National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Sept. 15

Each year on the third Friday of September, we honor and remember our nation’s Prisoners of War who suffered under enemy captivity, as well as those who are still Missing in Action. 
As such, we wanted to take the opportunity to recognize Eugene Ramos is a local Veteran who spent over two years as a prisoner of war in Korea and returned home to continue serving his country and his fellow Veterans.

Ramos joined the Army in 1950 at age 18 and was trained to repair tanks and ordinance equipment. After Ramos reached his first duty station in Guam, war broke out on the Korean peninsula. He was deployed and assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division as a machine gunner. 

Ramos and his infantry division spent four long months marching across South Korea, from Busan to Seoul, to a point known as the Kansas line. Nearing the end of his first deployment, Ramos and his men were attacked by the enemy in an area known as the Chosin Reservoir. They were ordered to hunker down and prepare to hold the line, no matter the cost. 

“At that point, I had been there a day shy of six months,” stated Ramos. “All I needed to do was set up my machine gun and stand by until the morning,” said Ramos. “Then I would go on my R&R.”

Unfortunately, Ramos never made it to his rest and recovery time. That night, the Chinese forces advanced upon the line his division was holding. Initially he thought that the attack was happening further down the line, but Ramos began to hear an unusual noise just several feet ahead of him—the cutting of barbed wire.

“I looked down past our barrier, and I saw the enemy in front of the barbed wire fencing,” said Ramos.

Without hesitation, Ramos opened fire with his machine gun, rapidly unleashing nearly 250 rounds into the darkness, towards what he rightfully identified as a threat.

“I fired several boxes of ammunition toward the enemy,’” said Ramos. “That went on for a while because once I opened fire, everyone began firing as well.”

Once he had exhausted his ammunition, Ramos threw hand grenades as the enemy approached the line. Knowing that the area would soon be overrun, Ramos prepared to go down fighting. The last grenade was thrown at an enemy so close that the explosion sent shards of shrapnel into Ramos’ body, wounding him. In the fighting, Ramos had also been shot through the arm. 

Through the night, Ramos lay bleeding in his foxhole, unable to escape. The next morning, Chinese forces swept the area, collecting the wounded soldiers and taking them as prisoners.

“They tied us arm-to-arm in a single file column,” said Ramos. “They had us march all the way to their labor camps.” Injured and exhausted, Ramos had one motivation during the taxing journey to the camps – staying alive.

“Anyone who fell out was thrown into a ditch and killed,” said Ramos. “Throughout the trip, the marching would stop, we’d hear a gunshot soon after and then the marching would continue.”

After reaching their destination, the true horrors of captivity set in.

Ramos endured the coldest winter of his life. He and his fellow captives spent their days cold, hungry and in silence. Every day he was expected to cut and gather wood from morning until night. 

In the evening, the prisoners lined up for chow where they were served what Ramos described as soupy rice. “They’d boil just a few cups of rice and add it to a giant pot of water,” he said. “That’s all they’d provide for the hundreds of us imprisoned there.”

Soldiers were forced to wear lice-infested clothing and sleep on floors with no bedding. Their living quarters were overcrowded, and soldiers had to sleep curled up on their sides just so there was enough space for everyone to lay down at night. 

Ramos and the rest of the camp were also forced to watch communist propaganda. Prisoners were made to sit on planks of hard wood and watch videos about converting to communism for hours. 

“They were trying to brainwash us," said Ramos. "They hoped I would turn on my country, but I never did.”

Afterwards, they would have to make positive comments about what they had seen, or else endure the torture chamber. This was a small box with holes that would drip water on the prisoner for days at a time. They would receive no food, and the box would be rotated so that the captive could never sit comfortably or rest. 

Ramos spent over two years as a P.O.W. before finally being liberated in August of 1953. He left the U.S. as a fully healthy and functional young soldier and returned as a 97-pound man with limited mobility in his arm from the night he was wounded. 

Throughout his time as a P.O.W., Ramos always stayed true to his fellow captives. He attributes his survival of those harsh years to his bond with his brothers and his determination to come home to his family.

Despite his time as a prisoner of war, Ramos was dedicated to continuing to serve the United States of America and his fellow Veterans. After returning to the U.S., Ramos stayed in the Army and retired after 22 years with an honorable discharge. At age 91, he still serves Veterans as the Nevada State Commander of the American Ex-Prisoners’ of War organization.