New exhibit at POW Museum focuses on aspects of being a POW

Genie Collins

AMERICUS — Throughout conflicts in American history, prisoners of war (POWs) have taken on many names.

For example, when Confederate soldiers were captured, the Union troops called them “rebels.” When Americans were captured by the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War, they were called “war criminals.”

A new exhibit at the National Prisoner of War Museum at the Andersonville National Historic Site (NHS) brings to the forefront of guests’ minds those kind of issues and many more.

“The story is ongoing,” said Joan Stibitz with the National POW Museum. “As long as the U.S. is involved in military action, there will be POWs.”

The exhibit starts off with sets of identification bracelets and “dog tags” from POWs as far back as World War II. While the tags were used by the Germans to identify Allied POWs, wooden tags were used by the Japanese to identify American POWs.

Then, the exhibit goes into a history of POWs dating back to the 1600s. African-American and women POWs are also highlighted in the exhibit.

“As the military diversifies, POWs diversify,” Stibitz said.

Perhaps a debate central to the exhibit is who are classified as POWs. For instance, there has been a huge debate as to whether journalists and contractors are POWs.

A piece central to this part of the exhibit was that of Frances Gary Powers, a Soviety spy who was captured by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. He was not considered a POW, Stibitz said.

Sibitiz did say that POWs are released when the war is over, and they are treated humanely.

“What POWs were called was based on the typical thought processes of the period,” Stibitiz said. “It depends on who your enemy is and how much respect you have for them.

“There are a lot of things that go into how the capturer perceives the captured.”

The current exhibit goes up to the Gulf War, Stibitz said.

“We are trying to get people to think about these things and issues, and the commonalities of the POW experience,” Stibitz said.

The exhibit also contains interactive exhibits of letters written during the Iranian hostage crisis and the Revolutionary War. For instance, a tourist can look at a copy of the letter, and then open the front of it to find out more about the POW situation inside.

According to the exhibit, approximately 500,176 Americans have been held as POWs in various conflicts since 1776. The exhibit also notes the Geneva Convention that mandates all POWs be treated humanely until their release.

The National POW Museum was built in 1998, and the first POW exhibit was called, “What Is A POW?” Stibitz said.

“The staff ... thought this first room didn’t do what it was intended to do,” Stibitz said, when asked how the new exhibit came into existence.

“We found that people went quickly through it and didn’t look,” she said. With funding, the National POW Museum was able to do something different with the room.

On some days at the museum, the POW museum comes complete with its very own spokesman, Bill Robinson. He was an Air Force pilot shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam in 1965.

“When I was first shot down, my life passed before me,” he said in a Saturday interview. “Things move in slow motion.”

Then, he said there are feelings of shock and fear, both of not knowing what will happen next and of death.

“You have to take one day at a time,” Robinson said. He alluded to the hit song by Tim McGraw, “Live Like You Were Dyin,’” and said that POWs have to do just that.

Robinson said it was important for him to keep three things in mind: “Return with honor, take care of your physical health and take care of your mental health.”

A ribbon cutting to officially open the exhibit will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, as part of the activities for National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

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