[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E517-E518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        A TRIBUTE TO JOHN CLARK

                                 ______


                     HON. JAMES H. (JIMMY) QUILLEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 29, 1996

  Mr. QUILLEN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to have this opportunity to 
pay tribute to one of my fellow Tennesseans, John Clark from 
Elizabethton, TN. I respectfully submit the article that appeared in 
the Elizabethton Star, reporting his prisoner of war experiences during 
World War II. Mr. Clark is truly a fine man and a great American.
  As time elapses, we often forget the many sacrifices made by 
Americans who fought against tyranny and for our fundamental values of 
democracy during World War II. The hardships encountered by Mr. Clark 
as a prisoner of war in Germany are to be studied for lessons in faith, 
courage, honor, duty, and fortitude.
  I encourage my colleagues to read the account of this brave man who 
endured so much for our freedom, yet kept his love of our country and 
his religious faith inviolate.
  All Americans are grateful to Mr. Clark, and we salute him for his 
valor and for his service to his country, and his generosity in sharing 
this personal history with us and others.

            After 50 Years, Freedom Still Special for Ex-POW

                     (By John Thompson, Star Staff)

       Friday the 13th was the luckiest day in the life of John 
     Clark. One that day in April, 50 years ago, American soldiers 
     liberated the young Carter Countian and a group of other 
     prisoners of war from the small town of Horsinger, Germany.
       He remembers the scene vividly. Armored vehicles 
     approaching, the roaring noise of the motors, the American 
     flag flying in the wind.
       ``That American flag was the most beautiful thing I ever 
     saw,'' Clark recalls a half century later.
       That flag was a sight Clark had longed to see. He had heard 
     allied machine guns the day before but he was not sure he 
     would live long enough to see the men who were firing the 
     guns. When he went to bed on April 12, 1945, he did not know 
     if he had the strength to live through the next day.
       Clark and his fellow prisoners had been forced marched 600 
     miles since February, staying one step ahead of the advancing 
     Russian Army. The prisoners marched as much as 32 kilometers 
     a day with little or no food.
       Hungry prisoners who stole an egg or a potato from a German 
     farm risked being shot. Clark saw prisoners executed this 
     way. Others, who had lost the strength to go on were also 
     shot when they staggered out of the formation.
       Clark had been in perfect health and weighed 198 pounds 
     when he was captured. By the time he reached an American 
     hospital three days after his rescue, Clark, who is 5 feet, 
     11 inches tall, weighed only 127 pounds.
       In addition to his malnutrition, Clark was also facing 
     another threat to his life. The month before, Russian POWs 
     had stolen one of his boots. His best friend, Bill Furay, had 
     the opposite boot stolen. Since Clark wore size 9\1/2\ and 
     Furay wore size 9, Clark gave Furay his other boot.
       Clark marched for days without shoes. He finally got a pair 
     of old galoshes and stuffed them with rags.
       Worse was to come. After marching for several days in the 
     galoshes, the Germans gave him a pair of new shoes. He had to 
     break them in by marching 25 kilometers that day and 27 
     kilometers each of the next two days.
       ``My feet were solid blisters,'' Clark remembers.
       Each day the agony of his starvation diet and his mangled 
     feet only seemed to get worse. He shared his agony with 
     Furay, not only his best friend but a buddy he had been with 
     since basic training. They had remained in the same unit for 
     their entire service, and had even been captured together.
       The two had marched side by side from France to the prison 
     camps and now were together on this forced march.
       ``The day before I was liberated I told Bill that I just 
     did not think I could make it another day.'' He knew the 
     Germans would shoot him if he did not keep up.
       That is why that American flag looked so wonderful to the 
     haggard prisoner and why Friday the 13th will always be 
     special to him. He remembers that shortly after the rescue, 
     he stooped over and blacked out from his hunger and pain. If 
     he had done that while still with the German guards it would 
     have meant certain death.
       Clark's hardship had begun when he was captured during the 
     Battle of the Bulge. He was a squad leader in the 106th 
     Infantry Division. It was a new division, thrown together 
     from replacement and green troops during the past few months. 
     The unit had only been able to train together for a month in 
     England before being committed to the front lines.
       The Germans knew the 106th was green, and, naturally, it 
     was a prime target in Hitler's desperate last gamble to 
     reverse the tide of war.
       The Germans attacked at 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 16.
       Clerk's unit got the word to fall back. His platoon was the 
     lead element. As they were retreating, German artillery 
     caught them in the open. His platoon was able to keep going 
     while the rest were pinned down. They were soon captured.
       It was part of the greatest mass surrender in American 
     history.
       Clark was not yet one of them. He struggled on with 
     fragments of the shattered division until they reached the 
     middle of the storm: Hill 576.
       A perimeter was established. More men kept coming until 
     they were 500 strong. They would come to be known as ``The 
     Lost 500.''
       But 500 men could not hold out for long against the massive 
     German offensive. Clark and the other men were told to 
     destroy their weapons and surrender on Dec. 21.
       As their German captors marched them away, Clark said he 
     saw more Tiger tanks lined up against them than he had ever 
     seen. There was not way the 500 could have survived against 
     such firepower.
       At the time, Clark said the men felt they had made the 
     right decision to surrender. ``If we had known what was in 
     the future, we would have stayed and fought to the death.
       Clark's ordeal began with a three day march from St. Vith, 
     Belgium to Prum, Germany. They were given no food during the 
     march.
       Finally, they reached a railhead, where they were loaded 
     onto box cars, headed for POW camps. They had only been on 
     the train for a part of the day before it had to stop because 
     the American Air Force had bombed the trestles.
       The boxcars were moved to a siding. Later, an American P-51 
     shot up the train, killing six and wounding 47. The soldier 
     sitting on Clark's left and the one sitting on his right were 
     both killed.
       Clark said the prisoners then broke the doors down and laid 
     in the snow, linking their bodies together to form the words 
     ``USPW.''
       ``The plane came back and rolled its wings (in salute). 
     This was the day before Christmas. We spent the night back in 
     the rail cars. On Christmas, we got a half-loaf of bread and 
     a spoon of jam. This was for two days.''
       After marching for three days, they were put on another 
     train. Again, they were bombed by their own planes but 
     finally reached the prison camps.
       During inprocessing, a German officer took all of Clark's 
     possessions, handing him a receipt for the few dollars and 
     francs he carried. Clark managed to hide two things from the 
     officer which would become crucial to him as times got 
     tougher.
       Inside the pocket of his field jacket, Clark hid a tiny 
     note pad he had picked up at a USO canteen. He used this note 
     pad to keep a diary of his captivity and record his thoughts 
     during his ordeal.
       He also managed to hide a small New Testament.
       With the Russians advancing from the east, the Germans 
     began to move their POWs westward. Clark's camp was evacuated 
     on Feb. 14.
       At the end of each day's march, Clark and his fellow 
     prisoners might expect a cup of ``grass'' soup and some 
     bread.
       Clark and the other prisoners sometimes managed to steal an 
     egg or some potatoes from a German farm. If they were caught, 
     they would be shot, and some were.
       Each night, Clark recorded how far they marched that day 
     and the name of the town where they stopped. Clark was able 
     to record the distances by remembering the mileage on the 
     road signs.
       Cark also recorded occasional comments. On March 3, he 
     wrote, ``Lined up to be shot because one of our group stole a 
     chicken. They shot 3 prisoners the night before for stealing 
     from a garden.''
       On March 21, he wrote, ``Got out of line for water--dog 
     turned loose on us.''
       Other than these short notes, Clark's focus on the world 
     got narrower and narrower. Finally, all that was on his mind 
     was survival and food.

