Obie Wickersham Talks About his War Experience

Wickersham defines the words, "true survivor." Through his service in the military in two wars, he served his country with valor and distinction and suffered great personal hardship in doing so. He is simply a true hero and someone who deserves our highest recognition and respect.

Obie Wickersham took center stage at Butte College, speaking to students and veterans about his experience in World War II.

Wickersham was in the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper and was in the Battle of the Bulge, in addition to fighting at Anzio on D-Day, an experience that Wickersham described as similar to the opening chaotic scenes of steven spielberg's movie, "Saving Private Ryan."

After World War II, Wickersham married, but three months later, he was called to duty again for the Korean War. Then he was captured on May 18th, 1951 and spent 28 months in a Chinese POW camp.

"I am real lucky, I've been through a lot of stuff where I could have been in a position where I wouldn't have been here, shouldn't have been, but to be here, you have to do what your supposed to do, and fight it out, and that's what I did," said Wickersham.

Wickersham endured the horrors of war, seeing some of his fellow platoon mates die during their time as POW's, but Wickersham believed all along that he would go home and that belief gave him the willpower to carry on.

"I got myself into it and I got myself out of it, and I'm not going to let them to keep me over here, I've got too much to go back to," said Wickersham.

Although it's still tough to re-enact those events nowadays, Wickersham, a Yuba City high school graduate, says he understands the importance of telling his story, especially to a crowd of fellow veterans during a Veterans Day celebration.

"I'm one of the soldiers that this is all for, I don't know, it does something to you, it just does something to you, I wouldn't give it up for nothing," said Wickersham.

"To be able to sit in the same room as a guy who essentially is the embodiment of everything we think of when we think about World War II veteran or World War II hero, I mean movies have been made about what this guy has done, and it's just amazing, so I can't help but be in awe of and just be moved by his story," said Chris Barnes.