The Book
Prisoner of War – North Korea, 1951-1963, is the memoir of George J. Matta Sr’s imprisonment during the Korean War. It begins with his capture, follows him through captivity in five POW camps, and ends with his repatriation in Operation Little Switch in 1953. He was starved, frozen, isolated, and denied medical care after a beating with a rifle that caused a serious head injury. He saw his men murdered and their corpses abused.
And yet, his story of wartime atrocities and the murder of innocents is also a story of bravery, loyalty, and patriotism. Please note that the book does not include graphic details of the worst of what he saw, nor does it contain any embellishments of his description of events.
George J. Matta Sr. - Co-Author
George J. Matta Sr. joined the Army on 16 Oct 1942. He received his basic training at Camp Croft, South Carolina, where he graduated from a specialist’s school as a skilled armorer.
Later at Camp Adair, Oregon, he broke the camp record for marksmanship with a machine gun. Something that was to prove useful to him in the near future.
August 1944, he was sent overseas attached to the 96th Infantry Division, 382nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Heavy Weapons Company H. During WWII, he served 16 months in the Western Pacific and Southern Philippines, supervising the activities of a heavy weapons .30 caliber machine gun section, providing fire in support of other tactical units. He had direct supervisory control over 15 enlisted men.
George J. Matta Jr. - Co-Author
George J. Matta Jr. is a Vietnam Era Veteran who retired as a CMSgt after serving 20 years in the Air Force. He was a Distinguished Graduate, winning the National Security Affairs, Force Employment Awards, and Class Speaker awards at the Senior NCO Academy. He also served with NATO as the NCOIC of Operations in the Southern Region Signal Support Regiment (SRSSR) and as Chief of Data Automation for the largest base-level data processing facility in Europe.