1953–54 Volume 78 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

3^4 THE SCROLL of Phi Delta Theta for March, 1954
PHIS IN THE SERVICE
LEFT: LT. WILLIAM S. GROVER, Comell '^i (left), checks set of plans for proposed Korean civil aid station submitted
by PFC R. L. Wagner (right). Grover has been in Korea since February, 195}. CENTER: DALY H. STANFORD, Auburn '52
(right), receives the silver bar of his new rank, first lieutenant, from Lt. Col. Henry W. Urrutia in Fulda, Germany.
RIGHT: LT. REX E. GERALD, Arizona '51, aims at a target during the recent rifle and pistol matches at Camp Fisher,
Japan, where he serves as an assistant labor supervisor at the Kokwra General Depot, Brother Fisher has also served
in Germany,
Purdue Air Ofl&cer Freed After
Three Years as Commie POW
CAPT. WALDRON BERRY, Purdue '46, a career Air
Force Officer, after three years in Communist prisons,
returned to a tremendous welcome from the citizenry
of his home town of Seymour, Ind., in September,
1953.
Wally's tale of war and imprisonment begins in
Korea with the outbreak of the Korean War. The
war brought a series of bombing runs, the one on
November 10, 1950, being his last.
Near the Yalu River that marks the boundary
between North Korea and Manchuria, Wally's B-26
was hit twice by anti-aircraft, setting fire to his left
engine and sealing the bomb bay doors. With a full
load of bombs—he had just started his run when
• the plane was hit—and one engine gone, the crew
of three had to bail out. Although fired at by
North Korean troops on the way down, none of the
trio was hit.
Wally and his gunner were captured less than an
hour later; the engineer was taken two or three days
later.
The pilot was taken to what he believed to be a
North Korean general's headquarters and interrogated
for several days on military matters. After
the questioning, the men were moved about from
one disorganized prison camp to another. It was
shortly after his capture that Wally was locked in
a shed in bitter cold weather long enough to get
his hands and feet frostbitten. Although warmly
dressed at the time of his capture, he was immediately
deprived of his fur-lined flying jacket and
boots, GI shoes—for which he was given a pair of
too-small thin Korean tennis shoes—and gloves, as
well as his jewelry.
Wally's closest call came a few weeks after he was
captured. The North Koreans had taken up the
interrogation again. They were getting nowhere
with their questions and were threatening to kill
the prisoners. Then, for some reason a North Korean
general, at the last minute ordered the guards not
to shoot their POWs.
Wally weighed about 155 >pounds when he was
captured. Not too long afterward he was down to
120. A two-week siege of diarrhea left him at a skinand-bones
90. He now weighs about 132.
Comrades died all around Wally. In that respect
and in that he remained in relatively good health
during his three years of captivity, he feels fortunate.
Wally was in North Korean Camp No. 2 when the
truce was signed. It was one of the last two camps
which freed prisoners for repatriation, and Wally
himself was repatriated on September 4 only two
days before the giant prisoner exchange was completed.
He was in the same repatriation group as
Major General William F. Dean, highest-ranking
Allied officer to be captured by the Reds during the
war.
Wally flew from Korea to Atterbury Air Force
Base, with a few one-day hospital stops sandwiched
itK He was met at Atterbury by his parents and was
officially welcomed back to Seymour.
As to his plans for the future; a'West Point
graduate and a career officer in the Air Force, he intends
to remain in the service.—From The Purdue
•Phi.
Lieutenant Wallace Heads
Fort Hood Newspaper
HOWARD P. WALLACE, Georgia '52, was recently promoted
to the rank of first lieutenant at Fort Hood,
Texas. Lieutenant Wallace is assigned to the Fort
Hood Public Information Office as officer-in-charge
of the Armored Sentinel, Fort Hood's weekly newspaper.
Wallace received his commission in Armor
through the R.O.T.C. program at the University
and has been stationed at Fort Hood since the
completion of the Associate Company Officers'
Course at Fort Knox, Ky., in December, 1952. At
Hood he has served with Reserve Command and as
S-2 of the looth Tank Battalion of the ist Armored
Division and the 4005th Area Service Unit.