Evening star., 1953-05-02
Bitter Cold Saved D. C.. Man
Held as POW for 2Q Months


December until March,
Every morning at dawn, a
Korean would bring a basket of
millet and cracked corn to the
house. Late at night, another
basket would be brought. The
men Of the group were helpless,
terribly wounded. One by one
they died. All except Corpl.
Waters. AS weeks passed, other
wounded were brought in. A
total of "a men died. OF all the
men brought to the house only
Corpl. Waters and one other
survived.
"You could tell when a man
was going," Corpl. Waters said.
"You could tell by his breathing.
It was the tipoff. You'd hear
the breathing and know what
was coming by the sound of it
and you'd lie there in the night,
waiting for the breathing to
stop.
Many Died at Night.
Most of the dying was at
night. The young men, espe-
cially, died at night. The older
fellows would work on them dur
ing the day, trying to buck them
up, but at night the young men
would think about the bad pain
and no sign Of medical treatment
and no sign of ever living on to
get back home. So they died at
night, because they didn't have
any hope.
Il remember one odd case of
a soldier dying. He had a bad
wound in the upper arm-one
that bled every day. and every
night. When it bled, some one
would put a tourniquet on it
until the bleeding stopped. When
the wound bled at night, it would
wake the soldier and he would
get the tourniquet fixed. One
night, he had crawled over to
the fire in the room. He went
to sleep, sitting up by the fire.
At daybreak next morning we
tried to wake him and couldn't
because he was dead.
During the night, the wound
had started bleeding, but this
time he didn't wake up"
almost none of us could move
around The latrine was a
Shovel-handed from man to
man." One reason were the ter
rible cases Of frostbite and re-
sulting gangrene.
ION some fellows with frozen
feet" he shuddered, "the flesh
was eaten off clear back to their
ankles"
Wounded for Fifth Time.
On March 4, Corpl. Waters
received his fifth wound.
"The village we were in was a
troop concentration point and
Allied planes hit it occasionally.
There was no sign to show them
we were in the houSe-nothing
to warn them away. We asked
the Koreans to put up a red cross
on the top of the house. They
didn't do it. On March 4 (195D
we heard the hum of planes and
began praying when we heard it.
Only one Of us was able to go
outside. The planes machine
gunned. Fifty caliber bullets
came through the mud walls and
roof of the house. One hit me
but 1t was a flesh wound. A
colored fellow next to me got it
in both legs. He died"
Later in March Corpl. Waters
was taken to the Communist
prison camp at Pyoktong in far
North Korea, near the Yalu
River. Most Of the journey was
by OK cart. The trip took %
days. Between May and August,
1851, he said, between TOO and
300 United Nations troops, most
ly Americans. died at Pyoktong
from lack of medical care and
malnutrition."
In August, Corpl. Waters was
classed by the Chinese as "a
reactionary." He didn't take
kindly to Red propaganda. He
was taken to Camp 3, "a re-
dictionary camp" and later to
Camp 4, both on the Yalu, and
in both camps he was assigned to
hard labor from dawn to dark.