Former POW Recounts His Time As A Prisoner

Monday, May 28th 2007, 4:37 pm

By: News On 6

Sixty-five years ago this month life did an about face for Vernon LaHeist. The News On 6â€™s Rick Wells sat down with the now retired Navy Lieutenant Commander. He reports LaHeist went from Navy Machinist Mate on a mine sweeper to prisoner of war in a matter of hours.

More than six decades after his capture Vernon LaHeist reflected on the importance of the Island of Corregidor to controlling Manila Harbor in the Philippines, it was critical and the Japanese wanted it.

"Actually I was captured on Corregidor," said the former prisoner of war.

Most of our knowledge of World War II history doesn't include the fall of Corregidor, but for Vernon LaHeist it was pivotal. He and 11,000 others became prisoners of war, and his memories of that day are pretty vivid.

"They stripped us naked and marched us out on this road and set up guns," said retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Vernon LaHeist.

He thought they were to be shot, but instead over the next several months, while the war in the Pacific was raging, he was being shuttled from camp to camp until he landed in Mukden in Manchuria. He and his fellow prisoners worked in a factory making things for the Japanese, doing what they could to make them badly.

"Somewhere along the line we'd make a mistake," LaHeist said.

The shooting for them was over, but the war was still on.

"The mistakes made cost them a lot of money," he said.

LaHeist was a prisoner for three years, three months, and nine days. Back in 1990 when his memories of his days as a POW were sharper than they are today he wrote them down, put them in a book. It's an interesting and educational account of one man's battle to survive hardship.

Vernon LaHeist went on to a 30 year career in the Navy, retiring in 1966 as a Lieutenant Commander.

Watch the video: World War II Veteran Reflects On His Time As A POW