POW Cables He's On Way Home

POW Cables He’s On Way Home

Ypsilantian Says He ‘Feels Like New Man’

Added joy came yesterday to Mrs. Mae Woodson of Ypsilanti, the mother of Pfc. Robert W. Fletcher, Washtenaw county's first released prisoner of war.

Mrs. Woodson received a cable from her 21-year-old son and was excitedly showing it to fellow employees at the Varsity Laundry here.

Dated Aug. 9 from Tokyo, it read:

"Dear Mom,
Released from prison camp. Feels good to be free again. Never so happy, to be an American as today. Thanks to God. Unhurt. Feel like a new man already. On my way home by boat. Fondest love.
Bobby.”

Pfc. Fletcher was reported missing in action in Korea on Nov, 28, 1950. A year later he was reported captured by the North Koreans. His mother had received about a dozen letters from him from prison camps, but until early last Saturday morning, had heard no word for the previous two months.

Mrs. Woodson lives at 1052 Monroe St., Ypsilanti.