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By Root 1502 0

the Brewster was underway, the Army’s CIC officers lost no time in calling each POW into a small room to debrief them. A forty page counter intelligence questionnaire, designed by G-2 experts to determine whether or not a soldier had succumbed to Communist indoctrination, was completed and all answers recorded. Then there were another thirty-seven pages of questions that covered the enemy’s military capabilities, and infra-structure. The answers given by the POW’s during this questioning, were then classified SECRET – SECURITY INFORMATION.

When the debriefings were over, the Army had a large file on every POW. A typical file was as thick as an unabridged dictionary, and some were two feet thick. My own dossier, declassified and released to me in April of 1994, runs two-hundred and seventy-seven pages.

We knew there would be investigations into the conduct of individual POW’s who were guilty of making propaganda speeches, and other acts of collaboration with the Chinese. However, no American POW’s in the history of our country has ever undergone the level of interrogation as those released at Panmunjom in August and September of 1953.

* * * * * *

Returning home from Korea, in November of 1953 I re-enlisted in the Army; with duty at the Presidio in San Francisco, California. That same month, in a ceremony in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, I married Daisy Battenfield. My best man—Willard Ward.

In January of 1957 I retired from military service at Letterman Army Hospital, for reasons of physical disability—a shoulder that Army doctors couldn’t fix.

~~Thirty-Five~~

Ernest Everett Edge

23rd Infantry Regiment

2nd Infantry Division

U.S. Army

Killed in Action

On October 25, 1927, Ernest Edge was born to Ernest and Georgia Edge of Fordsville, Kentucky—the second of twelve children. Like his older brother, he too would be drafted and sent off to war: like his older brother, he too would be killed in action.

His brother, George William Edge, was killed on November 26, 1944 as the 319th Infantry Regiment was moving across France. George’s final resting place is in the Lorraine Cemetery in St. Avold, France.

Ernest received his draft notice in August 1950 and in October he reported to Fort Knox, Kentucky. From there he was sent to Fort Eustis, Virginia for his basic training.

Below are excerpts of some of the letters he wrote home:

Fort Knox

October 4, 1950

Hello Mom,

...I probably won’t get to stay here. I will know what I am doing in the next few days, and I will let you know. For it is to many here. It is supposed to be 800 here and it is 10,000, so I’ll be lucky to stay...

He wrote a letter dated December 12, 1950, from Fort Eustis. This was the camp he transferred to from the overcrowded Fort Knox. Then on February 5, 1951, he wrote his first letter home from Fort Lawton, Washington.

Feb. 19, ‘51

Ft. Lawton, Wash.

Dear Mom and All,

...Mom do you all know were Delb is? I would like to hear from him. You all get his address and send it to me.

Well Emogene I am sending you some pictures as I promised them to you...You see if you can sell them for a couple thousand dollars a piece, and I will have them made...

[Delb was what he called his cousin, Delbert Rice, who was also drafted in August 1950.]

Feb. 23, 1951

Ft. Lawton, Wash.

Dear Mom

…I saw Aunt Varnie the day I left and she said she got a letter from Delb that morning. And he didn’t know where he was going. But, he was leaving from the way he talked. I thought maybe that he was coming out here...

Well Mom you probably won’t hear from me for a good many days as I am shipping out in the next few days...

Bird Hunter Edge

Japan

March 16, ‘51

Dear Mom,

I’ll let you know how I am getting along. I am setting on my bunk now, we are fixing to have another clothes inspection in a few minutes...

Well mom we just got here this morning. We was on the water from the 27th of February until the 16th of March. It was lots of boys that got seasick. But, I made it just fine...