September 17, 1953
Pfc. Lauriano Jimenez came home Saturday evening after 28 months in a North Korea prison camp. And Marfa turned out to greet him in numbers that far exceeded those out for the only visit to the city of a United States president.
A crowd estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 waited for his arrival at the depot Saturday evening and his arrival by car a few minutes ahead of the train changed the reception not a whit. With the returnee trying to greet his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Jimenez and his family, with flashlight bulbs popping and friends offering congratulations, it took some time to sort things out at the depot. Then the former POW was put in a waiting car, the high school band swung into action, a uniformed platoon and color guard stepped out, and the entire procession moved to the USO Building where a reception was held in the soldier’s honor.
Noland Kelley, Chairman
There, before a hall packed to capacity, Noland Kelley, chairman of the committee planning the reception, called the group to order and Father Amalio Fernandez gave the invocation. Lucius Bunton, speaking for the community, formally welcomed young Jimenez back home. The 21-year old soldier who privately admitted that he was excited, confused and surprised by the enormous turnout, responded with thanks for the reception and said simply that it was so good to be back, he could hardly believe it had happened. Representing various community organizations, others on the stage then made presentations of various gifts to the former POW —Walter Polsky for the Lions club, Mrs. C.E. Porter for the Pilot club, Scott Peevey for the Chamber of Commerce, Herman Ledbetter for the Rotary club, A.P. Ramirez for the American Legion, Noland Kelley for the Red Cross and Miss Socorro Navarrete for the Violeta club. Another gift was presented for Mr. and Mrs. John Humphreys. With the welcoming group on the stand was Frank Jones, mayor.
Polsky Summarizes
Walter Polsky summarized the sentiment of the various speakers as he made the Lions presentation. “Look out over that crowd, Lauriano,” he said. “It’s a cross section of Marfa, of America, Presbyterians, Baptists, Irish, Scotch, Spanish—and even a couple of Jews. It’s what you have been fighting for, Lauriano—and it’s the America that thanks you for your services and the hardships you’ve been through.”
At an interview later at his home surrounded by family and friends, Private Lauriano told something of his life in POW camp for more than two years. “Our tank unit was cut off and surrounded and taken prisoner April 25,1951,” he said. ‘There were about 350 of us, and we were marched in a roundabout way to Chungsong, North Korea, the trip impossible to estimate, perhaps 200, perhaps 300 miles on foot. We had to carry the sick and wounded or the Chinese would have gotten rid of them, and only 297 of us reached the camp. There were some 1,600 to 1,800 prisoners there, about half Americans.”
Ill for a Year
Not long after getting to camp, the Marfa soldier contracted a fever and his illness dragged on for almost a year and dropped him to about 90 pounds in weight before he finally began to recover. He weighed 172 pounds when captured, and still was 22 pounds underweight when repatriated, although he was looking fit and well when he arrived here. “There was no medical care whatever at the camp for the first year and mighty— little pills and hot water — afterward,” the former prisoner said. He added, however, that late in 1952 he was permitted a couple of weeks at a primitive “hospital” in a nearby village which helped him to some extent. “Food and living conditions were bad,” he said. The food was rice three times a day, without variation—and seldom enough of it. The accommodations were the open ground of the barbed-wire enclosure in good weather, and the dirt floors of open sheds like sheep pens in bad weather.
Homesickness Dangerous
“It wasn’t any good thinking of home or of home-cooked food,” he said when asked what he wanted most to eat. “The ones that let themselves get homesick got really sick—and with no care that just meant their end. The only way to get along was to live just one day at a time.” During all his time in camp, the prisoner was permitted to send out only 8 letters and he received but 15 of the many his family and relatives sent him—only one from his mother. “We were all expected to take classes in Communist doctrine, and the guards were tougher about that than almost anything else. A lot of the boys hid out when they could to keep from attending, though that failure meant a tour of solitary confinement in the ‘black hole.’” And he admitted he was one who had paid that penalty, their regular work was wood cutting and extra assignments with the axe were handed out also as punishments. Young Jimenez was on one of the hard labor details when he was informed that the war was over. He got another going over by officers at headquarters when he announced that he would rather have gone on cutting wood than accept their kind of peace.
Indoctrination Useless
“Their indoctrination attempts didn’t do much good with any of us,” he added. “Those Chinese don’t even know what our kind of peace is like here at home.” Young Jimenez had some $1,500 in back pay coming, and was given a 30-day rest leave, after which he will report to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for reassignment. “I probably will stay in the army,” he concluded. He joined the service in July of 1949. Young Jimenez, first reported missing, was feared dead since no word was received from him in POW camp for several months, and then only through a letter written by a friend, since he himself was too ill. His mother, however, insisted that Lauriano was alive. A. special mass was held for his safe return at St. Mary’s church at 10 a.m. Sunday.
