CAMP SHELBY, Miss. - Olin R. Pickens, who served in the Army during WWII and has a German prisoner of war, provided a special lecture here at the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum to Mississippi National Guard soldiers in training this weekend. The 100-year-old Pickens, born in December 1921 in Dumas, Miss., told the soldiers that "as bad as it all was (being a POW), we would do it again for our freedom.” He served in North Africa and captured by the German Army in February 1943 and spending 26 months as a POW in Europe. Maj. Gen. Janson D. Boyles, Mississippi’s adjutant general and assistant adjutant general Maj. Gen. John T. Kelly presented the Department of Defense Prisoner of War Medal to Pickens. After the war, one of Picken's first stops back in the U.S. was at Camp Shelby. Saturday's was his the first trip back in 77 years. (Source: WDAM 06/11/22) 100-year-old WWII veteran shares POW experience with Shelby soldiers (wlox.com)
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