Avalon Chronicles #204: West Point Cadet Nick Rowe Changed My Trajectory of Life-1959

 James N. Rowe Class of 1960 at West Point

Assigned in Vietnam to a Special Forces  "A-team." Captured by Viet Cong October 29, 1963.

Escaped from enemy captvity Dec. 31, 1968 and rescued in Vietnam's U Minh Forest. 

Can't make these connections up! In August 1959 I was a plebe (freshman at West Point) in what was called "Beast Barracks." By a unique set of circumstances I had been appointed to West Point after only eleven grades (ie: a high school dropout). I had just turned 17 and was the youngest member of the class of 1963. My Army officer father was recently stationed in Hawaii. I decided after six weeks that I would prefer to resign from West Point and return to Hawaii, finish high school and learn to surf! I informed my squad leader that I desired to resign. I was ordered to report to my New Cadet Company Commander James "Nick" Rowe class of 1960. As soon as I entered Rowe's room, he said, "I knew you were appointed to West Point. I read the article in my hometown newspaper, the McAllen, Texas Monitor. My mother sent the article." CONNECTION: I had also been born in McAllen and my mother was a casual acquaintance of Nick's mother! Nick asked me to reconsider resigning as the rigors of Beast Barracks would be over in two weeks. He said the regular academic year, beginning in two weeks would be colorful due to football games. Someone at this place, disciplined and harsh as it had been for a 17 year old, connected and knew me! He was the only one of then 2400 cadets. His pep talk worked! I remained at the Academy. I was assigned to Company M-1, the company in which he was the company commander, but, I was not aware of any special privileges, except he probably assigned me roommates like John Dunn, Dick Walsh and George DeGraff, all of whom were much more mature than I, all having prior college.

Nick graduated in 1960 and became Ranger and Special Forces-qualified. He was captured by the enemy Viet Cong on Oct. 29, 1963. He suffered the very harsh conditions of being a Prisoner of War and being confined for most of his five year captivity in a 3 by 4 by 6 feet bamboo cage. Details of his captivity are detailed in his 1971 book Five Years to Freedom. It took an incredible amount of resilience, strength and faith to survive.

Fast forward to New Years Eve Dec. 31, 1968. American forces began helicopter operations in the area of his captivity. There was pandemonium with the Viet Cong. Nick became separated with only one guard. Nick "disposed" of the guard and an American helicopter flew over him ready to take him out as an enemy, but, the door gunner yelled at the last minute to the pilot, "He is an American!" Nick's captivity was over! After 62 months.

 

It was my great honor and privilege later to enjoy several occasions to connect with Nick. I arranged for him to speak at the West Point Society of North Texas. One of our grads invited his parents to attend and they traveled from McAllen for his story to be told first hand. Texas Governor John Connally recruited him in 1974 to be a candidate for State Comptroller. During his campaign I introduced him at a function in Dallas. I spent a memorable evening with him, when he and his then spouse Jane joined me for the evening afterwards. He was defeated in that election. Nick had been befriended by Robin Moore, author of his book The Green Berets, later the name of a movie, whose star was John Wayne. 

Nick continued his service in the Army Reserves and was recalled to acive duty to design and build a course based upon his experience as a POW. The course bcame the (SERE) Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape course. Fast forward to April 21, 1989, when he was in the Philippines, providing counter insurgency training to their Armed Forces. On that day he was being driven to work in an armored vehicle, when two communists assassinated him! 

His funeral was at Arlington National Cemetery in May 1989 after a Memorial service at Fort Myer Chapel. I had just arived in Washington pending my confirmation at the Department of Veterans Affairs as Asst. Secy Veterans Affairs. One of the most unique experiences of my life occurred that day. I used my wheelchair for the short trek to the burial site, just to left of the Amphitheatre through an open gate. However, on the return from the cemetery that gate was closed and I found myself facing a low stone wall. General Richard Stilwell, who had been Commandant of Cadets, when I was a cadet, took immediate charge and directed several young men to grab my chair and hoist me to the other side of the brick wall!

My connection with his widow Susan continued in later years. I invited her to a Veterans Day program at the Amphitheatre and her two young sons, Alex and Brian joined her. Upon her introduction she received an overwhelming welcome. Afterwards the speaker for the program Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense, accompanied her and her sons to Nick's grave site. In a later year, when I worked in Durham, NC, I accompanied Susan as my guest to a West Point Founders Day at Fort Bragg. During our time together she indicated Ross Perot's foundation funded the college education of her two sons.

Years later I visited and spoke at the high school in McAllen named after Nick. Just recently I sent a copy of the 1960 class yearbook to the school.

ONE LAST CONNECTION to this great hero, who changed the trajectory of my life in 1959. My cousin Patsy attended Nick's high school, was a classmate and upon his departure by bus from McAllen in summer of 1956, when his Beast Barracks was to begin, she and another classmate saw him off on his bus, when he left for West Point. I complete this story by ending on the note that Nick taught my cousin Patsy to dance! As they say in politics, "You cannot make this up!"

