It might lack the stature of the Iwo Jima flag-raising monument or the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall’s grandeur, but a new exhibit in Mount Airy is providing a simple, yet solemn reminder of those who served.
Plans were announced in December by local Jesse B. Jones Post 123 of the American Legion for a project to publicly display the names of military personnel who have been prisoners of war or are missing in action.
A spot was designated in a high-visibility area, a wall outside the meeting hall at Veterans Memorial Park on West Lebanon Street, for small gold plaques to be mounted recognizing the special sacrifices of those in the POW/MIA group.
On Saturday, the first six names were placed on the “Remembering Surry County POWs and MIAs” wall as a small group of people watched. They included family members of one of those veterans, the late Harvey R. Heath, who was a prisoner of war in Germany.
A plaque bearing the name of Heath — who died on Feb. 6 at age 95 — was the first to go on the wall in a space underneath an image of the American flag unfurling. Its inscription states simply that he was a member of the U.S. Army during World War II.
Wartime adventure
Family members of Heath filled in the details surrounding that brief designation on Saturday.
Heath, who served from 1943-45, was captured by the Germans and held in a prisoner of war camp, or stalag, right outside Berlin.
Conditions were horrible, as one might expect, so the American soldiers were desperate to escape their captors.
Heath and a fellow POW finally got their chance one day while being moved to another stalag.
“They overpowered one of the guards and knocked him in the head,” recalled his widow, Barbara.
The two then had to hide behind enemy lines, taking refuge in the attic of a barn for two weeks. They survived on beets scrounged from a nearby garden.
Finally, Heath and the other escapee were rescued by a group of U.S. troops passing through the area. “He heard a Jeep, and knew it was American by the sound,” said Katie Tate of Mount Airy, a granddaughter of Heath’s.
The Surry County native returned from the war and went to work for Ford Motor Co., from which he retired.
Memories remained
However, things that happened during that conflict more than 75 years ago remained vivid for the ex-serviceman.
“Sometimes he would talk (about the war) and sometimes he wouldn’t,” his wife recalled, explaining that once Heath got wound up the stories flowed freely but he usually would become emotional when remembering certain details.
Heath spoke of ghastly sights such as bodies being stacked up like cordwood.
Toward the end of his life, it seemed as if he was in Germany once again, referring to events from that period in the here and now, his mind apparently regressing to that turbulent time. “When he got really sick, I guess he was going back to the war,” Barbara Heath said.
One particular scene he conveyed was seeing men with their faces blown off, she added.
The unique service rendered by Harvey Heath led to the selection of his name as first on the wall at Veterans Memorial Park, according to American Legion Commander Doug Joyner.
“I got to meet Harvey,” Joyner said, and heard his stories from the war. “It touched me.”
Barbara Heath and other family members present Saturday, including Tate and one of Harvey’s grandsons, Brian Pressnell of Dobson, who was there with his wife Laura, seemed pleased by having the World War II veteran’s name put on the wall.
“It’s really nice,” Mrs. Heath said of the gesture for her late husband.
“He never did want to be a center of attention or anything, but it’s going to be an honor to him.”
The five others whose names were mounted at the park Saturday include:
• Air Force Lt. Col. David B. Hatcher, who died last year. Hatcher was a longtime prisoner of war in North Vietnam after his plane was shot down.
• Orrin Gerald, a U.S. Army soldier who served during the Civil War and was imprisoned at Andersonville.
• George Edward Hege, a member of the Navy who is missing in action from World War II.
• Darrell Boone, an Army prisoner of war in World War II.
• Richard C. Dority, who is missing in action from the Vietnam War, where he served in the Army.
Others in works
First Vice Commander Jerry Estes of the local American Legion said several other plaques for service members in the POW/MIA category will be placed on the wall in the coming months.
The only requirement is that the honorees be from the Surry County area or otherwise have local ties.
Estes said the plaque service is being provided for free by the American Legion.
Persons wishing to nominate someone for the wall may contact Estes at 336-755-3518 or Joyner at 336-488-8774.
The spot of honor outside the meeting hall at Veterans Memorial Park might not be at the site of a famous battlefield or situated somewhere in the nation’s capital.
Yet that location will ensure it is seen by everyone attending Thursday night bingo games, parties or other special events there, who might stop to read the list of names and reflect on the service of the military members represented.
Still, those attending Saturday’s event expressed the hope that maybe there will come a day when such displays for soldiers, sailors or pilots aren’t needed in the first place.
“If there’s one (name), there’s too many,” Estes said.
“If more people knew what they went through,” Tate said of folks such as her grandfather, “there’d be less wars.”
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Source: https://www.mtairynews.com