Waco resident Jack Goodwin, 81, was 14 years old when he left home to join Doc Tate’s Medicine Show and bump around with carnivals until he was old enough to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1948.

Assigned to U.S.-occupied Kyushu, Japan, Goodwin was in the 21st Infantry Regiment when the call came to head to Korea to contend with the invading forces of the North. He was swept into Task Force Smith, the first battle of the war from July 2-5, 1950.

The men were flown into South Korea. They boarded trains, then trucks, then finally walked to Osan, south of Seoul.

Jack Goodwin was a prisoner of war in Korea in 1950. He and his wife, Violet, have been married nearly 60 years.

Violet (Hoare) and Jack Goodwin married in autumn 1953, months after Violet lost her parents in the tornado of May 11, 1953, when the R.T. Dennis furniture store building collapsed on top of their automobile.
Terri Jo Ryan photo

“And that’s where we dug in,” Goodwin said.

Task Force Smith’s job was to take a position on a hill and slow the North Korean blitz until reinforcements could follow.

“There were about 500 of us and about 20,000 of the enemy,” he said.

The World War II surplus weapons they had were no match for the Russian-made tanks that surrounded them, he said.

Goodwin was one of about 750 Americans taken prisoner the first month of the war, of whom only 280 came back. It was his combination of street smarts and scavenging skills that helped him survive 38 months as a reluctant guest of the North Korean government and Communist Chinese Forces.

Goodwin will share some of his odyssey at 6 p.m. Wednesday at VFW Post 6008 in Hewitt at the next free public presentation sponsored by the Waco History Project.

“A Coming Home Celebration and Remembrance” to honor Greater Waco-area veterans of the Korean War, especially its POWs and the missing-in-action, takes place at 725 Sun Valley Blvd.

The presentation will feature stories from Sgt. Julian Ramon, Cpl. Isaac Martinez, Cpl. Abraham Hernandez and Sgt. Jack Goodwin — all Central Texas U.S. Army veterans who survived the Communist captivity during the conflict.

The Korean War began June 25, 1950, when the North invaded its neighbor, the South. The war continued for three years, with the United States and United Nations forces backing the South and China aiding the North, until a cease-fire accord was signed on July 27, 1953.

In the U.S., it’s often labeled the “forgotten war,” sandwiched between two longer and more deadly conflicts — World War II and the Vietnam War.

The North Koreans had no prison camp system established when the war began, just collection points for their captives. Four months after his capture, Goodwin and hundreds of other prisoners from 14 countries were ordered on a 100-mile “death march” to the Manchurian border in the middle of winter. It was because Americans had landed at the western port of Inchon and were drawing near.

Under the brutal direction of a major the Americans dubbed “Tiger” for the ferocity in which he attacked or killed prisoners, POWs started dying by the scores. Some were shot as stragglers or bludgeoned to death on the road, while others died of extreme cold, malnutrition, disease and exhaustion at their destination.

“All the city boys died first, then the old sergeants,” Goodwin said. “Me and the old farm boys are the ones who made it out.”

Jack Goodwin (front row, fourth from the left) attributed his survival of 38 months of captivity by the Communists (Korean and Chinese) to his hardy country upbringing.
Life magazine photo

Goodwin observed his 20th birthday as a prisoner of the North Koreans. He would spend three more years in captivity until his repatriation in autumn 1953. Goodwin is the only remaining “Tiger” survivor from Waco.

Conditions were only slightly better when their custody was transferred to the Chinese in early 1952, Goodwin said. They finally had enough to eat and their first change of clothing in 18 months. But they had to endure fresh indignities — daily propaganda lessons on the benefits of Communism and the evils of Western imperialism.

“They sent us to school to try and brainwash us,” Goodwin said. “But after a month, they gave up on us. We knew it was crap.”

Goodwin was released in a prisoner exchange at the end of the war and returned home to Waco to marry his sweetheart, Violet Hoare.

He worked 14 years for the U.S. Postal Service and then operated North Waco Tropical Fish for more than 40 years.

Joining Goodwin at Wednesday’s event will be Morris Barker (right), national commander of American Ex-Prisoners of War (www.axpow.org). Baker moved to Waco three years ago with his now late wife, Mary, to be closer to his family,

The 86-year-old World War II veteran was shot down over Budapest, Hungary, on Aug. 22, 1944 on his way to a bombing raid over Vienna, Austria.

Captured on the ground, they were handed off to the Germans, ending up at Stalag Luft IV in Poland.

On Feb. 6, 1945, Barker and some 8,000 of his fellow airmen were ordered to begin what became known as the Black March west, a 600-mile trek lasting 86 days in the worst winter of the war.

They reached Stalag 357 near Fallingbostel around April 3, 1945. Barker said they were liberated by the British on May 3. He was brought back to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth and mustered out in October 1945.

Barker, who got his education through the G.I. Bill and worked for U.S. Gypsum, said Wednesday’s event will educate members of any generation, but especially the young.