By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer

Veterans gathered at the Museum Center at Union Terminal to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The OKI Chapter of American Ex-Prisoners of War association. WWII vet Bob Vandegriff, a Stalag 17-B prisoner, places his hand over his heart while saying the Pledge as the luncheon began. In the background (saluting) is Chapter Commander Frank Bates.. (Michael E. Keating/The Enquirer)

WEST END - There was a high price of admission to the luncheon gathering Thursday of 25 men in a banquet room of the Museum Center at Union Terminal.

Each of them paid that price some 50 or 60 years ago in North Korean prison cells or Nazi stalags scattered across Europe as American soldiers, airmen and Marines who were prisoners of war.

The reunion lunch is an event the men of the OKI Chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War organization have held once every five years since the organization was formed 25 years ago.

Because all but a handful of the former POWs are men who served in World War II - men now in their upper 70s and 80s - some believe it may be the last reunion.

"This could be the last hurrah,'' said Frank Bates of Fairfield Township, who was a young soldier in the 106th Infantry Division, fighting the Battle of the Bulge.

In December 1944, the entire 106th Division was surrounded by two Panzer divisions. Nearly 7,000 American soldiers, including Bates, were forced to surrender to the Nazis.

Today, Bates, a Purple Heart veteran who spent the last five months of the war on forced marches from one temporary prison to another, is commander of the local chapter, which meets once a month.

Frank Heekin of Westwood and Ralph Stease of Loveland - both gunners on B-17s that were shot down over Europe - founded the group 25 years ago with another former POW, Joe Warth, who died years ago.

Stease said he and the others began the local chapter "because we knew there were guys out there who had been through what we went through, but they were scattered all over the area.

"We wanted to get know the other guys,'' Stease said. "It was an experience we can never forget.''

As they gathered for lunch, the men drifted from table to table greeting each other.

Ted Burch of Hamilton sat down to a plate of chicken breast on rice. He is a Korean war veteran who was taken prisoner in the fall of 1950. He spent the rest of the war - nearly three years - in prison, where he was beaten and nearly starved by his captors.

"For years, I couldn't even look at rice, because that is about all we ate over there,'' Burch said. "But I guess I can eat it now.''

Harry Falck of Sycamore Township, the only other Korea veteran in the organization, sat nearby. He was taken prisoner only a few months before Burch. Like Burch, he spent nearly three years as a POW.

"I was just a dog-face infantryman,'' Falck said. "People say to me now, 'You're a hero.' Well, I'm no hero. What I am is a survivor. We all are.''

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com