Prisoners of war from WWII, Korea and Vietnam share Clemson University stage

Three remarkable men, representing three hellish wars that have become cornerstones of human history, shared a stage at Clemson University Thursday, Oct. 4. It was the first, and likely will be the only time living prisoners of war from World War II, Korea and Vietnam appeared together at the university that was founded in 1889 as an all-male military college and, according to its current president Jim Clements, still prides the military leaders forged in its Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs and their extraordinary deeds in service to the nation above all else that it does.

The historic event was sponsored by Clemson’s Air Force ROTC as their annual POW/MIA recognition ceremony.

The guests of honor were:

The three men are all Clemson alums (in 1938, 1948 and 1959, respectively) who all returned to Clemson to work as either staff or faculty after the wars. Amazingly, all three men still live within 15 minutes of the Clemson campus. Those unique factors might make Clemson the only place in America today where three living POW’s from those three different wars could share a stage, according to event organizers.

The event drew a large crowd, including 250 current Clemson ROTC cadets, that sat in a hushed awe interrupted sporadically by laughs, gasps and a few sobs as the three men told their stories.

Skardon is perhaps the most famous of the three after the CBS news show 60 Minutes, the oldest and most-watched newsmagazine on television, produced a feature story about him that they’ve aired twice now, most recently for Memorial Day last year. He spoke eloquently and at times humorously about the horrors of the Bataan Death March and subsequent internment, and of the two fellow Clemson alums – Henry Leitner and Otis Morgan – who saved his life in the prison camps only to perish themselves before the end of the war.

“I owe my life to Henry Leitner and Otis Morgan,” he said. “I learned how easy it is to die when you lose the will to live.”

Skardon is the only survivor of the Bataan Death March who walks in the annual Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico every year. He walks 8.5 miles and has done it for the last 12 years in a row. At 101, he is training to go back for the next one in March, 2019.

Funchess recounted how all 50 men in his platoon were either killed or captured after being ambushed by an overwhelming number of Chinese soldiers. He was shot through the foot by machine gun fire and kept fighting until he was backed against a cliff, surrounded, and finally forced to lay down his weapon. His gripping testimony of how his captors stacked dead American bodies on a hillside by the hundreds and covered them with snow had the 500-plus audience members riveted. He said he and the other surviving POW’s were often forced to carry the bodies onto the hillside themselves.

“We could not sing a hymn or say any words,” he said of the burials. “We could not read any scripture. There had to be total silence.”

During his captivity, Funchess kept a pocket Bible he’d hidden and would read with other men. He recalled the Bible being confiscated two or three times, but each time, he was able to sneak it back into his possession. As he recounted the story, he surprised the audience by holding up that Bible, eliciting a loud round of applause.

“As far as I know, this is the only Bible that ever made it out of the camps,” he said.

Austin, the young buck of the group at 80, said he’s often asked how he survived relentless beatings and torture for more than five years at the hands of the NVA. He said he’s thought about that a lot over the years.

“Faith in God, faith in my country, and faith in my fellow man,” he said. “I knew our country would not forget about us, and I knew the war would not go on forever.”

Equal to that faith, Austin said, he attributes one key personality trait to his survival: “Confidence. My parents raised me to believe that I could do anything I set my mind to, and that’s pretty much turned out to be true. I knew that if anyone could survive, I could.”

In his 80 combat flights before being shot down over North Vietnam Austin earned a Silver Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 10 Air Medals. He consistently lied to and misled his captors during countless interrogations, but never gave them the information they wanted. He received a second Silver Star for consistently resisting the enemy’s demands through the entirety of his imprisonment by calling upon his deepest inner strengths.

Skardon also owns two Silver Stars, as well as two Bronze Stars for valor in combat – earned in just four months as he led his troops through some of the fiercest fighting of WWII. Funchess did not receive any medals for valor, because there were no eyewitness left after his entire platoon of 50 men was either killed or captured in a single day, holding off an ambush by an overwhelming Chinese force so that the rest of his battalion – some 700 men – could slip away without a single casualty and fight again.

Air Force Col. Thomas Johnson, commander of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), the Department of Defense’s office of primary responsibility for DoD-wide personnel recovery matters, flew from Fort Belvoir, Virginia to attend the event. He told the three guests of honor that their service and sacrifice is as relevant today as it has ever been.

Johnson, who also happens to be a Clemson graduate who was commissioned by Austin on that very stage “some 30 years ago”, told the men their courage and conduct under the most challenging circumstances imaginable is still being used as inspiration and as an example for service members across the entire U.S. military.

“We cannot thank you enough for your service,” said Johnson. “The JPRA is a 400-person strong unit that is devoted to learning the lessons that you provided us and passing that knowledge to the next generation of servicemembers. We could not do that without your continued service, and your gracious sharing of your stories.”

Air Force Col. Keith Balts, commander of Clemson’s Air Force ROTC, thanked the three POW’s for their extreme measure of devotion.

“To say your experiences are inspirational only scratches the surface of the impact you have made and will make on those who hear your stories,” said Balts. “To paraphrase a famous quote, often attributed to George Washington: ‘The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve [is] directly proportional to how veterans of earlier wars [are]…treated and appreciated by our nation.’ We have 250 Air Force and Army cadets here today who are already willing to serve, and I trust they will all gain a deeper meaning of that service after today’s ceremony.”

Not surprisingly, none of the three POW’s likes the word “hero” attributed to them.

“We are survivors,” said Austin. “I’m not a hero, I’m just a survivor. Sometimes it was you have to survive for five minutes. ‘Can I hang on, can I make it through the next hour, what’s the rest of the day going to have for me?’”

But Johnson begged to differ.

“You do not think you’re heroes,” he told the men. “But you are heroes.”