thedrifter
02-22-06, 08:36 AM
Fallen prisoners of war also deserve Purple Hearts, families say; lawmakers tell them help is on the way
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 22, 2006
As a prisoner of war in North Korea, Wilbert “Shorty” Estabrook saw fellow soldiers and friends beaten to death, and watched others wither away from starvation and sickness.
He made a vow more than 50 years ago that he would never forget them.
“It's been my mission in life,” said Estabrook, a former Murrieta resident who now lives in San Antonio.
Part of his quest is to get each one of the soldiers a Purple Heart.
The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed services who are wounded in combat. It also is given posthumously to the families of those who were killed. However, prisoners of war who die in captivity aren't eligible.
That could change. Legislation introduced in Congress by Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to award Purple Hearts to the families of 17,000 fallen POWs going back to World War II is gaining support.
Yesterday, Filner and Boxer appeared with veterans groups at the Veterans Museum & Memorial Center in Balboa Park to promote the Honor Our Fallen Prisoners of War Act.
At the center of it all was Estabrook, who along with Rick and Brenda Tavares of Campo has been trying for three years to persuade lawmakers to take up their cause.
Like Estabrook, the Tavareses don't see any difference between a bullet wound on the battlefield and freezing to death in a POW camp.
Brenda Tavares' uncle, Army Cpl. Melvin Morgan, died in the same North Korean prison camp where Estabrook was held.
Morgan was captured near Chochiwon, South Korea, in July 1950 and put into a group of about 850 military and civilian prisoners transported in rail cars and then unloaded and forced to march 100 miles.
The staggering line of prisoners became known by those who survived as the Tiger Death March, after the brutal North Korean major the prisoners nicknamed “The Tiger.”
“They starved them. The only water they had to drink was out of polluted rice paddies. If they fell, they butchered them. They killed civilians, nuns, priests,” Rick Tavares said.
Morgan survived the march, beatings and stomach ailments, but he was wasting away with so little to eat.
On Dec. 6, 1950, Morgan died of starvation at the age of 20. His remains were never found.
“For years, Brenda told me he starved himself. He didn't want to be a prisoner. But when I met Shorty, he said, 'No, I knew him. He didn't starve himself. He was starved.' ”
Although Brenda Tavares was only 2 years old when Morgan joined the Army, she longs for her Uncle Melvin to be honored.
“It would be closure,” she said.
From a desktop computer in a mobile home just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, the Tavareses have run an exhaustive campaign. E-mails and letters have been sent to every member of Congress, as well as to the White House and all the veterans organizations they could find.
To persuade lawmakers concerned about the cost and time it would take, the Tavareses have a figure at the ready: at a manufacturing cost of $7.50 for each medal, it would take $127,500 to award the 17,000 POWs.
To keep costs down, they have even offered to help process requests for Purple Hearts.
The Purple Heart is the oldest military decoration in the world that is currently used and was the first to be awarded to the common soldier, says the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a national organization of Purple Heart recipients.
Gen. George Washington created the Purple Heart, first known as the Badge of Military Merit, in 1782. He awarded it to three soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
Washington wrote that “whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings, over his left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace or binding. Not only instances of unusual gallantry but also of extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way shall meet with due reward.”
Yesterday, Boxer quoted that passage. “Our law on the awarding of the Purple Heart simply does not meet that test that Gen. Washington laid out,” Boxer said.
Like other prisoners of war, Brenda Tavares' uncle was honored with medals for his service and sacrifice. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.
But the Purple Heart has a certain meaning, and a special history.
“The Purple Heart is unique. The only way you get it is from wounds received while in contact with the enemy,” said Hershel Gober, national legislative director for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, based in Springfield, Va.
There are about 500,000 living recipients of the Purple Heart, Gober said.
“And we're creating more every day.”
The issue of awarding the Purple Heart to POWs who die in captivity caused a stir at the organization's annual meeting in 2004. Some members wondered whether being held prisoner in some camps – such as in Europe during World War II – involved the kind of suffering that was deserving of a Purple Heart.
However, by the next meeting, the objectors had changed their minds, Gober said.
“The people who are in prisoner of war camps, they're beaten, they're starved and mistreated. And we felt they were deserving of the Purple Heart,” Gober said.
“The bottom line is if they died in captivity, we know they all suffered.”
