Defense Medal, was a highlight for him. He said people should never forget what those who fought in World War II endured and accomplished. "They actually saved democracy," the general said.
The brutality of Japanese guards remains clear in Felsen's minds.
"I had my nose broken three times," he said.
When he spoke to the newspaper about his war experience in 2001, Felsen related seeing prisoners beheaded and bayoneted to death.
The Japanese knew they had to have slave labor for their war efforts. Even though beatings were commonplace, they usually stopped short of killing a prisoner, he said.
After spending some time in Filipino camps, he and other American prisoners were transferred to different Japanese-controlled areas, including Korea and Japan, Felsen said.
When the war ended, he was in the process of being moved to his ninth work camp in Japan.
During his imprisonment, in which he received beatings from guards using two-by-fours, Felsen learned Japanese. It was the beatings that led him and other POWs of the Axis forces to seek the Purple Heart Medal.
In his 2001 interview with the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review, he said he still hoped to receive the medal, but was not sure it would happen, because his captors kept no medal records about the treatment he received after being beaten.
George Timmons, of Chapter 572 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, said former POWs were automatically denied the medal up to 1996.
It was finally recognized there would never be medical records documenting a prisoner's beating and subsequent treatment.
In Felsen's case, a letter written by a man who served in a prison camp with him certified Felsen had been beaten.
A long process then occurred, that culminated Friday with the official presentation of the three medals. The Philippine Defense Medal was awarded by the president of that country.
Felsen was a member of the Army Air Force when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 8, 1941, Filipino time. He became an infantryman until his capture.
His first Bronze Star Medal was awarded after the war, because he was part of an organization given a Presidential Unit Citation. The second Bronze Star Medal was for his steadfastness as a prisoner of war.
Watching him receive, as Sumpter said, "the long overdue recognition," were his wife, some of his children and grandchildren.
Sumpter said that looking back at what Felsen did in his military career - enlisting in the military years before World War II began and remaining in the service when he could have gotten out before the war began - means only one thing: "He's a patriot."
Recognition finally comes for an old vet.
That's awesome.
Earned Purple Heart bump
Bravo Zulu bump
A real hero honored. God bless America.
The death march was horrendous, Cabanatuan a grave for most,
I think in reading about it, the "Hell Ships",their transport to China and japan had to be the worst.
And of course being unmarked so many were sunk by US subs.
Sgt. Forrest Knox, "The screaming and running got worse.
the colonel topside hollered down,"they are going to do it
they are going to cover the hatch with canvas."
With the temperature we were in, if they'd closed off that little air we got, I don't know how many of us would have been alive by morning. I had picked up the habit of wearing a small sweat towel around my forehead like the off-duty japs did. You could knock a guy senseless with a full canteen swung by the chain. Our canteens were empty.
The next guy that went by screaming they caught and killed. I can remember the first guy's name and he wasn't even a soldier.
He was a civilian, one of those that was working for the Navy at Cavite when the war began.
He was strangled with my little towel...."
Just finished Donald Knox's "Death March" the survivors of
Bataan.
Where was the Abu Grabe critics back then? War is hell. The American public has been brainwashed to think that we can fight a sanitized war. Sure, we can fight a 'better' war with less colateral damage, but war is war, and the best way to win a war is let the military have at it and get out of the way.
A real hero honored. God, bless Al Felsen.
He's earned the right to wear em in any fashion he so desires. Damn......what most troops endured for freedom may never be known to most. Really proud of a nation the gives it's old Soldiers , Sailors , Airmen and Marines a moment of recognition for their sacrifice.
Thanks for posting this Sand Rat.........Stay Safe !
Bump!
Wonderful
Have you read "Ghost Soldiers," by Hampton Sides. It's a great retelling of the Army Ranger raid to liberate the Cabanatuan POW Camp in early 1945. I still find it amazing that those POWs were able to walk more than 20 miles to freedom--through Japanese-held territory--after being liberated by the Rangers. One of the great stories of WWII that was largely forgotten until Mr. Sides wrote his book...
I know what he did! He or someone looked at photo --- hence
the mirror image. Did that one time on my first inspection.
Looked across the bay at another soldier's locker, set mine locker up accordingly. Result: 20 laps with M-1 at Port Arms around the Company Area!
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.