LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - DECEMBER 23, 2018 by Lynne Belluscio John (Jack) Vietor, Jr. was born in Seabright, New Jersey in 1914. His mother was Elea- nor Vietor, the oldest daughter of Orator, owner of Jell-O. He attended Yale and Diplomatic School and in 1940 he joined the Army Air Corps as a Flying cadet and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in 1941. He flew anti-submarine patrol in the Atlantic and was an in- structor of B-26’s and B-24’s. In 1944 he was sent overseas and was shot down by German fighters over Regensburg on February 25. He parachuted from his plane and landed on the bank of the Danube River. “For you the war is over,” his captors shouted. After ten days in solitary confinement and long interrogations, he was put in a “sardine-packed” boxcar and sent to a German prisoner of war camp, Stalag Luft I near the North Sea. There he spent a year and a half before being lib- erated by the Russian Army. He kept a journal while in prison and when he returned home he wrote a book “Time Out ” about his experience, which was pub- lished in 1951. Just before Christ- mas Jack received three letters. Two were from his father and had been sent in October. But when he opened the third letter from a friend he discovered that his father had died shortly af- ter he had written the letters to his son. “I had made so many plans of what we might do to- gether when I returned. For the next two months I continued to receive letters from him.” In fact, it would be the end of Feb- ruary before he would receive the telegram from the Red Cross notifying him of his father’s death. As he wrote, it took three weeks to receive letters and three months for the telegram. John wrote that he had no inter- est in celebrating Christmas. All he wanted to do was be alone, but in a prisoner of war camp, that was impossible. Christmas 1944 for the men at Stalag Luft I was pret- ty grim. But the Red Cross sent Christmas parcels which in- cluded plumb puddings, candy, nuts, powdered eggs. They had saved some food from previous parcels and so they planned a Christmas dinner. The menu included grapenuts with cream and sugar, powdered eggs with Vienna sausages, toasted Ger- man black bread with honey, boiled Canadian coffee boned roast turkey, mashed potatoes with Canadian canned butter, baked beans cooked in brown sugar, dates stuffed with pecans and rolled in sugar, plumb pud- ding, American soluble coffee, figs, nuts, candies and fudge. (Within a month, the German rations had forced the men to eat sparrows and even a family of cats. Once the cats were gone, the rat population increased, and the men set up trap lines. ) The Germans left the lights on until after midnight and the men sang Christmas carols. Some of the South African pilots joined the group and sang native songs. The Battle of the Bulge had started and their spirits be- gan to rise. At the end of April, the German guards disappeared, and the prisoners discovered that Hitler had ordered that all the Allied prisoners were to be killed, but the German camp commander had decided to abandon the camp rather than follow orders. Stalag Luft I was liberated by the Russians, and soon the prisoners discovered that there were more challenges ahead. It would be weeks be- fore John would be on a ship back to the United States. Their ship docked in Boston and was met by a brass band and “Red Cross girls with coffee.” Jack wasn’t the only Wood- ward to serve in World War II. His younger cousin, Reid Woodward, son of Donald and Florence Woodward, was also a pilot. Having received his pilot’s license from Russell Holderman at his father’s airport. (On As- bury Road.) He too had attend- ed Yale for a short time but then went to Cornell. He didn’t stay in college very long and decid- ed to become a commercial pi- lot and flew his Stinson to San Diego. He worked as a flight instructor and joined the Air Force Ferry Command which delivered new planes from the factories. In 1943 he wrote a letter to the LeRoy Gazette say- ing that he had been instructing on the old Lockheed “Hudson” bomber and the Lockheed Lode- star “and the ship that Howard Hughes flew around the world a few years back. “ In July 1944, (five months after Jack Woodward was captured by the Germans) Reid was transferred to India where he flew supplies to American troops. On Decem- ber 2, 1944, Reid’s four-motor Curtis Commando crashed into a mountain flying the “Hump” into China. His body was re- covered and he was buried in Machpelah Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and a baby daughter. As we celebrate Christmas and the holidays in 2018, take a moment and remember those who fought and those who con- tinue to protect. Christmas in 1944