Korea – Service | Sacrifice
POW, 1952
Helicopter pilot and Chief Petty Officer Duane Thorin was held by the Communist Chinese as a prisoner of war in North Korea. Duane joined the Navy in 1939. He earned his pilot wings in 1943 as a flying CPO. He was proficient in every plane that the Navy flew in the Pacific Fleet during WWII. In 1949 he was designated Helicopter Pilot #216. He made more than 130 rescues in Korea. During one rescue attempt, he fell captive on 8 February 1952. He escaped from a POW camp in July, 1952, but was recaptured. Release in September, 1953, he was tasked by COMNAVAIRPAC to produce classified analysis of communist purposes and techniques in their treatment of POW’s and develop a training program for survival, escape and evasion, and resistance in event of capture. He also served on the committee that developed our fighting forces’ Code of Conduct, which includes in Article VI, “I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.”
In his novel, A Ride to Panmunjom, he describes the man of character who had learned to trust in the help of Almighty God. He writes, “Though Ghant made no active supplication, within this cradle of “sleep” there was a prayer. Again, as always, it was for courage, strength, and wisdom; but it was different than Ghant’s prayers of the past, for now he knew his God far better than before…But when the Spirit has come to dwell within, It is united once again with the soul, and prayer becomes an impulse, not through the mind of man but from the soul directly to its Divinity. The need itself is the prayer, and the presence of the Spirit the answer. Thus did Ghant, in his hour of need, come to know the unconquerable power of Faith in God.”
A Crack of Light – Service | Sacrifice
The Prayers of a Prisoner of War
Captain Eugene “Red” McDaniel spent six year as a POW in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. His book, Scars and Stripes, describes the weeks of torture, beatings, electric shock, broken bones, and despairing of life. Captain McDaniel writes such vivid accounts, there is no need for further commentary:
“During the long night hours, through the endless months of captivity, I learned to pray, drawing on the goodness of God as my strength to face each new crack of light that meant another day. Praying gave me sleep, as well, the only time when I was completely free of the tension of captivity.”
“I remembered back in Heartbreak Hotel in Hanoi in 1967, at the height of my three-day torture, hearing church bells coming from somewhere in downtown Hanoi. I remembered hearing them at the very height of my pain and darkness then. I remembered then how it seemed that God was saying something to me in those soft bells, that he was not far away from me, that there was no pain or darkness so great that He would be outside it. I remembered what that had meant then, the hope it had given me, the renewed will to hang on.
“I couldn’t come out of [eight days of] torture with oozing pus all over my body, and I was not “allowed” to die either; they were pushing me as far as they could without allowing me to succumb. This face-saving was maddening, but beyond that I knew God had to be in that too, and it gave me a new view of things—they weren’t out of control now, and whatever they were doing was subject as much to Him as their own sense of personal image…That Friday night I slept for the first time in a week. I was mistaken to think the interrogations were over or even the torture. But, as I slept, it was a sleep of assurance—God was not far outside this hell. If I had to go on with this nightmare, then I was sure He was with me. Nothing else mattered.”
Five Years to Freedom – Service | Sacrifice
Major James Rowe was a prisoner of war from 1963 to 1968 in South Vietnam. His story is recorded in the book, Five Years to Freedom, where he concludes no audience could comprehend the constant physical pressures; the filth, disease, hunger; the crushing mental pressure; the frustrations, anxieties, the fears, and the constant threat of death while living in the jungles of Vietnam as a prisoner of war.
As American helicopters drove their small Vietcong unit into the rice paddies, Major Rowe thought he would perish with his captors in the overwhelming assault of bombs and helicopter fire. “O Lord, please be with me now,” he prayed. “This is going to be nasty. Please get me through it.” He was sure death was imminent, writing, “The thought of making it through was little more than a wish at the moment, but with a request in to the good Lord, I felt my chances were better than anyone else’s in the group…I heard the sound, soft, ominous, high to the east, and my stomach knotted. I felt my spine tingle and it was as if my heart froze between beats. O dear Lord God, please be with me…They had missed us! They passed north of us and we were safe! O Lord, thank you! Thank you!” A few days later, Major Rowe was able to flag an American helicopter with his white mosquito net, and was rescued.
Major Rowe graduated from West Point in 1960, where “Divine Services” were attended by all cadets. He was a soldier, trained to pray as well as to fight. He refers to the anthems he sang at West Point, and his prayers for help and courage throughout his book are spontaneous in moments of peril. Are West Point Cadets still trained to uphold the fighting forces Code of Conduct? Article XI states, “I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.”
Survival Through Prayer – Service | Sacrifice
J. D. Lankford, a retired Army sergeant first class was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, and held prisoner until his unit was liberated by U.S. troops led by General George Patton. Speaking to a military group at Robins Air Force Base in George, he stated, “Prayer is the sole reason for my survival. It’s the power of prayer. Don’t tell me it doesn’t work. I’m here. It’s the strongest power you will ever have.” Lankford survived by eating bugs and worms, coming out of the POW camp weighing 93 pounds. “Freedom doesn’t come free,” he declared. “Ask God’s direction. Our nation is built on trust in God. So trust Him and go vote.”
From Their Souls – Service | Sacrifice
Brigadier General Robinson Risner, a senior ranking officer, was held and tortured for 7 1/2 years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, a North Vietnamese POW prison. Senior officers, as they were moved in and out of solitary confinement or singled out for torture, report that The Lord’s Prayer was spoken from the depths of the soul, to bring courage to the 47 men whose days in captivity totaled 108,116. In those dark and terrifying times, rotting away thousands of miles from home, Colonel Robinson Risner recounted in his book about their decision to conduct unit worship and prayer services in defiance of the communist North Vietnamese. He wrote,
“I could not have existed if I had not been able to pray. To be able to mention in prayer the names of my wife, children, friends or relatives, or one of my fellow POWs who I knew was being tortured or mistreated, brought us together. The thousands of miles, the walls of my cell, the guards, were all transcended by this dimension of communication.”
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