Innocent or enemy?

His given name was Warner Worth but his nickname was "Windy," Windy Worth. He hailed from Brooklyn, New York and honestly he was a fish out of water here in rural Nebraska. Dad found him at the local labor exchange. It was potato harvest and dad needed a driver for our Model A John Deere.

Windy an enlisted Air Corps soldier was stationed at the McCook Army Air Base. I don't remember his specialty but definitely it wasn't poker. He had lost all his money a few days before. His pockets had been lined as he was to start a 30 day leave the next day. The money was to go for travel back home to see his young wife in New York City. Poker took it all! No money, no travel and no young wife to enjoy. He needed a job.

Dad explained the task was to drive a tractor pulling a one row potato digger and that German P.O.W's (prisoners of war) would be working alongside. Never mind that he had never driven a tractor in his life, the city kid was brazen, bold and could drive anything! There was however a major problem! "I can't do that, I hate those German enemy SOB's" was Windy's reply. Dad needed him and convinced him to come and give it a try. Also there was that needing money thing.

As best I remember the work force each morning for the early summer potato harvest was about 30 P.O.W's. They earned something like 75 cents per day and their work output was about commensurate with the pay. Dad always remarked that each Mexican Bracero that he hired after the war for the same type labor was equal to about ten P.O.W's, maybe twenty.

The plan was for each German to pick up newly dug potatoes from about 100 foot of row while the digger slowly made another round. The machinery was too wide so that before a second row could be dug, the prior row had to be picked up, sacked and set aside so the tractor and digger could pass.

By mid-morning when the sun was getting hot, Windy on the tractor and dad riding the digger had to stop for a P.O.W that had not finished picking up his short stretch of row. The two got off the machinery and helped the German pick up and sack the potatoes. That German P.O.W. apologized and told them in Oxford English that he was not used to such manual labor because he had been a professor in Germany before being forced into the Army.

In a few minutes the threesome was yelled at by the P.O.W. that was directly behind. This guy was picking potatoes with blinding speed and had almost caught up to the stopped digger. "How the h*** can I make any money if you don't get potatoes dug for me!" was the loud response from behind.

Windy poked his thumb back and said "That's the Bowery!" He recognized the accent. Yes that German P.O.W. had grown up and schooled in New York City, right next to the borough where our American Airman had spent his pre-army years. The two became fast friends from that moment on.

Windy had earned his name for being quite the voracious talker. He enjoyed bantering with those enemy P.O.W's. Sadly I don't remember the German's name. "Why in the world did you volunteer to be in Hitler's army?" Windy would ask.

"I went back because my mother (or some other close relative) was sick," was the German's response. "Then when I got over there they forced me to join the German Army." Windy wasn't buying it, good naturedly he'd say, "Yeah that is what all you traitors to our country say."

Personally I suspect that Windy's new P.O.W. friend was not a model soldier. He wouldn't admit it but I envision that the first time he got close to the American lines he came trotting right over with his hands in the air to surrender. He did complain that it wasn't easy as some dastardly American soldier had smashed him in the skull with the butt of his rifle during the process.

Windy continued to work for Dad as long as he had leave plus any other time he had off. He especially enjoyed being around to give and take with the P.O.W's. I suspect my folks spotted the money to buy a train ticket for his wife Ann to join him and found them a place to stay in McCook.

Whatever happened to our Brooklyn-raised German P.O.W? We never found out. At the Potsdam Conference to end the war, Uncle Joe Stalin demanded that all our prisoners had to be returned to wherever they had entered the German Army. The P.O.W's had no voice in the matter and so probably our American-galvanized P.O.W sadly had to return to what became East Germany and the horrors of Russian occupation.

It was a chance encounter with enemy combatants on two sides of a terrible war. Their hatred for each other evaporated as they became friends and it all happened right here in Southwest Nebraska.

Probably in every war there are soldiers who discover they are on the wrong side. From my childhood, about 7 years old, I have related the above story. Yet today in the news we occasionally hear of American citizens who have been captured or killed aiding the Radical Islamists in our current inappropriately named "war on terror." Hopefully before a suspected combatant is assigned the kiss of death our President will look into the circumstances of each individual identified to be eliminated.

About a year and a half ago the U.S. popped al-Qaeda terrorist instigator Anwar al-Aulaqi as he roamed in Yemen. Al-Aulaqi was a natural born and educated American citizen although he spent most of his youth in Yemen. His demise was reportedly caused by a Hellfire missile fired from an RPA ("remotely piloted aircraft" the current appellation for "drone") based out of a secret CIA Base in Saudi Arabia. It was the third try.

In my opinion al-Aulaqi richly deserved what he got; the world would have been better off had it happened sooner. He was a recruiter and strong proponent of radical Islam intent on destroying the United States and taking over the world. Their corrupted philosophy comes out of the dark ages and basically abhors any sort of personal liberty. Life under their prescription would be completely intolerable to the vast majority of freedom loving Americans.

Good riddance but certain liberal progressive thinkers of today have great heartburn that our President should have the ability to target radical enemies of the USA, especially any American citizen, for elimination without a public trial. Actually I am not too proud of the public trial deal as I remember a whole class of traitors during the Vietnam War that weren't touched and punished as they should have been. The names Jane Fonda and "Lurch" Kerry come to mind. Both running free and John Kerry is now Secretary of State -- another travesty.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail