Ex-POW honored in Nellis ceremony

Saturday, Sept. 18, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

Kristen Peterson

In the summer of 1944 life was about to change for 20-year-old Edwin Kuhlmann.

The Connecticut resident, who had been drafted into the Army in 1942, was shipped overseas to Naples, Italy.

"Upon arrival I saw what looked to be the most desolate place on Earth," Kuhlmann said. "And there began my introduction to the war raging in Europe."

Three months later he was captured by the Germans at the Monte Belmonte Ridge in the Apennine Mountains in northern Italy. He then spent about six months as one of 93,000 American prisoners of war in Germany during World War II.

Friday -- after more than 50 years -- Kuhlmann, now a North Las Vegas resident, and two other former POWs were officially honored in a ceremony at Nellis Air Force Base for National POW/MIA Recognition Day on Sunday.

Kuhlmann spent a cold winter in "grim and bleak" conditions in a German POW camp where food and clothing were rationed.

But then Kuhlmann's luck changed.

While being transferred to another camp, marching all day for 16 days, Kuhlmann and three other soldiers managed to escape during a rest period and hide out in a barn. The escapees remained in the barn's loft for two days while German soldiers camped directly below them.

Had the soldiers discovered them "we would have been shot," Kuhlmann said. "But we remained still and were finally discovered by the advancing 7th Army.

"It's an experience you never forget."

Kuhlmann, 78, says he received his POW medal years ago in the mail. This was the first time he was honored in an official ceremony.

"Normally if somebody hasn't been officially presented, it's a nice thing to do," Nellis spokeswoman Capt. Veronica Kemeny said.

Despite the camp's conditions, Kuhlmann said he knew he'd return to the United States someday.

"I never had any doubt. I had a few close calls. But I figured eventually they (American soldiers) would discover us."