As he placed the small American flag into a styrofoam memorial disk, Bedford resident Herman “Herk” Streitburger said, “This is in remembrance of my crew in the B24 Libertator bomber.”
The 96-year-old World War II veteran and former prisoner of war was one of three to attend the National Former POW Recognition Day ceremony at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen on Saturday morning. The brief ceremony included remarks from Gov. Maggie Hassan and other speakers, a rendition of “God Bless America,” and placing flags in a remembrance wreath.
“I will say loudly that this flag is for all the wives of the POWs who have passed away,” said Irene Wells, wife to former POW Wesley Wells of Hillsboro – who wasn’t able to make the ceremony – as she inserted her flag.
Few former POWs remain from World War II, and Department of New Hampshire VFW Commander Lew Chipola acknowledged this in his speech.
“As I look over the former POWs sitting here, their numbers continue to decline. Sad to say, we are losing these former service members as time goes on,” Chipola said. “As they have been held in prison camps . . . many times they were ill-fed, ill-clothed, tortured and even murdered. They received limited medical care, sometimes none at all. They endured, and they came home.”
He added, “We must never forget.”
Streitburger is one of those POWs. Born in Philadelphia, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps at 21 and became a radio operator and gunman, stationed in Italy. In 1943, he and 10 other men were flying a B-24 Liberator bomber plane on a mission to Vienna, Austria, when anti-aircraft guns took out two of the plane’s engines.
“We couldn’t keep up with our formation,” Streitburger said in an interview following a luncheon at the Concord VFW Post on Saturday. The plane was shot down, and two men were killed. The other nine were immediately captured by Nazis.
“I wound up in this prison camp in northern Germany,” he said. “It wasn’t pleasant. But since we were all sergeants or better, we didn’t have to work, according to the Geneva Convention.”
Instead, Streitburger said he and the men spent their time reading books and using equipment sent by the Red Cross and the YMCA.
After a year, he and two other men escaped and hid in the woods for six days before meeting up with British soldiers, who returned them to the American forces sometime in June 1944.
“We came home,” Streitburger said, adding that other POWs in his crew eventually returned, too.
He went to work in New York marketing beer, married his wife, Jacqueline, had four children, and moved to Holderness in 1967.
“After the war, we always held a reunion,” he said. “Today I’m the only survivor of that crew.” He said maybe 10 former POWs from WWII were left in New Hampshire.
Streitburger said it’s difficult to be the last one living in his crew and to miss what they all had together. “The camaraderie that existed among us
. . . it made you feel so proud to be an American,” he said.
There are positive aspects to Streitburger’s experience as a former POW, such as Saturday’s ceremony and priority medical care reserved at Veterans Affairs hospitals.
“The service I get at the VA is outstanding, despite all the negative attention,” said Streitburger, who goes to the VA Medical Center in Manchester.
Danielle Ocker, the VAMC director, said Saturday that she is always in awe of the attitude she sees in so many like Streitburger.
“I realize that so many of you sacrificed so much in captivity. But I am so in awe of the spirit you share with us every day,” she said during the ceremony. “You are not bitter.”
Streitburger said he has much to be grateful for.
“My life is fulfilled,” he said. “I have my family around me. The fact that I’m the ripe old age of 96. I’m a survivor.”
While Saturday’s ceremony was for acknowledging former POWs who came home, it was also to remind Americans of all the men and women still missing in action.
Keynote speaker Paul Lloyd, a national council member of the Department of NH VFW, said to the three former POWs sitting in front of him, “There is no doubt your struggles and hardship have helped lead America to a stronger and brighter future.”
“We also salute the families of the missing and continue to keep the candle of hope alive,” he added. “Some 83,000 Americans have yet to return home from their wars.”
“The POW flag honors them and reminds Americans to keep them in their thoughts and prayers,” Lloyd said. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is continuing its mission to find all those still missing, too.
Department of NH VFW Chaplain Mary Jane Ryan gave the benediction to close Saturday’s event.
“Let them come home soon,” she said.
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@elodie_reed.)