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They Came Home: Korean War POWs Tell Their Stories

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Author Pat McGrath Avery chronicles the experiences of three POWs during the Korean War. She examines what happened to them and how they were treated both by the enemy and by our own country upon their return to freedom. In her book "They Came Home: Korean War POWs Tell Their Stories" , she gives readers a compelling accounting of what their ordeal was like. It is a tale of suffering, courage, faith, hope and great despair. She introduces us to three men who survived the most hellish conditions of prisoner of war camps and the savage treatment at the hands of the North Koreans. There is just no way to read this book and not recognize these men as true heroes.

The stories were taken from interviews and some old letters; but the author adds another element to the story telling with her compassionate writing skills. It is obvious that the author connected with these men and their personal stories. The book is definitely a page turner. It is also a heart wrenching tale that paints a portrait of a brutal war and of an enemy without mercy or love. Most people under 50 years of age know absolutely nothing about this "forgotten war" or the men who fought there, died there or who were captured. These men and their families had their lives forever altered and changed. The good news is that in spite of all that happened to these three Americans there is still strong faith in both God and country.

The book is broken down into three sections--one for each man's story. Chapters One and Two give a brief recap of history and what happened in that time and place. This book saves for future generations a little time capsule of that period of world and national history. It is a look back but also a look at the human elements of all wars. It is a well written short book that can be read easily in one sitting. (132 pages)

The three men that Avery writes about will move you emotionally. You will not forget their tales nor their sacrifices. These stories will stay with you as you thank God that this country has produced such willing and able bodied soldiers. We asked much of these men and they gave everything they could. When they returned back to this country, we did not even allow them enough time to emotionally and spiritual heal. We just threw them back out into society to fend for themselves without regards to how much they had been through and changed. Thus, the book is also a sad indictment of how we as a nation, have treated returning veterans.

This book is well worth the read and your time. I believe that the book transcends just those who like to read about war or history and will appeal to those who like to learn about real people enduring the worse of conditions and surviving. I personally recommend this book.

Posted on Book Review Pages - Military WRiter's Society of America

The Korean War seems to have receded from our American historical consciousness -- overshadowed by the massiveness of the World War II experience and the trauma of Vietnam. Although Pat Avery provides the reader with a quick background of the conflict, her book focuses on the fortunes of three Korean War POWs.

Billy Joe Harris was a young man from Missouri when he joined the army for a year in 1949 never realizing that the Korean War would extend his military obligation. By February 1951, he was a prisoner and so began the ugliest, most frightening period of his life. Pat Avery eases him through his tale of horror and suffering. The reader is caught up in the experience and saddened that anyone should have to know such things at such an early age.

The author next explores Ed Slater's nightmarish ordeal in what became known as the Sunchon Tunnel Massacre. Her description of him waking up in a pile of bodies is riveting. Even more disturbing is the disclosure that these men did not receive the treatment necessary to ease their way back into American society after such extraordinary trauma.

The final story is about the experiences of Carey Weinel who served in both World War II and the Korean Conflict. Although Americans know in the hearts that war is war, it is still shocking to the reader when Weinel describes combat in Korea as being more bloody and vicious than what he saw in the Pacific Theater in the 1940s. This is particularly sad when one reflects that this was a civil war -- Koreans killing Koreans, families divided.

Weinel was wounded and captured in late August 1950 fighting to protect the Pusan perimeter. Although his experiences as a POW equal the horror experienced by Harris and Slater, the reader is overwhelmed with gore and it is the loss of Carey Weinel's wedding band that moves the heart in a surprising wrench.

I recommend this book as a testament to human endurance, as a way to understand history through the eyes of the men who experienced it and as a counterpart to the perceptions of Korea as presented by the M.A.S.H. television program. It's also an extraordinary piece of drama.