Far more POW claimants than actual POWs [Archive] - Marine Corps

thedrifter

04-13-09, 06:47 AM

Wounded vet’s POW status in limbo
By Allen G. Breed - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Apr 12, 2009 12:00:00 EDT

While there are frauds among people honored as former prisoners of war, Andrew J. York might just be the opposite — a veteran whose genuine POW status has been stuck in limbo.

On July 23, 1967, then-19-year-old PFC York and other members of 3d Platoon, Co. C, 3d Battalion, 8th Infantry were on a reconnaissance patrol when they were attacked by a large enemy force. According to records, York, a machine gunner from Maine, kept the North Vietnamese at bay with “deadly bursts of accurate fire” until a mortar round exploded near him, destroying his weapon.

As the enemy overran York’s position, two men tied his hands to his belt, shot the already wounded man in both ankles, and began dragging him away, according to an official report and York’s own recollections of the incident.

“When an artillery barrage drove the enemy to cover, he chewed off the ropes that bound him and crawled to his wounded comrades in an effort to aid them,” the report says. “Completely disregarding the intense pain of his own severe wounds, he made his way to the friendly perimeter to summon help. When he reached the company Command Post, his first act was to request aid for his wounded comrades.”

For his actions that day, York was awarded the Army Commendation Medal with a “V” device for valor.

York, who eventually lost his left leg below the knee, got a VA medical card stamped “POW,” and the state of Maine issued him POW license plates.

But York’s name does not appear on the Department of Defense list of officially recognized POWs — and when the watchdog group P.O.W. Network pointed that out, the VA removed “POW” from his card.

“It was there and then it wasn’t,” York, 60, told The Associated Press recently.

Maine Gov. John Baldacci intervened, and York says he got the card back last year. The men who served with him say no one who was there that day would question York’s worthiness.

“I’d give him the Medal of Honor,” says Bernie Frolik of Clearwater, Minn., who received the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in that same action. “I went through nothing compared to what he went through.”

Platoon-mate Del Shores of Urbandale, Iowa, didn’t actually see York being dragged away. But he saw him later, all bandaged up in a hospital bed, and has no reason to doubt York’s account.

“Some of these guys were actually drug off and executed,” says Shores, who was knocked unconscious and left for dead.

York acknowledges that his captivity was brief. Still, under federal law, being held by the enemy confers POW status, regardless of the length of time.

In correspondence confirming that York was not on the official list, a DoD official indicated the veteran had not sought POW status.

York says he thought VA had taken his case to DoD but that he now plans to do so himself.

Ellie