Page 85 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2017

Veterans Day observance
Armed Forces Retirement Home
1800 Beach Drive, Gulfport Friday, Nov. 10
8:30 a.m .- 2 p.m.
9:30 a.m. Opening Ceremony
Guest Speaker: Fred Haise Jr., former Apollo 13 astronaut
Featuring military groups, performances by Gulfport High School Admiral Band and more. 228.897.4434 for details
OPPOSITE PAGE: JACK OYSTER as a young service man (left) and today at the Armed ForcesRetirement Home.
it back to England until his 15th mission. Antiaircraft flak brought his B-17 down over Germany. Oyster and fellow crew members parachuted to safety. He was captured on Sept. 27, 1944, after he landed in a village, was taken to Frankfort for interrogation, and then transported to Stalag Luft IV, a prisoner of war camp in Poland near the Baltic Sea.
“It was very cold and very nasty, but I was never mistreated or beaten,” he said.
With the Soviet Red Army approaching, the Germans rounded
up the more than 8,000 prisoners, divided them into groups of 200, and started force marching the men on
Feb. 6, 1945. This Black March of about 600 miles occurred during one of the coldest winters in Europe.
“We had to carry whatever we could, we were not well clothed. Food and medical supplies were almost nonexistent,” Oyster said. “We slept in barns if we were lucky or on the frozen ground.”
The Germans marched the prisoners to the American line at River Elbe where they were liberated on April
26, 1945. By that time, Oyster’s weight had dropped from 180 pounds to 116. He was taken to Camp Lucky Strike near Le Havre, France, to recuperate before boarding a liberty ship for home.
“I can’t tell you how great it was
to see that Lady Liberty in the New York Harbor,” he said. He was back on American soil on June 15, 1945.
By the time Oyster was discharged in October 1945, he had married Helen, the woman who had waited for him to return safely from war.
After earning a degree from Georgetown University, Oyster eventually founded his own company, Electro Systems. He and his wife raised their two children, Steven and Janelle, in Columbus, Ohio. At the
age of 70, he sold his business and
retired near Niceville, Fla., in 1992. He lobbied to get a VA clinic at Eglin AFB. Once it was established in 1996, Oyster volunteered there.
His wife of 66 years died in 2011. They have eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Oyster decided to downsize, and he now lives at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport. While he feels for the families of those service members who were missing in action, he also has praise for the Americans who endured sacrifices to keep the country going
on the home front while he fought in Europe.
“Sometimes I ask the Lord ‘why am I still around?’ There aren’t that many of us left,” he said.
JACK OYSTER recalls his years in the Army Air Corps.
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A HAPPY COUPLE - Jack Oyster and his late wife, Helen.