By What We Give

11/1/2008 - By What We Give

By What We Give

by Brad L. Smith

Little more than a year ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find a POW/MIA flag flying in Redlands. Today, thanks to one 93-year-old resident, there are more than 700 such flags! That’s because their champion, George Peterson, has more than just a passing interest in the plight of prisoners of war – he was one!

On July 25, 1944, 29-year-old Tech/Sgt. George Peterson was looking forward to rotating back to the States. “They let you go home after 50 missions,” he said, “and I was on my 46th as a flight engineer/machine gunner on a B-24 Liberator.” Then his four-engine bomber and 12 other planes out of the 21-plane formation were shot down over Linz, Austria.

“The pilot tried to put the engine fires out, but couldn’t,” remembered Peterson. ”We bailed out at 23,000 feet. All ten members of our Sleepy Time Gal crew survived the jump. Three members of the German home guard captured me immediately.”

George was a POW for more than nine months. The last three months, during the freezing winter, were the worst. “We were on a Death March for those months, when we slept outdoors on the ground. The nomadic German guards were trying to avoid the British troops from the south, but especially the Russian army coming from the north.”

“I’ll never forget Valentine’s Day, 1945,” George recalled. “It was rainy and cold. We had a blanket that we carried with us, but it was so wet it probably weighed 50 pounds. It was the worst night I ever spent. None of us thought we’d survive.”

As bad as the cold was, the POWs’ main problem was lack of food. George lost 40 pounds during that time – from 155 down to 115. “Once in a while, they’d bring a dead horse into our compound. Then we knew before long we’d have some protein.”

Finally, Peterson and the 800 other Allied prisoners with him were liberated by the British along the Elbe River. “When they came,” said George, “I was sleeping on a pile of horse manure covered with straw. The heat of the dung helped keep me warm.”

T-Sgt. Peterson mustered out of the service in September, 1945. At home again, he returned to his job working at a bag factory. “My aims in life weren’t very high,” he said. “I was just coming back for cigarettes, beer, and the skating rink.” Then he met Valeda Finnemore, a Seventh-day Adventist. “That was in February, 1946,” said George. “I quit drinking in March and quit smoking in June. In October, I was married. Valeda’s been just terrific. She’s a genuine Christian. That’s the best part of the story.”

The Petersons moved here 20 years ago to be near their daughter, Georgeann. “Redlands is such a nice town,” George said. “It’s terrific!” The generosity of Redlands residents, and some local businesses, funds his POW/MIA flag operation. He goes door to door offering the flags for a donation, “I just tell them I was a POW and I don’t get one penny of it.”

The Petersons will celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary this year. For 38 of those years together they’ve supplied literature to 85 schools in the region encouraging young men and women to avoid such pitfalls as smoking, drinking, and drugs. It’s their way of keeping them from becoming prisoners of another kind of warfare.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you would like to meet George Peterson and display your own POW/MIA flag, call him at 909/798-4962. Donations are appreciated.

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