126
—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 2,1976
Faith 9
farm
Charlie Plumb, Kansas farmer and former POW,
gave couples attending the Baltimore Farm Credit
Forum an inspirational and motivating send-off.
By JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
COCKEYSVILLE, Md. - “I’m No Hero” is a book,
written by Charlie Plumb. Those who’ve heard the
outgoing, warm and personable Kansas farmer refuse to
accept that opinion.
Faith, committment and pride are what sustained the
young, farm-reared flier as he waited in solitary con
finement, a numbered prisoner captured in enemy
territory defending freedom in Vietnam. Today, he says
that young farmers must find strength in those same
characteristics.
Plumb stands as an inspiration to all who hear his spell
binding story. He was wrap-up speaker for the Baltimore
Farm Credit’s Young Farmers’ Forum, held last week at
the Hunt Valley Inn. Motivation is the message of Plumb’s
presentation and he sent the young farm couples back
home to rural Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West
Virginia rededicated to the challenges of farming.
A pilot with an engineering degree from Annapolis
Naval Academy, Charlie Plumb was flying his 75th
combat mission when enemy fire hit his plane. He and his
co-pilot bailed out and watched their jet crash to the
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ground and burn, as they parachuted toward waiting
enemy troops.
They took his name. They took his clothes and all his
possessions. They took his body and tortured it for in
formation. They took him to a tiny cell and locked him
in solitary confinement. Ultimately, they took six years of
his life.
After many days in solitary, Plumb received secret
contact from another prisoner, Pennsylvania Bob
Shoemaker. Eventually, the men were moved to another
camp and settled into their day-to-day existence routine.
With an overriding desire to communicate among
themselves, agamst strict rules govemmg talking, the
POW’s devised underground systems of contact. Morse
code was tapped on walls and gutteral language of
“coughs, sneezes, grunts, wheezes and spits” developed.
Spiritual strength became the tie among the fellowship
of prisoners and underground prayer list added to their
mutual support of one another.
After six years of meager vegetable and rice diets,
uncertainty about home and loved ones and the discovery
of reserves of faith and strength that few knew they
possessed, release finally came.
“We were given a pair of trousers,” recalled Plumb.
“They had pockets - real pockets! And a real zipper! For
years, all we’d had were pajama-type clothing with
drawstrings.”
Only after receiving proof that all the sick and injured
had been sent home first did the POW’s finally board the
bus sent to haul them to transport planes headed for home
and freedom.
Today, the Vietnam prison “alumni” meet periodically
to renew friendships and keep track of how they’re coping
with the return to civilian life.
“It appears that most of us are healthier than those who
weren’t shot down,” related Plumb, who spent his prison
years at a thmned-down 125 pounds. “But that’s because
we had to develop proper attitudes to survive; we had to
hold fast to the goal to return to our loved ones back
home.”
Only through total attention to those three ideals-faith,
commitment and pride - can young farmers successfully
operate under the stress of today’s economic forces,
Plumb insists: Walking proof of that belief, he’s returned
to the Kansas countryside to crop com and soybeans
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pride and enthusiasm gave
during six years of capture
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“Hang on to your enthusiasm” he concluded. “It’s the
first thing you get when you enter this world and the first
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