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Telling POWs' Story

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By JOYCE McKENZIE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 8, 2007

Updated: 09/06/2007 05:55 pm

TEMPLE TERRACE - As a youngster, William Paul Skelton III learned that his father had been captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. His experience as a prisoner of war, however, was a topic the family rarely discussed.

Instead, Skelton - a longtime history buff - read books about the physical torture, starvation and mental anguish POWs suffered, not only in that conflict but also during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

It wasn't until his dad learned that his children's college expenses would be free because of this POW status that his father began to open up about what he had lived through.

'They were real rough on him because they were convinced he was not an enlisted man, but an officer,' Skelton said. 'He said he lost 60 pounds in a month, and he got terrible frostbite. If you couldn't keep up, they'd shoot you, and he just never knew if he'd make it.'

Skelton also found out that his father, like many other ex-POWs, felt guilty because he thought he had failed his country by being captured.

'I think it was a different mind-set back then. You have to actually know the patriotism they had for God and country,' said Skelton, who surmised through his father's behavioral patterns signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

But it wasn't until Skelton graduated from the University of South Carolina College of Medicine, where he completed his residency and moved from his native state to Temple Terrace in 1986, that he began to realize the myriad of other health issues encountered by POWs during captivity.

The reality surfaced after he was hired as the youngest-ever full professor of medicine at the University of South Florida Medical School. It especially came to light when he was also appointed ex-POW physician coordinator at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, where he serves as their primary caregiver.

Skelton found that many of his patients experienced similar psychological and physical issues he believed were due to their treatment while being held captive. He also discovered early on that very little had been written in medical textbooks about the lingering health problems of ex-POWs.

He was, therefore, compelled to do his own research and compile data for what resulted in his 98-page study of ex-POWs, 'American Ex-Prisoners of War.' The awareness-raising project took him nearly two decades to complete.

Published by the Department of Veterans Affairs, a copy of the study is available in each of the 160 VA hospitals and hundreds of satellite clinics throughout the country.

'This had never been done before,' Skelton said. 'It became my life's passion, and I did it as a gift to the VA and as a tribute to my dad's service to his country.'

To accomplish his mission, he delved into history books about the wars and traveled across the nation to attend ex-POW conventions and speak with individuals about their personal experiences during captivity.

Skelton met one-on-one with ex-POWs such as U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a naval aviator when he was captured in 1967 by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, and Richard Kiern, who retired from the Air Force and was a POW in both WWII and Vietnam.

'Captivity in Germany was rough, but at least I was treated like a human being,' Kiern said. 'Captivity in North Vietnam was unreal, unbelievable, not of this world.'

Skelton also enlisted the thoughts of Temple Terrace resident and former soldier Don Britt, 83, a POW in Germany during WWII. During his 4 1/2 months in captivity, he spent much of his time standing man-to-man in overcrowded boxcars while being transported from camp to camp or marching for days on end up and down hillsides with no food or water. He described the snow-filled German countryside as utterly beautiful, but almost impossible to appreciate.

'It was like living with a cancer of horror in a garden of Eden,' said Britt, a patient of Skelton's who admitted it was close to 30 years following the war before he was able to discuss publicly what his life was like as a captive.

Skelton also gained knowledge about the residual effects from the trauma POWs faced under the watch of their Japanese capturers from patient and former Army Air Corps pilot Jaspar 'J.G.' Taylor of Keystone.

'The physical abuse they rendered was about as physical as you can get,' said Taylor, 86, who spent 3 1/2 years doing slave labor as a captive of the Japanese during WWII. 'We had one meal every three days, and in addition to despondency we suffered from lack of nutrition.'

In doing his research, Skelton learned that many of those he studied have ongoing medical problems that relate back to such issues as frostbite, poor nutrition and starvation they encountered as captives. Frostbite, he said, can result in perennial numbness of the extremities. In addition, beriberi, a condition caused by lack of thiamine in one's diet that often leads to chronic nerve, brain and heart problems, is among the conditions commonly seen among ex-POWs.

'This study module provides the opportunity to better understand what our captured soldiers experienced and the medical conditions related to the atrocities and sub-human treatment many of them received,' wrote former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi in the introduction of Skelton's book.

Skelton is pleased to be given the opportunity to document his findings, as well as with how well it has been received.

'It's been a wonderful and satisfying experience and a true passion of mine,' he said.

Reporter Joyce McKenzie can be reached at (813) 865-4849 or jmckenzie@tampatrib.com.

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