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Troubled Life Of POW Families Remembered In Book

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2008

A St. Petersburg publishing company has released a book in time for Veterans Day that creates a fresh reminder of the insulation of most of America from the realities of war -- then and now.

"You Are Not Forgotten" (Vandamere Press, $27.95), co-authored by the late Evelyn Grubb and Florida writer Carol Jose, relates the struggles of the family of Lt. Col Wilmer Newlin Grubb, a U.S. Air Force pilot who died in captivity 42 years ago in North Vietnam, his fate unbeknownst to his wife and children for years.

The book outlines the pursuit by Grubb and others who shared a quest for information both from U.S. and enemy sources about their relatives' capture.

C-SPAN will televise a panel discussion of "You Are Not Forgotten" today with Jose. Grubb's son Roy and Air Force pilot Col. Al Brunstrom, Grubb's wing man, will be on the panel.

Lt. Col Grubb was shot down on an aerial reconnaissance mission in January 1966 over North Vietnam. Evelyn Grubb was forced to restructure 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 reburied in Arlington National Cemetery in 1974.

"Peace with honor," President Nixon had maintained, but 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, including actress Jane Fonda, who seemed to complicate war issues, especially the POW/MIA situation.

Evelyn 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 Pennsylvania State University fraternity brother of her husband 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 Convention regarding Prisoners of War.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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