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Show Grass Roots America QY Return of the POW's Restores America's Spirit By Jerry Martin The return of America's Ameri-ca's prisoners of war from Southeast Asia has been the healthiest boost for the nation's spirit in a decade. After 10 years of breast-beating, riots and dissension, a burst of genuine patriotism is sweeping the land. o more do we hear and see angry, bearded demonstrators de-monstrators on TV shouting, ilell o. we Won't Go."- Instead, on television screens across America, there is the quiet dignity of a few hundred men who served their country gallantly. Their sacrifices sacri-fices in the line of duty make the petty disputes at home seem small indeed. in-deed. Suddenly. a nation hungry for heroes is reminded of the old-fashioned old-fashioned virtues that built America and kept it free for 200 years. The triumphant return of the POW's symbolizes symbol-izes the sort of welcome home most Americans would have liked to give every man returning from honorable service in Vietnam. The individual POW stories are tales of rare human courage and sacrifice sac-rifice and the manner of their return, in dignity, dig-nity, is an inspiring demonstration de-monstration of faith. For some, the return from captivity is an individual in-dividual personal tragedy. trag-edy. One young Army warrent officer dis-dovered dis-dovered that he was a widower' with a five-year-old son. His wife died while he was in a Communist prison camp. Several, others, divorced di-vorced by their wives during the long years they were away, face the task of rebuilding a personal per-sonal life shattered not by war. but by other kinds of wounds sometimes some-times inflicted by wartime war-time separation. But for most of the POW's, their return is a happy one. One Navy flier's fiancee waited faithfully for him for seven years and now they are married. Many of the POW wives raised their children alone while their men were gone. In a way. these young wives and mothers are the true heroines of the Vietnam war. Their hopes never wavered. despite the many agonizing false reports re-ports of imminent peace. Their faith did not falter. There is no way to measure the impact of the POW's return on the conscience of America. What can anyone say to men who have endured (he hardships of a Communist Com-munist prison camp for five, six, seven and even eight years'.' It is impossible im-possible to adequately compensate for those losl years. Hul (here is something (lie nation can and must do lo assure that their sacrifice is not turned into a cruel mockery. Those who have it within tli f i r power to do so must totally discard the suggest sug-gest ion of a general amnesty am-nesty for the draft evaders evad-ers and deserters. To do otherwise would be a double-standard that started when (he first troop train was stopped by the first demonstrators dem-onstrators in the early days of the Vietnam war. a double-standard that many feel threatens to reward cowardice and penalize courage. The young soldiers on those troop trains and all the other men who went to Vietnam were obeying the law. serving their country when they were called on to do so. Many were draftees, en route to a battle zone where many died and m a n y others w ere! wounded, some maimed for life. The demonstrators demonstra-tors who stopped the trains were violating the law , but nothing was clone about it. Because Vietnam Viet-nam remained an undeclared unde-clared war. the legal sanctions that should have been applied against these demonstrations demon-strations of disloyalty were never implemented. implement-ed. Legal technicalities must not be permitted to allow the draft evaders evad-ers to return home in smirking triumph, without with-out penalty. To do so would be an insult to the POW's and to all the brave men who sacrificed sac-rificed so much in Vietnam. Viet-nam. Those who fled to Canada or Sweden to evade military service must not escape the consequences con-sequences of their action. ac-tion. They made t h e i r choice. Now they must live with it. |