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War stirs vivid memories for former POWs
By ALEX LEARY, Times Staff Writer
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Baghdad burned on the widescreen TV behind Ralph Moulis, thick black smoke clouding the horizon. "I try to stay away from the TV," Moulis said, looking over his shoulder in the lobby of the veterans' outpatient clinic. "I can just picture someone going through the same ordeal I did. It upsets my mind." But it was hard to evade thoughts of war Wednesday afternoon. Moulis, a World War II veteran from Palm Harbor, was among those who gathered at the clinic for National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. About 50 POWs attended including Moulis, who was held 15 months in Krems, Austria, after his B-17 was shot down over Germany. As the 80-year-old Moulis shared his memories, he related them to the war in Iraq and the seven Americans currently believed held captive there. "If I have any advice for them," he said, "it's to keep their spirits up, hope for tomorrow, think of a good future." Drawing on their own stories of survival, other former POWs had these suggestions: Follow orders. Don't act out of line or you might be killed or tortured. Focus on positive images: home, family, baseball games, good food, cold beer. Above all, look forward to the next day. "You've just got to grin and bear it," said Bob Dunlap, 79, of New Port Richey, an Army medic who spent five months in German custody during World War II. "There's no formula for getting through. You just hope the next day comes along." Resting on his walker, Dunlap struggled to remember the details of history. He paused, then smiled. One of the guys in his prison camp had a deck of cards, he recalled, adding, "You could almost see through them they were so beat up." Julian Burnside of Port Richey said thoughts of his wife, Virginia, helped him cope during his seven-month stay at a POW camp in Dresden, Germany. That and the sweet, smoky scent of pork chops. "I could see those pork chops frying in a pan," said Burnside, 79, who was given a daily ration of potato soup by the Germans, a diet that dropped his weight from 185 to 125. The reunion of POWs -- this is the 17th year at the Pasco VA -- summoned mixed memories. With the war in Iraq, though, they see mirror images of themselves during wartime: young, proud and probably frightened. Tom Fabac, 85, of Port Richey was an Army plane jumper captured by the Germans in the Netherlands. "One grabbed me here, another grabbed me here," he recalled, pointing to his small wrists. "I said, 'What are you going to do?' He said, 'Shut your mouth,' and I did." He also prefers not to dwell on the action in Iraq but felt compelled to visit the VA clinic. "It's good because we keep together," he said, "but then again, too many memories come at you."
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