POST SCRIPT
Mr. David Dorfmeier is the first born son of Don Dorfmeier. He is also a Vietnam veteran, retired Army Sergeant Major, and clinical therapist who has a personal and professional interest in working with service members suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The author has a master's degree in Psychology & Counseling from the University of Northern Colorado and has completed a two-year post graduate Marriage & Family Training Program at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. In addition to a long career in the Army Reserve, Mr. Dorfmeier was also employed for 20 years with the Department of the Army as a civilian employee providing clinical counseling services to active duty soldiers and their family members. Following retirement, he served another four years as a clinical consultant working with the Department of Defense providing adjustment counseling to service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. His service awards and decorations include the Master Parachutist Badge, the Special Forces Qualification Tab, and the Legion of Merit.
AUTHOR
The United States government would later acknowledge that 130,201 US service personnel, 32,730 of whom were combat crew members of the US Army Air Force, had been captured during the war and held as enemy POWs. The majority of the 14,072 servicemen who died in captivity perished while interned as Japanese prisoners in Asia. However, these government figures are suspect and unreliable. As late as March 1945, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe had no idea of the correct numbers of airmen or soldiers who had been captured in their Theater of Operations. Moreover, a full accounting of those who died while in German captivity was compromised after the war for reasons of political expediency and further obscured by the fact that 78,773 service personnel from WWII were still listed as Missing in Action (MIA) as late as 1985.
REVIEWS
Once home, many repatriated prisoners of war, as well as other returning veterans, faced serious physical and emotional adjustment problems. Some, like Dr. Leslie Caplan, endured long periods of hospitalization for illnesses such as tuberculosis, which continued to cause high rates of morbidity for American POWs. Other returning POWs suffered from psychoneurosis, and drank to quell the intrusive thoughts and nightmares associated with their wartime service. Later protocol examinations, initiated by the Veterans Administration in the early 1980s, attempted to quantify the extent of these problems–and the results were shocking. Sixty percent of European Theater and 82 percent of Pacific Theater POWs manifested significant psychiatric symptoms of anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression
US Army Air Corps patch
"C-Lager chronicles the heroism and enduring spirit of the . . . Allied airmen interned at Stalag Luft IV during WWII. [Citing] his father's personal experiences, interviews with other POWs, and well documented research the author delivers [a] riveting account of their hardships and suffering." B. Gron
"After years of research [the author] gives a personal account of what his [father] and other airmen went through after capture by the Germans [during WWII]. The realities of the cold, starvation, filth, disease, [and] lack of medical facilities . . . all come through in [this] book. You can feel the pain, the hunger, the hopelessness all around you. Do yourself a favor, read C-Lager." A. Conetto
"The author's father, Don Dorfmeier, . . . had an enormously positive impact on my life when I was a young teenager and he was my track coach in high school. Simply said, he taught me to believe in myself and to never quit. Now I finally understand . . . I highly recommend this book for an intimate account of these brave men." J. Clark
"This book succeeds both as a gripping historical narrative and as a reminder that our servicemen can return with wounds that we don't always see." Anonymous
"Mr. Dorfmeier's meticulous research and documentation of the history of World War II interspersed with personal stories of his father and others in unimaginable situations gave me a better understanding of the history of the war and a renewed gratefulness for the sacrifices that were made for our freedom." D. Wallace