Meanwhile, at 0245 hours the Silverplate B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, left Tinian Island piloted by Paul W. Tibbets and navigated by Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk to its eventual target, the T-shaped bridge in Hiroshima, with hopes to end the war.

Ensign Robert Wyatt Granston

Sixty-three years later the ex-POW moved next door to the sole surviving crewman of the Enola Gay whose mission Granston credits with saving his life. His poignant experience of life-and-death struggle to survive in prisoner of war camps and hell ships is the opening chapter of My True Course Dutch Van Kirk Northumberland to Hiroshima.

Van Kirk’s biography is an authentic American story of the home front, in-service, and Special Mission No. 13, the first atomic strike in history. Robert Granston received the Navy Cross for his heroic actions and distinguished service following the bombing of the Cavite Navy Yard on December 10, 1941. In 2009, he donated the Navy Cross to the Supply Corps Museum. Granston does not believe that his actions were anything out of the ordinary and said, “There is no larger word in the English language than ‘duty.’ You can do no more than your duty and you should never do less.”

Note: Suzanne Simon Dietz is the historian for the Aero Club of Buffalo and the Town of Porter (home of Fort Niagara), New York. She is the author of more than half a dozen historical books including Van Kirk’s authorized biography, Honor Thy Fathers & Mothers Niagara Frontier’s Legacy of Patriotism and Survival (includes more than a dozen accounts of American POWs held by Germany), and POWs Interned at Fort Niagara A Reference Manual. Her latest publication is Honor Thy Brothers The Fight Against Communism, a collection of veterans’ stories from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

There are so many non-alias names, folks who have long indulged in secure public anonymity that it often reads like an internal CIA phone book; and the detailed discussions of often-complex operational techniques and activities are simply astounding. For whatever reasons, secrecy, from shallow to deep, does not remain a viable entity and the book is a layered labyrinth of fascinating data with or without the specific Ames-related details.

It is noteworthy that while the undeniably authentic book is indeed saturated with the authors’ own credible authority, stylistically the words sometimes flow more like a thesis than prose with occasional bursts of in-house jargon. Nonetheless, this in no way detracts from the awesome heft of the provocative tale told. The awesome Selected Chronology alone is a significantly illuminated time-line for decades of spy craft.

From the outset, it is stated that the revelations are made with the full cooperation of the CIA. The authors themselves raise the issue from page one as to why it is the time for them to air material previously considered classified, and hasten to assure that they do so not as “leakers” but with the Agency’s cooperation. After reading their work, it might be surmised that Company positive assistance was not a mere lack of censure.

Having met the criteria and demands of the CIA’s Publications and Review Board provides prima facie notice of cooperation, but the depth and intricacy of the revelations simply must be seen in print to be believed. Whatever the rationale for the unabashed candor, there is a truism [that has always been known inside Langley but not always in a Hollywood context], “you could not make up this stuff”. Indeed Mmes. Grimes and Vertefeuille, did not make it up, but relate it in intimate, excruciating, and spellbinding details, making it all the more extraordinary and worth reading.

For poetic classicists, the book title will recall Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, wherein Virgil’s guidance through the stages of Inferno eventually leads to the 9th Circle of Hell, Treachery, reserved for those who betray those closest to them. Circle of Treason, through the voices of two modern day Beatrices, worthily dissects that special place in Hades as fully earned by the traitor Ames.

A PFC when seized he has twice since been promoted. The Taliban has in public demanded $1 million and the release of 21 Afghan prisoners and Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for his release.

The U.S. Government has readily acknowledged that military and diplomatic efforts including negotiations with Bowe Bergdahl’s captors have gone on at a feverish pace for nearly three years, but recently stalled for reasons not entirely clear, partly relating to prisoner exchanges and when the Taliban diplomatic negotiating office in Qatar was suspended in March.

To make his situation public was earlier thought by some to enhance the Taliban’s negotiating position. But senior Government officials have always strongly expressed their support of his release.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has met with the Bergdahls several times himself as have others. Said one high DoD official: ”We want our guy back. Period.” And many other former POWs have joined the chorus on Bowe’s behalf, including NamPows CAPT Jerry Coffey and CMDR Render Crayton who collectively spent 5,000 days in captivity.

During Bowe’s nearly 1,000 days in captivity, the family has been in touch with Washington movers and shakers and their support has been mutual. Former POW SEN John McCain confirms that he has been in constant touch with the officials and that Bowe Bergdahl’s return is of the highest priority.

More recently, the Bergdahls have availed themselves of something not available to those parents who wrote to Berlin in World War II or even the spouses who petitioned the Paris Peace Talks in the 1970’s, the internet. They have even e-mailed someone they think has connections with the Taliban to let them know of the continued interest.

