Veteran of three wars, ex POW, will finally see memorials

Veteran of three wars will finally see memorials

By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH

The Kansas City Star

His motorized wheelchair scoots between two posters decorating his room at the nursing home: a tiger representing the University of Missouri football team, and a black flag with a white silhouetted man and the acronym, POW/MIA.

Fitting bookends for the story of Bill Watson’s life.

He’s an 88-year-old great-grandfather who played college football at MU, served in three wars and spent more than two years as a prisoner of war in Korea.

In May 1951 Watson was captured by the Chinese Communist army in Korea. He survived 837 days — in the initial months marching from town to town, eating road kill and grass. He lived through a tale more gruesome than any slasher movie, more sad than any Hallmark drama and more real than any fiction writer could ever imagine.

But there’s one thing Watson wishes he had done: visited the national memorials for all three wars in which he served.

Next week that wish will come true.
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