Exhibit Testifies to Trial and Triumph of POWs

YORBA LINDA — The items, 39 keepsakes held close by American prisoners of war in Vietnam, are a testament to despair and hope, ingenuity and resilience.

A shoelace knotted into a rosary, a bone toothpick made from a dinner of undercooked dog, and a cross made of bread were unveiled Tuesday at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in a solemn commemoration of Veterans Day.

It was one of several Veterans Day ceremonies throughout Orange County, and at midday drew about 100 people to the library.

“Poor boys,” murmured some visitors as they paused before the exhibit. Others shuddered--particularly before anguished self-portraits drawn by Army Capt. Theodore W. Gostas. Gostas, according to the exhibit, had been buried up to his head in sand for weeks at a time while a captive during the Vietnam War. Several people turned away whispering, “It’s god-awful.”

According to the exhibit, about 680 U.S. military personnel were imprisoned by the enemy during the Vietnam War. About 95% were tortured and 20% died in captivity.

Examples of bravery, creativity and even humor mingled with those of sheer misery at the exhibit Tuesday, which runs until May to honor the 25th anniversary of the 1973 return of many of the POWs.

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One exhibit plaque honors Cmdr. Eugene G. “Red” McDaniel, who received 900 lashes with an auto fan belt over a 15-day period for his refusal to divulge military information. He would reply “shove it” each time he was questioned.

When he was a Navy POW, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) once sneaked an amorous letter to his wife past “literal-minded” censors by writing “I think of you often in your birthday suit. Don’t let it get wrinkled!”

And Navy Lt. Robert J. Flynn, photographed on the day of his release, appears to swagger out of the snapshot, unbowed and undaunted by six years of captivity, and with a cigar in his mouth.

Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to the crowd at the library, as did retired Navy Capt. Render Crayton, a San Diego resident who was a POW for seven years.

Crayton said he had been married for two years and in the Navy for 12 years when he was captured in Vietnam. While he was imprisoned, the sounds of shooting and bombing raised prisoners’ spirits, he said, but silence oppressed them.

“If we could hear the Vietnamese shooting at our airplanes, we knew someone was out there trying to win the war and bring us home,” Crayton said.

To while away the time, he and other prisoners communicated in their own code by banging cups on the walls, he said.

“I learned Spanish and French that way--I developed quite a big vocabulary, but of course not a lot about pronunciation,” Crayton said.

Often, to take his mind off his captivity, he would review segments of his life and lessons learned in school. “But what I really learned, about myself, was that the human being is a pretty resilient entity,” Crayton said. “When I was shot down, I really didn’t think I could make it. But I did.”

Crayton said Nixon would always have his gratitude for renewing air attacks on Vietnam in late 1972, forcing the Vietnamese to come to an accord in 1973 and “bringing us home with honor.”

Among those listening Tuesday was Tony Retreage, a marine stationed at Camp Pendleton.

Retreage, 42, of Woodland Hills said he was stationed in Vietnam during the evacuation of Saigon and each year attends a Veterans Day event to honor fellow soldiers.

“Not enough people observe this day,” Retreage said. “I think that perhaps everyone was trying to forget what happened in Vietnam, but then they also forgot about all the other veterans too who fought in Korea and World War II.”

In other events around the county, a picnic shelter at Veterans Park in Cypress was dedicated, and in Placentia, the city added 10 veterans’ names to its monument.

Worn-out flags were burned in a traditional ceremony at American Legion Post 716 in Los Alamitos, and in Lake Forest, former congressman Lionel Van Deerlin, a World War II veteran, delivered an address at El Toro Memorial Park. Members of Boy Scout Troop 634 placed flags on veterans’ graves.