The San Diego Union Tribune ran the following story by Jeanette Steele on Septemeber 15, 2011 (
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"POW statue debuts at Miramar cemetery
By Jeanette Steele6:28 p.m.Sept. 15, 2011
At Miramar National Cemetery, a new statue honors the hardships suffered by American prisoners of war. Bill Heard — Fort Rosecrans/Miramar National Cemetery Support Foundation A statue honoring American prisoners of war will be dedicated Friday at Miramar National Cemetery in a 10:30 a.m. ceremony.
The 15-foot tall statue, named “The Liberation Moment,” depicts the exhilaration of a prisoner of war emerging from captivity. In the background of the piece, an eagle soars above the broken barbed-wire fence that held the prisoner.
The seals of the five U.S. armed services are embedded in the statue’s base, which also will serve as a time capsule containing narratives provided by San Diego former prisoners of war.
The American Ex-Prisoners of War, San Diego Chapter 1, provided funding for the monument. Poway artist Richard Becker sculpted the art work from clay using live models. Cast in bronze, it was placed at the site Sept. 1.
Frank Burger, chapter leader, will present the monument to cemetery officials.
Now 93, Burger was a 25-year-old Army Air Force staff sergeant and flight engineer when he was captured by the Germans after bailing out of a B-24 bomber over Hungary in October, 1944. He spent eight months in POW camps until he was liberated, blind from malnutrition, in 1945.
Veterans such as Burger waited years for the Miramar cemetery to open this spring.
“I moved to the San Diego area in 1984 from Illinois, joined the POW Chapter and became Commander in 1989,” Burger said, in a statement prepared by the cemetery support foundation.
“There was a lot of talk about a new cemetery for San Diego and I thought how nice it would be to honor all prisoners of war with a statue in the cemetery; because I remember how I felt when I was liberated on May 1, 1945.”
Steve Muro, under secretary for memorial affairs at the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department, will be the keynote speaker.
Anthony Principi, former VA Secretary, will also speak. Principi is now chairman of the Fort Rosecrans and Miramar National Cemetery Support Foundation."