Saturday’s dedication of the community’s POW/MIA memorial was a chance to honor American troops who wound up in enemy hands.
A few days ago, we profiled World War II veteran Dale Bowlin, who lost a leg while he was a prisoner.
Some unexpected family aspects of the topic also popped up. One came from former Columbian reporter Judi Hunt, who wanted to compare notes on a story rooted in local history. In passing, Hunt mentioned that her father had been a POW. Carlee Gordon Hunt’s B-17 was shot down in May 1944 during a mission over Berlin, and the crew was captured.
“We knew he was in a POW camp. Mother started sending packages with candy bars, gum, cigarettes and socks. We were allowed to send one a week,” she said. “He got one package.”
Late in the war, when the POWs were marched deeper into German territory, Hunt and pilot Ralph Horne escaped. They were hiding in the woods when they came across a German soldier — who probably was as surprised as they were. Hunt killed him with his own bayonet.
Her father brought the bayonet home with him, said Hunt, who was Judi Modie back in her reporting days.
“He would sharpen it when he’d get into one of his moods,” she said. “He would sit and brood. We didn’t know about PTSD.
“My father was tormented by having to kill him in cold blood,” Judi Hunt said. “He said he joined the Air Corps because he didn’t want to see the faces of people he killed.”
Another out-of-the-blue glimpse of postwar life came from Dale Bowlin’s son. After the Wednesday story ran online, Beau Bowlin posted a comment: “I grew up thinking that all daddies had 1 leg while mommies had 2.”
In a telephone follow-up, Beau explained that he really did figure it out, but there were other impacts over the years. Real impacts.
When Dale came home from work, 4-year-old Beau would run to wrap himself around his dad’s leg. When he smacked into the wooden leg, Beau said, “It hurt.”
Later, “We played catch and I learned to throw a baseball pretty straight,” the 1969 Columbia River High School grad said.
If Dale had to lunge to catch an errant throw, Beau said, “He’d tumble over.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
