View a Video Greeting from SFC Ettmueller

REMARKS: RELEASED BY PRG on 3 Mar 73

SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977 Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and spelling errors).

HARRY L. ETTMUELLER Sergeant First Class - United States Army Captured: February 5, 1968 Released: March 5, 1973

"We heard the wing fins overhead at times. It was a tremendous joy to hear the B-52s going over. lt was exhilarating. That's what got me home." This statement reveals the enthusiasm of Sergeant Harry Ettmueller who returned home, his spirit unbroken after five years of imprisonment by the Viet Cong.

A crowd of 2500 echoed his enthusiasm in their cheers of welcome as they greeted him at the airport. The Army Band backed them up as it played "The Army Goes Rolling Along."

Sergeant Ettmueller was born in Pleasantville, N.J. in 1944 and first entered the Army in January 1963. He also trained at Fort Dix and was stationed at Fort Monmouth before being transferred to Korea. He served as a TV repairman and was then assigned to the Armed Forces Network Vietnam in April, 1967. He was captured in the city of Hue when the city came under attack in February, 1968.

Photo left - Harry Ettmueller in Hue, 1968.

Ten years ago Sergeant Ettmueller enlisted. He returned from his first tour of duty in Vietnam in February 1967, then volunteered to go back. He called home on January 23rd, five years later President Nixon announced his peace plans on January 23rd and that was to bring the men home.

He stated that his captors made a mockery of religion and that his life, generally in the camp was like "living in a vacuum."

Through all this time his mother, Mrs. Bernice Ettmueller, believed that he would come home someday. She said, "I would have gone over to Vietnam myself, but I always knew he would be all right." Now he is home with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ettmueller, and his sisters Doris and Loretta, who kept the Merry Christmas sign in the front window anticipating his return.

Sergeant Ettmueller finds a lot of changes have taken place since he left. "Women's clothes are for the better," he thinks. "Long hair's fine, but you have to look close to tell which is man or woman." As for the attitudes here, some are good and some are bad. He found it hard to believe that there was an anti-war movement; when his captors told him about it, he thought "they were a bunch of liars." However, his family remained constant. His initial reaction to being home is that the country has changed 25 years in five years. Much of it we can hope Sergeant Ettmueller will find for the better.

Above, the United States Ambassador to the Phillipines welcomes Mr. Ettmueller on his way home in 1973.

August 2001 Harry and his children reside in Texas.