To Lay Down One’s Life: Gratitude for an American POW Veteran

Last updated on: November 11, 2023 at 2:12 pm by Christine Schmertz Navarro

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To Lay Down One’s Life: Gratitude for an American POW Veteran 2023-11-11T14:12:44-08:00 Christine Schmertz Navarro

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This Veterans’ Day, I feel grateful for a particular veteran of a North Korean POW camp. This soldier endured captivity primarily to ease the minds of a fellow soldier’s family. This story gives me another way of understanding what it means “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn. 15:13, NRSVCE)

The Korean War

Like many Americans, I know little about the Korean War. It is sometimes called the “forgotten war” because World War II and Vietnam receive so much more attention. People tend to overlook his shorter war (1950-1953) in between the longer conflicts. (I recall that my history classes rarely made it to the twentieth century, so I did not learn much about four wars before 1990.)

I did an online search about the conflict in Korea and came across a very informative website assembled by the Korean War Legacy Foundation. The aim of the Korean War, as I understand it, was to push North Koreans back into their territory and protect South Koreans and their democratic government. The United Nations-led forces came from 22 countries.

North Korean forces took captured soldiers to camps in North Korea and China. Prisoners from the pro-South Korean army often walked many miles with injuries and without food. Many died from the below-freezing conditions or on forced marches. Those who were too sick to march were, at times, shot. In the POW camps, North Korean soldiers beat their enemy prisoners regularly and arbitrarily. Prisoners drank contaminated water which led to death from diarrhea. North Koreans regularly indoctrinated their prisoners about the evils of Western capitalism and the benefits of communism. (I think treating the prisoners with kindness would have been more effective as actions speak louder than words!) The prisoners who seemed least receptive to the indoctrination were often punished more so.

In the case of one soldier, Edward C. Sheffield, North Koreans captured him and 723 men by surrounding them. Only 300 men survived.

The Brother of My Mother’s Friend

A grayscale photo of soldiers at the Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC

It is important to remember the many men and women who made sacrifices to preserve democracy in South Korea. Photo by Miles Rothoerl, pexels.com

My mother, who is now 85-years old, had a friend (let’s call her Anne) when she was younger whose brother (let’s call him Bill) was missing in action (MIA) in Korea. Anne shared how painful it was for her and her family not only to miss Bill but not to know if he was alive, dead, or captured. There are still almost 8,000 Americans who are MIA from the Korean War.

Later, the family found out that Bill had been in a helicopter crash and had died on impact. A friend of his was captured and endured the sufferings of a POW camp. His friend (call him Gary) was often tempted to give up because of the nightmarish conditions and treatment. One of the primary reasons that he stayed alive was because of Bill. Gary knew that if he did not survive the camp that there would be no one to tell Bill’s family what had happened to him. Gary wanted to make sure that Bill’s family knew that he did not suffer: he died immediately in the crash and more importantly, was not captured and tortured in one of the camps.

Gary made it through and told Anne’s family how Bill had died. Although her family was devastated that Bill was dead, they were extremely grateful that Gary had made this personal sacrifice to let them know.

War, Love, and Heroism

I have never been in combat, but I imagine that war provides the opportunity for great courage. Many soldiers relied on their faith in God to endure the marches and the camps. Others made it through out of love for their own family and friends, or in this case, a friend’s family whom a soldier had never met.

John 15:12-13 reads,“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ” (NRSVCE) I have always thought of laying down one’s life as dying for another person or persons. The friend in this story, as well as people who stay the course with a painful phyiscal or mental illness, remind me that laying down own’s life could be staying alive when dying would be easier. I am grateful today for this man and all United States veterans who live with the scars of war.

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