In POW camp in 1964 he wrote this;

"So look at times to come,

Despair is not for us,

We have a world and much more to see, 

While this remains behind."

Nick became a devout and committed Christian!

It is with great pleasure and pride as I document my connections with James "Nick" Rowe, an incredible patriot of service to our nation as an officer in the United States Army.  

Avalon Chronicles #203: WWII Vision From God Gave Soldier Hope

Elizabeth, friend at my church, is the source of the following special story, derived from a conversation her sister, Deborah, had in the late 1980s, with their father, Robert, WWII veteran (born in 1925). 

April 11, 2022: How God Gave My Father Hope for the Future   

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

In the conversation her father said to his daughter, "Did I ever tell you how I knew I was supposed to marry your mother?" Her father began, "There was a war going on. I was young, but, I wanted to serve, so I lied about my age to be able to join the Army. I was only 17 and ended up as a foot soldier somewhere in Europe, about 800 miles behind Patton. We'd march all day and camp at night-day after day. Everyone took turns standing guard. That's when I learned how to sleep standing up and also how to shoot from the hip. (It isn't just an expression, it's a strategy). I got pretty good at both."

"War is horrible. I saw countless atrocities that people did to people. It literally made me sick." Half crying and half angry, he said, "I was so angry with God I could have spit. Fed up, I started yelling at God, telling him just what I thought of him and this war. Amid my shouting something strange and unexpected happened. I saw, as if right in front of me, a portrait of myself with a woman and four children. Somehow, I knew she was my wife and these were our children, our family. I stopped yelling and felt a strange measure of peace, but, the rage was tempered. The war continued, the atrocities got worse and I promptly forgot about the vision. After my enlistment was up, I returned to the states and started college at Bucknell University. It was during my senior year in 1948, that things got interesting."

"In the previous two school years, Fr. Deppon, the chaplain at Bucknell, had been telling me there was a woman I needed to meet. I really wasn't interested in dating, so, I kept avoiding the subject. Since it was my senior year and Fr. Deppon was never going to give it a rest, I finally agreed to meet this woman he'd been telling me about. As she approached, I saw her face and SHE WAS THE WOMAN FROM THE PORTRAIT! The memory of that dark, cold, raining night, and the family portrait I'd forgotten about, came vividly flooding back. I was overwhelmed and tried hard to hold myself together."

Fr. Deppone; "Bob, meet Alice. Alice meet Bob."

Daughter Debbie: "Oh, my word, Daddy! What did you say to her?"

Daddy: "I could barely speak and I honestly don't remember much of the conversation. All I know is that I liked her and, well, you see where we ended up," he said with a twinkle in his eye. 

Debbie: "Did you tell her about the portrait?'

Daddy: Laughing hard, he said, "Are you kidding? That would have been something. Hi, Alice. You don't know me, but, I know I'm supposed to marry you and we're going to have 4 children together. Haha! No! I didn't have the courage to tell her until after the twins were born. (one being Elizabeth, my friend from church). I imagine that might have ended things before we had a chance to get started. No I kept it to myself until the portrait was complete."

Debbie: "Wow. That's amazing, Daddy."

Daddy: "Well it gets better. You know now that there are four of you kids, but, after you were born, the doctor told us not to risk having any more children. Your blood type is RH positive and youir mother's is RH negative, so you were basically poisoning each other for nine months. It wasn't until years later that the doctors figured out how to treat that, but, at the time, it was dangerous for both you and your mother and any fetus she might carry."

Daddy, continuing, "But, the fact remained that the portrait had four children, not two, and your mother and I had set our hearts on having four children, not two. You know how much she hated being an only child...We agreed to trust God and try for baby number three. As you know, she conceived! Your mother wondered early on whether she might be having twins. Each time she went to the docter she'd tell him that there seemed to be many more than four appendages jabbing her from within. She said it was like she was carrying an octopus. But, the doctor insisted it was only one, because he could never find a second heartbeat."

"The birth day (October 16, 1959) finally arrived. Off to the hospital we went. I got the happy news your mother had delivered a healthy baby boy. Then, five minutes later, after quite a flurry of activity, a second announcement: a healthy baby girl! (My church friend, Elizabeth). To the doctor's surprise your mother was right. I immediatley left the hospital to buy a dryer, knowing that we'd never survive without one, given the number of diapers we were going to have to wash going into the winter months."

"That is when your mother and I knew our family was complete. I knew God had given me a picture of hope that cold, dark rainy night somewhere in the back woods of Europe. And in his mercy, he did it by giving us our third and fourth babies in one pregnancy, saving your mother from future health risks."

Daddy: "And that, Debbie, is how God gave me a hope and a future in the middle of a war."

Allen Clark: "If, after reading this commentary, you do not believe there is a God, read it again!!! What gifts may be awaiting you?"

VAYA CON DIOS! GO WITH GOD!