BAIRD, WILLIAM ALLEN

Name: William Allen Baird
Rank/Branch: United States Army/E4
Unit: 23 INF DIV
Date of Birth: 07 June 1949
Home City of Record: Wooster OH
Date of Loss: 06 May 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 163033 North 1073143
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 1163

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File.

REMARKS: 730305 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED

Resides Ohio
-------------------------------
EDITED from the original

The Plain Dealer Cleveland, OH
Wednesday, May 13, 1998

CLASSROOM GRIPPED BY POW STORIES 'BARBED WIRE HISTORY' CAPTIVATING FOR
STUDENTS, HEALING FOR VETERANS
BRIAN E. ALBRECHT PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

In this class, you will come to know torture and starvation,
humiliation and degradation, a bullet to the back of the head, your
husband's hands wrapped around your throat at night, the rare
kindness of sworn enemies, and the triumph of the human spirit.
Just wave the white flag and step into "Barbed Wire History:
The POW Experience," a one-time course currently being taught by
James Banks, history professor at the Western Campus of Cuyahoga
Community College in Parma.
The course links 25 students with former prisoners of war who
provide both personal testimony for the class and a video testament
for future generations.
The effort originated when the Barbed Wire Buckeyes, a group of
Ohio ex-POWs, contacted Banks about erecting a memorial to
America's prisoners of war at CCC, the site of a military hospital
during World War II. Banks has been involved in previous courses
and documentaries dealing with military history, and creation of
the Veterans Memorial Gardens on the Parma campus.
Banks said the POW memorial, which will be dedicated Sunday,
got him thinking, "My God, when you think of what they did, we
really are looking at the heroes of Little Round Top, only in the
20th century. We should do something to make that historical
experience live through others." That's when the idea for a class
took hold.
Pairing students with POWs was an additional benefit, Banks
said, explaining, "History becomes more valuable when it touches
other generations."
Before a single interview was conducted, students were briefed
by Cissie Clower, a psychologist and coordinator of the Senior
Veterans Program, Center for Stress Recovery at the Veterans
Affairs Medical Center in Brecksville.
"Basically I wanted to give them some advice on how they might
talk with some sensitivity to these men about their experiences,"
said Clower, who counsels veterans and former POWs.
"What the [CCC] course is doing in terms of applauding these
POWs, and validating them for what they did, is very healing for
these men." ....................

Student's hardships pale
Bill Baird remembers the mine that shredded his legs and back
in Vietnam. He remembers his captors shooting him in the head to
keep him from trying to escape.

Baird, 48, of Fredericksburg, Ohio, remembers five years of
prison camps, the dysentery, wormy food, nonstop propaganda
broadcasts and more.

And now, CCC student Joe Toth, 20, of Strongsville, can
remember, too.

"The biggest thing I've come to realize is that any kind of
hardship I've ever had in my life just pales in comparison to what
this man went through," Toth said.

"But he also is saying that all this stuff can happen, and you
can still move forward in your life and be a better person because
of it," he added. "It gives me a lot of enthusiasm for life."

To Baird, whose injuries from the land mine left him partially
paralyzed from the waist down, it was sheer determination. "I just
got it in my head that no matter if it's five years or 10, I will
make it. And if I make it through this, I can make it through
anything."

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