P.O.W.: A Sailor's Story - Tapa blanda

Ralph Carlo Poness was born in the village of Fort Montgomery, New York on January 10, 1915. He graduated from Highland Falls High School and went to attend Clarkson College in Northern New York State though ended up transferring to New York University. In 1937 he joined the Navy and was stationed in the Phillipine Islands where he was captured by the Japanese after their defeat if the Americans at Bataan and Corregidor. Ralph spent the entirety of the war in Japanese Prison Camps. Upon his release, he returned to New York and continued working for the Navy for the next eleven years. Ralph C. Poness was honored with a Purple Heart for having endured Prisoner of War camps and for sustaining wounds both physical and mental. Poness passed away in January 2002. He is survived by his two sons and five grandchildren.