70+ Years After the Korean War, Sons of POWs Meet

Searching for Fellow Korean War POWs

I spent years wanting to make contact with some of the POWs who knew my father (SFC George J. Matta) in the prisoner of war camps. I struggled for years trying to reach out to veteran’s organizations

I also performed Google searches in hopes of finding some of the names of soldiers I knew were held in the same camps as my father. No luck.

Do any of you have any tips on finding long lost people?

Reason for the Search

You see I was trying to fulfill my father’s lifelong ambition to get the story of him and his fellow POWs told. Unfortunately, he was part of the generation that left school early in their education to help out their families during the Great Depression.

So I started with my father’s notes from 1953 along with a wealth of newspaper articles, photos, letters and memorabilia my parents were smart enough to hold on to. I built upon that by collaborating with my father which was invaluable for getting a handle on what actually occurred.

I was getting desperate as I knew many who served in the Korean War, unfortunately like my father, were dying off every day. I always avoided social media, not because I feared it, I worked in IT so that wasn’t the problem. I am a hyper type-A personality. For example, I feel an inner impulse to answer each and every email as soon as it arrives. I could only imagine what my days (and nights) would be like trying to respond to social media posts too.

Eventually, I bit the bullet (no pun intended) and decided to do what my children asked me to do for a while. I created a Facebook account. I joined all the Korean War Facebook groups I thought might be able to help me in my search like:

Unexpected Contact

It had been over 70 years since my father returned from Korean War POW camps during Operation Little Switch as one of the first POWs being released, even before the armistice. So you can imagine how apprehensive I was to have a message from someone with a name I recognized. The name was Ed Treffery. He mentioned that he saw some of my posts that I mentioned his father and wanted to reach out to me. I sent an email reply providing some photos and additional information on who I knew as Wendell Treffery from my father’s notes. I was filled with anxiety, not knowing what to expect or even if I might receive a response, but desperately hoping I would.

I was very excited to receive a reply from Ed in which I discovered that he was, in fact, the son of one of my father’s friends from their days as POWs. Ed’s father was someone who my father kept in touch with after his release.

Not only were both in the camp together but since they were some of the first soldiers released, they were both called upon to testify in front of the Senate Connittee on Korean War Atrocities in December of 1953.