[[Page E518]]

       ``I blocked stuff out of my mind. When I was liberated, the 
     only thing I thought of was food and I thought about Christ 
     and dying,'' Clark remembered. ``I could not get the thought 
     of food out of my mind.''
       Indeed, his diary is filled with page after page devoted to 
     fantasies about food. There are pages on exotic recipes, 
     undoubtedly gathered from his fellow prisoners from all parts 
     of the country. New England recipes, country recipes, seafood 
     recipes.
       One page is devoted to a lavish meal he planned to eat when 
     he was liberated. It was filled with meats, vegetables, 
     fruits, desserts, breads and salads.
       Finally, on April 12, he wrote, ``Germans told us President 
     Roosevelt died--first true thing they told us.'' The next day 
     he made another brief note: ``Freedom at 10 a.m.''
       Freedom meant many things to Clark, but one thing it 
     certainly meant was food.
       He stuffed himself on five or six meals a day during his 
     first weeks of freedom. Unfortunately, he was not able to 
     gain weight because of a severe case of dysentery.
       The medical stations served the former POWs Paregoric by 
     the bottle. Clark took doses as often as he could. Finally, 
     his feet and his body began to heal as he loaded onto a ship 
     for a trip across the Atlantic and home.
       Ironically, his mother did not learn he had been captured 
     until after he was freed. The first notice she received was a 
     telegram from the War Department on April 18, that Clark was 
     a prisoner. She had received an earlier telegram on Jan. 12, 
     informing her that he had been missing in action since Dec. 
     16.
       Finally, on May 10, Mrs. Clark got the good news that her 
     son had been liberated. Four days later, she received another 
     telegram. It said ``Back in States feeling fine furlough 
     soon--LOVE--S/SGT John R. Clark.''
       Clark does not remember sending the last telegram. He 
     thinks it may have been sent by the Army in his name. What he 
     does clearly remember is a telephone call he made to his 
     mother once he got back to the states. When they answered the 
     phone, they mistook him for his brother. He learned that his 
     brother had been severely wounded in the Pacific and was now 
     in a hospital near him.
       Clark had a reunion with his brother in the hospital. His 
     brother never completely recovered from the wounds and lost 
     an eye. He passed away a few years ago.
       Sadly, Clark was never reunited with his old friend Bill 
     Furay. He tried to look him up when he was in Colorado but 
     learned he had died a few years before.
       For over 30 years, Clark kept his memories to himself. He 
     felt he had no one to talk to. Who in Carter County could 
     understand what he had gone through? He simply blocked out 
     his memories and tried to live like everyone else.
       Then in 1976, a group of local ex-POWs came together to 
     share their memories. For the first time, Clark had a chance 
     to talk to others who could understand what he was saying. It 
     took a long time to open up.
       ``I could not sit here and talk about it before I joined 
     that group. I didn't need sympathy and I didn't need pity, 
     and chances are no one would believe half the stuff we went 
     through.''
       Nowadays, Clark shares his memories and experiences with 
     those who are interested. He frequently talks to school 
     children about what it would be like to lose their freedom. 
     He hopes they come away with a renewed appreciation of their 
     freedom.
       He also remembers how important his old tattered New 
     Testament was to him in his captivity. That memory has led 
     him to an active career in the Gideons. He hopes that someone 
     else in pain may have the same comfort he had.
       Unlike most Americans, Clark's memories mean that he has 
     never taken for granted his freedom or his faith in God.

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