Michigan natives and sisters, Laura Edge, and Ellen Bett-Witt, are daughters of T/Sgt Lawrence Lee Witt who flew with the 8th Air Force as an engineer/gunner aboard a B-17 Bomber. He was shot down on his seventh mission and spent eleven and one-half months as a prisoner of war. Laura spent years researching her father’s story and this culminated in her book, On the Wings of Dawn: American Airmen as Germany’s Prisoners. It is available on Amazon. 

Ellen Weaver Hartman, from Atlanta, GA, is the daughter of Joseph D. Weaver, who flew fifty-two missions as a B-26 radio operator/gunner for the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces. His final mission came on August 6, 1944, when FLAK caused his B-26 Marauder Bomber to crash near Trouville Sur Mer, Normandy. Joe and two of his crewmates escaped the plane through a side window. The Pilots jumped through a malfunctioning bomb bay, and they were all captured immediately and spent nine months in captivity. 

Jim Hemphill is from Mississippi. He is the son of James V. Hemphill, Jr., or Vic to his friends. Jim’s father was a young, 15th Army Air Force B-24 gunner flying from southern Italy when he was shot down on February 23, 1944, over Austria. Imprisoned in Stalag Luft VI in East Prussia, he was later evacuated with other POWs in the terrifying hold of a rusty Baltic coal scow to Stalag Luft IV. He was then forced to run two miles shackled to a buddy and urged on by bayonet stabs and guard dog bites to the prison. The trip on the Baltic became known as the “Baltic Cruise” and the run simply “The Run Up the Road.”

Rich Ruben, originally from Philadelphia and now living in South Carolina, is the son of T/Sgt Manuel (Manny) Ruben, 8th Air Force radio operator/gunner on B-17s. He was shot down on his 27th mission when his plane exploded with him in it. Apple TV’s 2024 epic series Masters of the Air inspired Rich to learn more about his father’s fate as a POW.

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The Foundation is focused on honoring and preserving the memory of World War II Prisoners of War (POWs), from the help of their friends and family.

This site will be focused on providing links and resources to people that want to learn and research POWs.

We will welcome original content from the friends and family of POWs, as a way to share their story and keep their legacy of sacrifice and bravery alive.