And for nearly two years, they kept utterly silent while the U.S. government worked to free their son. They broke their silence only to bring focus on the situation, not to lash out at anyone or violate any laws or trust.

By all accounts, Bowe Bergdahl himself is a remarkable and very interesting young man. But that is a story for another day. For anyone who has dealt with and appreciated the sustained passion of Rolling Thunder and others who work and care on a daily basis for POW/MIA’s, the Memorial Day tribute and special focus was all about grassroots awareness, a very real, raw love and a visceral, positive moving representation of American patriotism.

We can just hope that it may achieve the ongoing general purpose of placing renewed focus on all POW/MIAs, but specifically, the goal of bringing Bowe home.

Frank W. Buckles, the last surviving American WWI veteran, died on February 27, 2011, at age 110. During the war, he drove Army ambulances and motorcycles, guarded German POWs and then escorted them as they returned home at war's end.

In WWII, while working with White Star Line in Manila, Buckles was taken prisoner by the Japanese for 3 years, 2 months. He was interned at Santo Tomas, where he planted a vegetable garden, helped with therapeutic exercises for a polio victim and tended other POWS.

Buckles pursued neither recognition nor even veterans' benefits after WWI, but following WWII he used VA educational benefits at business school and lVA medical benefits later in life, including for hearing aids.

Buckles was a staunch advocate for veterans was National Commander of the Veterans of WWI, and he was an active supporter of its publication, The Torch. He was an articulate, erudite man who read classics in their original Greek and Latin. He rode his John Deere tractor on his 320-acre farm, into his late 90’s. The farm, which had been in his family since 1732, stood in Charlestown, WV, overlooking the Civil War battle sites of Antietam and Harper’s Ferry.

In his last few years, the national press featured his regular participation in Veterans Day activities at Arlington National Cemetery, with pictures of him in his Army long coat, cap at a jaunty angle with wool scarf and wooden wheelchair, usually near GEN Pershing’s grave.

On one such visit to Washington, D.C., Buckles was driven past, and took notice of, the local D.C. WWI memorial, then a rather seedy-looking edifice hidden in brambles at the back of the Mall off Constitution Avenue.

The memorial had been dedicated on November 11, 1931 by President Herbert Hoover, GEN John J. Pershing and band leader John Philip Sousa. It is a domed, wedding cake-shaped affair, 47 feet tall, small, white and round with Jefferson Memorial-like columns. It had been paid for by locals to honor residents of the District who had served and died (1914-1918).

Through persistent ongoing attention and by capitalizing on the otherwise unwanted personal publicity that came from his visits, Buckles was able to make the case that the site might be suitable as a WWI National Memorial.

At the very least it should be cleaned up, he suggested, calling attention to the broken fieldstone pathways, cracked marble and overgrown scrubs and lawn.

A Foundation was set up and effectuated renewal, using some Federal stimulus money and donations. The site was rededicated on November 11, 2011 and is now cared for by the National Park Service.

Frank Buckles’ idea to make it a National memorial met some opposition from the DC folks who bristled at home rule issues (other options might be Pershing Park in downtown D.C.). Nonetheless, Buckles made his point and, even at age 109, continued to make a difference.

With Frank Buckles, death, when he was honored by President Obama and other national leaders, the legacy of the family name is now carried on at the Naval Submarine Base in New London, Connecticut where a young Navy LT, Robert Buckles, is assigned. His own military inspiration comes as well from an uncle, Army Captain Richard L. Buckles, who died in Vietnam in 1969, (earning the Purple Heart and Silver Star trying to save a comrade).

LT Robert Buckles is related to Frank W. Buckles through a family lineage dating back to 1719. In that year, the first Buckles to arrive in the United States was also named Robert, son of a wealthy English landlord, who left England on a vessel headed for the land of promise. (With the crew's help, he traveled as a stowaway, hiding from authorities in a barrel of sand.)

Since then, genealogical research shows Buckles relatives serving in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWI and WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam as well as present day conflicts. One Milton Abraham Buckles fought in the Civil War and left diaries of his service.

With six months remaining on his enlistment, Milton’s diary entry for February 15, 1865, noted: “We have high hopes of seeing home, and the loved ones who have so long patiently endured trial and hardship for ours and their country’s sake. We have endured and suffered more during the time we have been in the war, but no man now regrets what has passed, but all are glad to have done something for their country”.

Clearly Milton Buckles spoke eloquently for an extended family of patriotic veterans that over generations has been quietly building a tradition of an inspiring American legacy.