Declared Dead At War, He Returned Alive To Locate Their World Had Managed To Move On Without Him
Walter Dixon and their son Russ Dixon at their StoryCorps meeting in Waynesville, Mo. Modupeola Oyebolu/StoryCorps hide caption
Walter Dixon and their son Russ Dixon at their StoryCorps meeting in Waynesville, Mo.
StoryCorps’ Military Voices Initiative documents tales from people of the U.S. military and their own families.
Walter Dixon was in fact hitched just for five days as he shipped down to Korea for their 2nd war implementation.
In regards to a 12 months later on, at age 22, he had been announced dead. Whenever his obituary ended up being posted when you look at the regional paper, their wife home in Waynesville, Mo., had not a way of understanding that the news headlines had been untimely.
The truth is, Dixon ended up being alive behind enemy lines.
In an meeting at StoryCorps final thirty days, Dixon, a 90-year-old veteran of three wars, talked to their son Russ Dixon exactly how, after an incident of mistaken identity, he came back house to locate that their globe had shifted without him.
Dixon ended up being serving into the Army’s 38th Infantry Division when, he states, he had been captured while wanting to help their other troops.
He had been of a half-mile from their post when he saw five men from their device down get shot by the artillery round. “One of ’em’s feet were both broken, thus I took my industry jacket and covered around their feet to together hold them,” he claims.
As he came back to their tool, Chinese forces giving support to the North Koreans came up behind him.
“When i obtained captured, those dudes for the reason that opening with my industry coat there, they simply got blown all to heck,” Dixon states.
Once the systems had been later discovered, Dixon’s coat, which carried letters from his spouse into the pockets, ended up being the piece that mistakenly linked him up to a deceased soldier that is fellow.
“I’m certain that is why they reported me personally dead in place of captured,” Dixon states.
For the following two and a half years, he had been held prisoner in A north korean camp.
It absolutely was an experience that is harrowing Dixon recalls. To keep hot, he’d look around for lumber to burn off and, in some instances, prepared rats as sustenance. 1 day, a guard thought he strayed past an acceptable limit.
“we began to make better headway and also this guard hollered in my situation to prevent, but i did not,” he claims. “therefore, he stuck me personally together with bayonet. Sort of a time that is rough here.”
Dixon escaped 5 times, but each time he had been caught, and penalized. Whenever fighting stumbled on a halt, the Red Cross found the camp and notified the prisoners of these launch.
Back, because Dixon have been reported killed, their spouse had managed to move on. She remarried along with a young son or daughter with another guy.
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In the right time, Dixon claims, he don’t have much to express.
“we can not blame her. I became dead. Then she discovered I became alive. The only real apparent thing to do would be to divorce certainly one of us.”
Dixon along with his spouse would divorce. But he could not resent her, he states.
“Anger do not do you really a bit of good on something such as that, you cannot do nothing about any of it,” he claims. “You simply gotta handle it the easiest way you know how.”
Despite everything he experienced, Dixon decided to remain in the army. It really is a choice that their son Russ nevertheless wonders about.
“It had been my entire life,” Dixon stated. “you ain’t frightened of absolutely nothing. once you proceed through all that,”
Russ stated he could be pleased with his dad, whom proceeded to provide in Vietnam. “we tell lots of people regarding your seven Purple Hearts and all of that, and I also brag about this almost every time,” he told his dad.
As for Dixon himself, he states he could not care exactly just how other people keep in mind him. It is sufficient he made for him alone to know the sacrifices.
“I am able to keep in mind me personally,” he claims. “I do not have desires or requirements of memory. I simply enjoyed my armed forces service . We’d try it again. And I also’m happy with it.”
In terms of that neighborhood writer that is obituary? Dixon finished up marrying her and achieving three kids together, including Russ.
Sound produced for sunday Edition by Kelly Moffitt.
