CBS42 - Birmingham, AL, USA
A Former Prisoner of War Reflects
by Mike McClanahan
CBS 42 News
2008-11-20 15:00:00.0
A man who goes by the name Shorty Goodwin was one of the first U.S. troops to reach the shores of Naples, Italy during a World War Two battle that he feels is often over looked. His unique story of survival extends far beyond that day to three and a half years in German POW camps.
"Our boat was the first one or closest to the beach first."
As the lift gate of the barge swung open a hail of bullets cut down most of Shorty Goodwin's fellow soldiers. He was one of a handful to make it over the side, but that was only the beginning. Once he hit the beach there was no place to hide from enemy bullets.
“Some of them went through my shirt and then some of them went through my pants and as I was laying on my back and him shooting at me they were coming close enough that it looked like they were about two inches from my face."
Returning fire meant picking up a dead comrade to retrieve a pistol. Every bone "in him was shot all to pieces and here I am holding him in my hands. And here was all these other guys shot up, some hollering and some screaming. I was not…I was not used to anything like that."
Nor was he prepared for the sight of German tanks hit with navy shells or the sizzling sound of men burning alive. He had to make a decision.
"You just had to think about where you are and what you're doing. That's the only way you can cope with that because if you tried to look at it from the human side or just the real proper way, then I don't believe you would survive and the whole point is survival."
Later as a prisoner of war he endured torture, starvation, escape attempts and the punishments that followed, like dark weeks in a hole too cramped to stand or sit.
"I seen some of those guys come out that they looked like robots when they come out. They couldn't even remember their own names."
Replaying baseball games pitch by pitch over and over in his mind kept Goodwin from going crazy. But as other men broke his faith kept him from losing hope.
“We would carry out I guess as many as 100 bodies over the period of 24 hours each day and dump them in the pit out back. And just to see that many people dying and starving to death, you wondered is there really hope? But I can still remember that little voice said, but I will be with you."
Separated from the soldiers he started with, most of his fellow prisoners were Russian, French, and Polish troops who he couldn't communicate with, including one he believes was his guardian angel. It was a man who operated on him in a barn with no anesthesia after one of his organs failed.
"I could feel him cutting on my side, but that didn't last long because I was gone. But I never had any infection from it and it amazed me. As far as him, I had only seen him the day before and I never saw him after that morning that he did my surgery."
Today, Goodwin has more than scars and memories to remind him of that time. There are his dog tags.
"It has my name and my belief which is protestant. It has a little p on the side."
And his prison camp ID.
"That was a German dog tag for being a prisoner of war in Germany. It says Stalag and then it gives my number 21772. And then," The star he got from a Russian troop. "He took it off his cap and gave it to me, just so I could remember that there was a Russian that gave it to me."
And the key that allowed him to free many of his fellow POW's.
By telling his story he hopes to inspire future returning veterans.
"There's hope they can come back. And they can come back as great people or if they want to and they choose, they can come back homeless people. But I still...I still say that it's their choice, because we're living in the greatest country in the world."
20 November 2008
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