“Today was the kind of day of which we need more .  I had the pleasure of being in attendance at a special cane presentation to 2nd Lt Harold Noel, 94 years old, a WW11 B24 Navigator, who was shot down on his 15th mission and became a POW at Stalag 3 for over a year.  He was freed when Patton Drove his tanks into the Stalag.

Hank Cloutier, one of our local River Rats, and his cane carving team, did one for Harold to honor his service to our country.  BG Jeff “Tuna” Johnson, CC of the 113th ANG Wing at Andrews, was honored to host and do the presentation in his Ops Group conference room.  The event took place today today. In attendance, beside Tuna were Colonel Kirk “Tick” Pierce the new OG.  Harold’s daughter Nancy Noel, son and daughter-in-law Bob and Nancy Noel (Yes, The daughter-in-law is also Nancy).  Hank Cloutier and his other cane carver (Peter Ward), and me.

After the presentation, Harold told many stories about his POW experience.  The Stalag 3 was the camp about which “The Great Escape” was filmed.  He told of his capture, being held in Vienna, then Nuremberg then the march to Bavaria.  His targets for the first 14 missions were the big ones, Ploesti, Wiener Neustadt and other well defended ones.  On  one mission the gunners of his plane did shoot down 2 German fighters.

It was an honor for all of us to be present at this ceremony.  It was well worth the hour and a half to honor this genuine

American hero.  Harold had no idea that it was going to be such a ceremony.  His children had just told him that they wanted to take him to Andrews (AFB) for lunch. “