Page 39 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Summer 2019- Online Magazine

dark, then headed for a railroad bridge, but as I was It was harder on our loved WWII
crossing a road, I almost jumped on an armed home ones back home. Porter was
guard. serving in the Pacific Theater;
I was in Europe. Mom prayed
I was taken to a little village and questioned by every day, and even after they got word that I was
German authorities. When I drew a picture of a tree missing in action, and later a POW, she always
to tell them where my parachute was, they burst believed that I would come home. The only injury I’d
out laughing. The next day I was taken to a German suffered was a head wound I received while “ice-
airfield; all of my crew except the navigator was skating” in my hob-nailed shoes. I fell and cut my
brought in. We never saw him again. From there, head open and received eight staples in my forehead.
we were taken back to Frankfurt on a train and were I didn’t apply for a Purple Heart.
locked in separate
rooms of a house. I My seven years in the service was a time that helped
was questioned by a me mature and become a man. I have always enjoyed
German officer, but all I my life and felt I was the luckiest guy in the world
could give him was my to be born in America. It was a joy and a privilege to
name, rank and serial serve my country.
number. Evidently,
their spy operation
was extensive because
he knew where I was After I became a prisoner of war, I
born, where I’d gone to
school and where I’d promised God that if He would let
been stationed. me get home, I would live for Him.
I never forgot that promise. I have
We were given a Red failed many times, but God still
Cross package which loves me.
contained clothes, hob-
nailed shoes and an
overcoat. From the house, we were taken to a prison
camp in Frankfurt, then loaded up and taken by train After completing Hubert’s military service,
to East Prussia. After a few months, the Russians in 1946, he decided to attend West Texas
began to move west, so we were crowded tightly into University in Canyon. Hubert was one of the
the hull of a ship, which carried us to a camp north few students’ who had a car. He and his buddy
of Berlin. We remained there until January 1945. As would pick up some of the girls at the dorms
the Russians got closer, our captors moved some of us
in boxcars to Barth on the Baltic. We arrived at Stalag in his 1938 Plymouth. Although it was old, at
Luft One, which was on an island. The Russians were least it had four wheels, and they could go to
getting closer. We had heard that when the Germans the show or just get off campus. LeNell Phillips
left the camp, they would come back and bomb was one of the girls who generally joined the
it. I found a half-gallon can, and, within about 30 group for a fun night out. In the summer of
minutes, a friend of mine and I dug a hole big enough 1947, LeNell and Hubert realized that they
for both of us to get into. were more than just friends. On December 24,
After the Russians liberated us, we were taken to 1947, they were married. In 1948, they both
Camp Lucky Strike in France for the debarkation of completed their degrees and had an additional
troops. I got a pass to London for a few days; then I surprise, when their first child, Linda, was
took a ship to New York City where we were taken born. After 72 years of marriage, they are still
to a camp and fed the biggest steak I’d ever seen. The blissfully in love. They say that their secret is a
next morning, I called Mother and Dad in Canyon strong Christian faith and the desire to weather
and told them I was back in the good ol’ USA. any storm that comes their way.

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