Ex-POW reunited with vet he thought was dead

LEWISTON – Since he was a prisoner of war 55 years ago, Maurice Daigle thought a bunkmate named Gerald Rustem had been killed by shrapnel.

But Daigle was wrong all that time.

On Saturday, Rustem drove a car decorated with red, white and blue balloons to Daigle’s home in this southern Maine city. As the two met, the 76-year-old Daigle reached out and held Rustem’s arm as if to make sure he was real.

“Now I won’t have to think about him any more like I did and sayin’, ‘Well, is he dead or what?'” Daigle said during the two veterans’ reunion in Daigle’s living room. “I know he’s alive. I seen him alive. And I’m all set.”

While serving as privates in the Army’s 26th Infantry Division, 104th Regiment, the two were captured in Rodalbe, France, on Nov. 12, 1944.

As prisoners of war in a Nazi work camp, Daigle and Rustem became friends, sharing their meager food rations and looking out for each other. Rustem slept in the upper bunk, Daigle in the lower.

They were put to work repairing German railroad tracks. While dozing in the corner of the boxcar after a day of work, Rustem resting his head on Daigle’s shoulder, an Allied plane swooped down and strafed the train.

Daigle jumped up and leapt from the car. He thought Rustem had been killed by a 20 mm shell that had ripped through the German boxcar.

“I was looking for him outside of the car. He wasn’t around. That was the last time I saw him,” said Daigle, who was hit with bits of shrapnel himself.

He returned to his work camp at Parchim Air Base, near Fliegerhorst, Germany, but Rustem did not. Daigle assumed the worst.

In fact, Rustem had been taken to a German hospital where he spent months recovering from his injuries.

A Department of Veterans Affairs hospital social worker located Rustem in Michigan after Daigle told him of his war experiences. The social worker, Jim Kidwell, searched microfiche files of POWs and also used the Internet. Within a day, he had tracked down Rustem in Michigan.

He verified Rustem’s identity by calling him on the phone. Then Kidwell called Daigle with the news and the reunion was planned.

Rustem had been to Maine a decade ago, not knowing Daigle lived in the state.