OHIO POW offers hope for captive in Iraq

Faith and a sense of humor kept him alive, the ex-prisoner said.
BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) -- A prisoner of war in Korea for more than three years lives down the road from the home of a soldier kidnapped in Iraq.
Charles Leigh Whitaker, 74, has a message of hope for the family of Pfc. Keith M. Maupin.
"You have to keep believing. They did it for almost three years for me," said Whitaker, an Army medic in the Korean War. "I was 27 months MIA and my family never had a clue where I was or even whether I was alive. I believe he'll make it home. I really do."
Maupin, 20, was captured when his supply convoy came under attack April 9 on the western outskirts of Baghdad, one of many amid an insurgent campaign against supply routes around the capital.
Whitaker has had some sleepless nights lately. After praying for Maupin for more than a month, the televised images of Nick Berg, the 26-year-old Philadelphia man beheaded by captors in Iraq, jogged painful memories.
"All this, it's brought things back for me, for sure," Whitaker said recently.
On July 12, 1950, Whitaker had been in Korea for just two weeks when his regiment was enveloped by North Korean troops near Chochiwon, south of Seoul.
For the next three years, Whitaker marched at the behest of his captors, often traveling 10 miles a day. Prisoners slept on the ground, sometimes in subzero temperatures. They had few clothes, and North Korean soldiers stole their boots, Whitaker said.
Prisoners were given only a handful of food each day, essentially a glob of millet and sorghum.
After two years, Whitaker said he weighed about 80 pounds.
Faith and humor
"Two things keep you alive," Whitaker said. "You have to have faith. And you have to have a sense of humor. Which might sound kind of strange. But truly, the only way I made it through: You have to laugh about it. You'd be surprised. If you look hard enough you can find funny things."
In August 1953, after 37 months and 14 days as a prisoner of war, Whitaker was turned over to the Americans. He was among the first prisoners captured in Korea and one of the last returned to the Americans.
For decades Whitaker wouldn't talk about his experiences, and he was tormented by nightmares. He's lived for 46 years in this town about 15 miles east of Cincinnati, now awash in yellow ribbons for Maupin.
But he feels Maupin's capture and Berg's killing make it a fitting time to reflect his experience as a POW.
"Going through all this renewed my faith," Whitaker said. "You find out who you really are. You become a man's man. You have no fear any more."