Elizabeth Fitzsimons: (619) 542-4577; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
Ellie
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 22, 2006
As a prisoner of war in North Korea, Wilbert “Shorty” Estabrook saw fellow soldiers and friends beaten to death, and watched others wither away from starvation and sickness.
He made a vow more than 50 years ago that he would never forget them.
“It's been my mission in life,” said Estabrook, a former Murrieta resident who now lives in San Antonio.
Part of his quest is to get each one of the soldiers a Purple Heart.
The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed services who are wounded in combat. It also is given posthumously to the families of those who were killed. However, prisoners of war who die in captivity aren't eligible.
That could change. Legislation introduced in Congress by Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to award Purple Hearts to the families of 17,000 fallen POWs going back to World War II is gaining support.
Yesterday, Filner and Boxer appeared with veterans groups at the Veterans Museum & Memorial Center in Balboa Park to promote the Honor Our Fallen Prisoners of War Act.
At the center of it all was Estabrook, who along with Rick and Brenda Tavares of Campo has been trying for three years to persuade lawmakers to take up their cause.
Like Estabrook, the Tavareses don't see any difference between a bullet wound on the battlefield and freezing to death in a POW camp.
Brenda Tavares' uncle, Army Cpl. Melvin Morgan, died in the same North Korean prison camp where Estabrook was held.
Morgan was captured near Chochiwon, South Korea, in July 1950 and put into a group of about 850 military and civilian prisoners transported in rail cars and then unloaded and forced to march 100 miles.
The staggering line of prisoners became known by those who survived as the Tiger Death March, after the brutal North Korean major the prisoners nicknamed “The Tiger.”
“They starved them. The only water they had to drink was out of polluted rice paddies. If they fell, they butchered them. They killed civilians, nuns, priests,” Rick Tavares said.
Morgan survived the march, beatings and stomach ailments, but he was wasting away with so little to eat.
On Dec. 6, 1950, Morgan died of starvation at the age of 20. His remains were never found.
“For years, Brenda told me he starved himself. He didn't want to be a prisoner. But when I met Shorty, he said, 'No, I knew him. He didn't starve himself. He was starved.' ”
Although Brenda Tavares was only 2 years old when Morgan joined the Army, she longs for her Uncle Melvin to be honored.
“It would be closure,” she said.
From a desktop computer in a mobile home just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, the Tavareses have run an exhaustive campaign. E-mails and letters have been sent to every member of Congress, as well as to the White House and all the veterans organizations they could find.
To persuade lawmakers concerned about the cost and time it would take, the Tavareses have a figure at the ready: at a manufacturing cost of $7.50 for each medal, it would take $127,500 to award the 17,000 POWs.
To keep costs down, they have even offered to help process requests for Purple Hearts.
The Purple Heart is the oldest military decoration in the world that is currently used and was the first to be awarded to the common soldier, says the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a national organization of Purple Heart recipients.
Gen. George Washington created the Purple Heart, first known as the Badge of Military Merit, in 1782. He awarded it to three soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
Washington wrote that “whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings, over his left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace or binding. Not only instances of unusual gallantry but also of extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way shall meet with due reward.”
Yesterday, Boxer quoted that passage. “Our law on the awarding of the Purple Heart simply does not meet that test that Gen. Washington laid out,” Boxer said.
Like other prisoners of war, Brenda Tavares' uncle was honored with medals for his service and sacrifice. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.
But the Purple Heart has a certain meaning, and a special history.
“The Purple Heart is unique. The only way you get it is from wounds received while in contact with the enemy,” said Hershel Gober, national legislative director for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, based in Springfield, Va.
There are about 500,000 living recipients of the Purple Heart, Gober said.
“And we're creating more every day.”
The issue of awarding the Purple Heart to POWs who die in captivity caused a stir at the organization's annual meeting in 2004. Some members wondered whether being held prisoner in some camps – such as in Europe during World War II – involved the kind of suffering that was deserving of a Purple Heart.
However, by the next meeting, the objectors had changed their minds, Gober said.
“The people who are in prisoner of war camps, they're beaten, they're starved and mistreated. And we felt they were deserving of the Purple Heart,” Gober said.
“The bottom line is if they died in captivity, we know they all suffered.”
Elizabeth Fitzsimons: (619) 542-4577; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
Ellie