Two former POWs recall their struggles and triumphs from two different wars
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
World War II veteran Walter Ram holds a twisted, rusty piece of barbed wire used to imprison him inside Stalag 17B, a POW camp in Austria. Ram, a Nogales, Ariz., native, first enlisted in the US Army at 16, before the war lying about his age. He was a radio operator and gunner who became a prisoner from 1943-1945 after being shot down during a B-17 mission over Germany. Friday, Sept. 21, is National POW/MIA Recognition Day.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
World War II veteran Walter Ram, a radio operator and gunner on a B-17, was shot down on his sixth mission while over Kiel, Germany, stands near a painting at his Tucson home. He had severe burns on his face. It was bandaged with an opening for one eye and barely an opening for his mouth. Upon his return after captivity he had to overcome anger issues that plagued him for years.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
Walter Ram poses for a photo while in gunnery school in Harlingen, Tex., in Sept., 1942. On his sixth B-17 mission on June13, 1943, he was shot down over Kiel, Germany and became a POW.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
The first Helno-Gal, a B-17F, rests in a field after it crash landed on its third combat mission in England on May 21,1943 during World War II. Luckily, the crew survived the landing. But most of the crew, flying in the second Helno-Gal, were killed when they were shot down on their sixth mission the following month. Only Ram and a couple of crew members survived.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
A POW license plate and bracket are on display on Walter Ram's car that indicates his imprisonment at Stalag 17B, a POW camp in Austria while at his home. Ram, a radio operator and gunner, was a prisoner from 1943-1945 after being shot down during a B-17 mission over Germany.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
Korean War veteran Raymond "Doc" Frazier holds the Red Cross bag given to him upon his release as a POW in 1953. As soon as he could he removed the uniform his captors gave him and stripped naked. Then, he used the towel that was inside the bag to wrap around his waist as he walked to freedom. Frazier was a medic when his company was overwhelmed by Chinese troops in May, 1951.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
Veteran Raymond "Doc" Frazier stands in front of his portrait at his home. Frazier was just 16 when he enlisted and became a medic. Once, he saved the life of a fellow POW by amputating his gangrenous toes using the sharpened edge of his dog tags. Frazier remained in the Army after his release and retired after 22 years as a First Sergeant.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
A toothbrush and razor are all that is left of the items Raymond "Doc" Frazier received from the Red Cross upon his release as a POW. Also inside the bag was a towel he used to wrap around him after discarding the Chinese uniform he was issued as he walked naked to freedom.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
Korean War veteran Raymond "Doc" Frazier sits inside a replica of "the box" at a 1987 POW reunion. During the war he spent seven months in a similar box that measured 60 inches long, 24 inches wide and 30 inches high for punishment. Frazier managed to escape six times and once stole a Russian uniform to evade capture. It worked, until he ran into a real Russian soldier.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day
In 1949 Raymond "Doc" Frazier was training to be a medic while stationed in Guam. When the Korean War started he became attached to a weapons company. Out of food and ammunition, his company was overwhelmed by Communist troops in May, 1951. He was one of seven who survived but he was then forced to march 1,400 miles to a prison camp.
Walter Ram and Raymond “Doc” Frazier are united by a common struggle to survive in brutal conditions that shaped the men who made it home.