92-year-old Wheaton POW shares tales of war
For nearly 45 months, William “Howie” Chittenden was surrounded by death, hunger and disease. Captured by enemy forces the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, he would spend the duration of the World War II's Pacific theater as a prisoner of war.
“For almost four years, I was hungry,” the 92-year-old Wheaton resident said. “I went from 150 pounds to just over 100 pounds. Everyone had a disease. Beriberi, dysentery.”
On Friday, Chittenden served as keynote speaker at First Division Museum at Cantigny's commemoration of National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The 30-minute ceremony drew about 60 people, a mix of veterans and area residents, to hear Chittenden's story.
After the speech, Chittenden said the ceremony serves an important purpose.
“It reminds us every year our burden that we have of recovering those missing-in-action personnel,” he said. “If we don't do this, then we shun and forget the responsibility we have to do that.”
On Dec. 7, 1941, 140 Marines at the U.S. Embassy in China were captured by Japanese forces. China had been under Japanese military control and American forces stood by to protect the embassy.
Chittenden, who had enlisted in 1939, was among those Marines and would spend the entire war in prison camps working as a slave laborer at munitions factories that were repeatedly targeted for bombings by the Allies.
“You have lost every freedom,” he said. “You are entirely under the control of the POW camp. The greatest thing about being liberated was to regain your freedom.”
First Division Museum Executive Director Paul Herbert was noticeably shaken as he introduced Chittenden. The retired Army colonel said seeing Chittenden reminded him of the commitment military members make when they enlist.
“When we take the oath, we don't get to pick how we serve,” he said. “We have to do our best in whatever comes our way. It's realizing that here is a 19-year-old guy, taking that oath. He is put in a dangerous place and he is willing to do what he said in his oath he would do.”
The effort to identify those missing in action remains strong. Herbert said 88 formerly missing servicemen have been identified this year, including 50 from World War II.
Herbert said Chittenden gave a unique perspective but that he stood for a common philosophy.
“He's representative of this huge reservoir of people with a fundamental loyalty to the country,” he said. “It's priceless.”
And that loyalty runs deep in Chittenden's family. Chittenden's brother, Bob, was also a prisoner of war, in Germany.
Despite having two brothers spend time in prisoner camps, a third brother, Dick, badgered his parents at 17 “till they couldn't stand it anymore” and enlisted in the military.
Chittenden said knowing he would return to America and its freedoms made the day he was released the happiest day of his life. However, that elation could not erase the 1,364 days he spent as a prisoner.
“You never forget,” he said. “You can't forget those days. They are indelibly imprinted in your brain. They are in your mind forever.”
“You live with them every day,” he said. “But you don't let yourself be overcome by it.”