This hour features four Vermont soldiers captured at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. The program weaves together their stories of capture, internment, and the challenges of returning to civilian life.
Credits:
This program features Vermont veterans Cliff Austin, Harrison Burney, Bill Busier, and Robert Norton.
It has aired on public radio affiliates across the country and on NPR’s Hearing Voices and on SoundPrint
Produced in collaboration with Greg Sharrow of the Vermont Folklife Center.
Bill Busier, Bob Lizotte and I, all pow’s meet twice a month at the VA at Fort Ethen Allen, it is sort of a counseling session. Cliff Austin and several other pow’s who have now passed away were in the original group. I did not know the other two pow’s listed in the article. I was captured in January of 1944 in southern Italy and liberated in May 1945. Originally from Barton I now and have for some time live in Calais
We were “babies” at the time but felt respect and gave thanks to our military. It is a great moent to me and hoppefully our next generation will hear a bit of what our warriors fought for and will understand more fully the importance of freedom in indeendence for our country. This program seems to carry the torch of information for those who follow.
Very interesting and moving. It confirms what I have heard from veterans, including POWs, that war is mostly about physical discomfort, boredom, hunger, and disease. Interspersed, of course, with short periods of terror and seemingly random death.
The latter part of the piece is especially interesting in that it emphasizes the long term effects of the battle/POW experience. There was a huge gap of understanding between the veterans and those back home. There was a subset of a whole generation silently suffering from PTSD, and their families with them.