The Medals and Badges of Camp Hearne, Texas

[Nick]

Michael has kindly made available this interesting article for distribution on GMIC.

All work is copyright to Michael Riley and all that is left for me to say is a big thanks for allowing us all at GMIC to read your work.

Enjoy

The_Medals_and_Badges_of_Camp_Hearne.pdf

[Ed_Haynes]

Thank you, Mike!!

(Owe you a non-virtual one!)

[GeorgeCL]

Thanks Mike

George

[joe campbell]

michael-

very interesting reading! thank you for that!

and kudos to dr. waters for his work, which is

most impressive!

joe campbell

[Riley1965]

Thank you, all!! This is the first research article I've written since High school.

[Larry Lipps]

Thanks for this article, it has a lot of special meaning to me. My family is originally from Bryan, Texas (about 15 miles from Hearne). Ny mother was a nurse during WWII and went to Camp Hearne whenever new POW's arrived to work with the doctors that checked them out on their arrival. She told me a lot of stories about their trips to attend to the sick and wounded soldiers housed there. The Geneva Convention said that prisoners had to be housed in a climate that approximated where they were captured. Since most of these POW's came from North Africa, someone decided Hearne was as close as they could get. There was great apprehension as the prisoners first arrived. In the early 40's, rural Texas had some far fetched notions of what Nazi soldiers actually looked like. She said that as people saw that they looked just about like anyone else, they became a relatively accepted member of the community. When I was young I remember my mother introducing me to a guy that once worked there. I can remember he had a coffee can full of cufftitles and medals he said he traded for cigarettes (I was only 8, so no, I didn't get them). From what I understand, there was a fairly large contingent of POW's who liked the Texas climate so much that they moved back here after the war ended. I really enjoyed being able to put a picture to some of the stories I remember as a child. Thanks for sharing!

[Riley1965]

Larry,

It's my pleasure. Thank You for sharing your families experience with this Camp. Your story just adds to the article.

Doc

[Stijn David]

Hello Michael,

Very interesting article, thank you for showing it here.

Here is a picture that is also take in Camp Hearne => showing 3 former Lw. soldies who where made P.O.W. in Tunesia Mai 1943. They all did belong towards the I. Lw. Regt. "Barenthin"

Cordial greetings,

[Riley1965]

Hello Michael,

Very interesting article, thank you for showing it here.

Here is a picture that is also take in Camp Hearne => showing 3 former Lw. soldies who where made P.O.W. in Tunesia Mai 1943. They all did belong towards the I. Lw. Regt. "Barenthin"

Cordial greetings,

Stijn David,

I'm glad you enjoyed the article. That is a GREAT photo!! Thanks for posting it. I'm thinking about expanding the article into a book. I am planning a trip to the Camp Hearne site and meet there with Dr. Michael Waters and his archeology students. I will also go to Texas A&M to see and scan the artifacts from the site. It's just a matter of Dr. Waters schedule. I'll keep everyone up to date on the progress.

Doc

[Paul R]

Stijn David,

I'm glad you enjoyed the article. That is a GREAT photo!! Thanks for posting it. I'm thinking about expanding the article into a book. I am planning a trip to the Camp Hearne site and meet there with Dr. Michael Waters and his archeology students. I will also go to Texas A&M to see and scan the artifacts from the site. It's just a matter of Dr. Waters schedule. I'll keep everyone up to date on the progress.

Doc

That is a great article. I cannot see the pics though... :-(

[Guest IMHF]

Michael has kindly made available this interesting article for distribution on GMIC.

All work is copyright to Michael Riley and all that is left for me to say is a big thanks for allowing us all at GMIC to read your work.

Enjoy

Thank you so much for this great artical, I printed out a copy for my self for better reading and viewing.

Thank you

Lorenzo

[General2]

Michael,

Many thanks for this article, most interesting!

Best regards

John

[nesredep]

Hello!

Interesting articel. :cheers:

All the best

Nesredep.

[Desertrat]

From what yall said earlier in this post to me it sounded like the POW campo that used to be were Le Ternou University is now. Is that posiblly the one your are talking about?

[HenkWillem]

Very Interesting article! Doc, Thank you very much for it!

[all1knew]

Hello there,

Very interesting article and thank you for sharing.

Is there a prisoner name list for this camp? Do you know if anyone there was required to pick cotton? The reason I ask is that a friends father (last name of Kukuk) was a POW, and I believe sent to Texas to work a cotton-field.

William Kramer