Celebration of America didn't stop in German POW camp

By Sabrina Decker

July 4, 2000 Web posted at: 10:55 AM EDT (1455 GMT)

VENTURA, California (The Ventura County Star) -- Retired Col. Robert Davies, now almost 83 years old, vividly remembers Independence Day 56 years ago, on July 4, 1944, just a few days after he and his flight crew were taken to the German POW camp Stalag Luft 3.

He and the approximately 6,000 other American officers in the prison camp were allowed to set up makeshift booths for games with balls, dice and darts. However, a conflict with a prison guard developed when they began singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Such displays of patriotism weren't allowed.

This year, Davies' holiday will be a quiet one, as his wife, Barbara, is recovering from hip surgery. For Davies, the Fourth of July is not about the fireworks and the picnics. It is about celebrating a freedom he will never take for granted; a freedom he hopes all Americans, particularly young people, will continue to appreciate and use wisely; a freedom that for him came at a personal cost.

"July Fourth means a lot to me as an American," Davies said. "It is a patriotic day. It is not particularly about WWII or any war. It just shows a patriotic way of life we really should celebrate not just on Independence Day but every day."

Davies lost more than 45 pounds during the year he spent as a prisoner of war. He survived dysentery, frigid German winters and a death march to the overcrowded Stalag 7A. But he refuses to dwell on the negative.

Being an officer, Davies was allowed certain privileges, such as a hot shower once every 14 days, and an 11-pound package from home once every three months. The friends he made in prison camp would last him all his life, and if you ask him about his experience, this is what he emphasizes.

"You know, everybody has all kinds of stories," Davies said with a smile.

His include being freed from prison camp by Gen. George Patton himself, and having Jimmy Stewart as a flight instructor.

And yet most of his memories he describes as being special only to him, for example, a hug he received from one of the men he taught to fly who had gone on to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

For Davies, freedom brings to mind a conversation he had when he returned home from the war and spoke to a German officer in an Allied prison camp.

"You people have no ropes holding you back," the German had said about America's all- encompassing version of freedom, Davies said.

Freedom in America to Davies is the ability to do whatever you want as long as it does not hurt somebody else. It is the reason he feels so strongly about the American flag. It is why he spent 32 years in the military, and why he is now a member of the retired officers group, the Military Order of the World Wars.

"When I hear the 'Star Spangled Banner' it moves me to tears," he said. "We are really the only people, the only people, who are truly free."

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