TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Troubled Lives Of POW Families Remembered

ADVERTISEMENT

By TED JACKOVICS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 9, 2008

"You Are Not Forgotten," by Evelyn Grubb and Carol Jose (Vandamere Press, $27.95)

"You Are Not Forgotten" relates the struggles of the family of a U.S. Air Force pilot who died in captivity in North Vietnam 42 years ago, his fate unbeknown to his wife and children for years. The book creates a fresh reminder of the insulation of most of America from the realities of war, then and now.

It outlines the pursuit of the wife of a prisoner of war and others sharing her situation who pushed the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action issues into the national and international political arenas.

The late Evelyn Grubb, who died of breast cancer in 2005 and whose husband, Lt. Col. Wilmer Newlin Grubb, was shot down on an aerial reconnaissance mission in 1966, collaborated with Carol Jose, a Florida writer, on the book.

Published by Vandamere Press of St. Petersburg, "You Are Not Forgotten" focuses on Evelyn Grubb's quest to gain information both from United States and enemy sources about the fate of her husband.

That led to Grubb and other wives of war prisoners and those missing in action to create and advance the mission of the National League of Families: POW/MIA. Grubb and Jose add depth to historical accounts of the organization, which led a crusade symbolized by the familiar black and white POW and MIA flag.

The book tells how Grubb restructured her life as a parent of four newly fatherless children while trying to make sense of the conduct of a war by American and North Vietnamese political and military officials.

"Sadly, not many Americans cared one way or another ... about what happened in faraway Southeast Asia," Grubb said when her husband's remains were disinterred from a mound of dirt that served as his grave in North Vietnam and were buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 1974.

"Peace with honor," President Nixon had maintained.

Grubb writes, "What honor was there in this whole, tragic mess? What objectives had we gained from this bloodbath that we would point to with pride in years to come? What did we have now that we didn't have before, that would justify the more than 55,000 U.S. lives lost, the countless wounded, or the ordeal of separation and human suffering that the POW/MIA families had to survive?"

Despite her critical appraisal of the Vietnam War, Grubb held steadfast in her contempt for certain antiwar sympathizers who seemed to complicate war issues, especially the POW/MIA situations.

Grubb learned her husband was missing in a telegram from the Air Force delivered to her Petersburg, Va., home by a taxi driver. She would learn he was alive from a photograph provided by a Penn State fraternity brother who saw the picture of Grubb and his North Vietnamese captors in the Altoona (Pa.) Mirror. But Lt. Col. Grubb would never be heard from, despite his wife's efforts to communicate through official channels sanctioned by the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war.

C-Span will televise a panel discussion of "You Are Not Forgotten" on Tuesday with author Carol Jose. Lt. Col. Grubb's son Roy and Air Force pilot Col. Al Brunstrom, Grubb's wingman, will be on the panel.

Ted Jackovics is a reporter for The Tampa Tribune.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT