ROLL CALL: It is with great sadness; we learn the news that World War II superstar, Mr. Fiske Hanley II, POW, American Hero, dies at 100, leaving a legacy.

Early in the afternoon on Sunday, August 9 came the saddening news of the passing of one of our nation's heroes and a dear friend, Fiske Hanley II.

Born in Brownwood, Texas, and raised in Fort Worth, young Fiske Hanley spent his days dreaming of flying airplanes. Therefore, following graduation from Paschal High School in 1938, he went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Texas Tech's new aeronautical engineering in 1943.

A year earlier, he had received word he had been selected to serve in the Air Force, although he was given an allowance to graduate first. So, following graduation in 1943, Fiske left for basic training in Boca Raton. There he would become commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned as a B-29 flight engineer with the 504th Bombardment Group (HV).

Soon he was involved in bombing missions over Japan. Unfortunately, the seventh mission resulted in his plane being shot down. Sadly, he did not parachute to safety. Instead, he landed on Japanese soil, being captured by the Japanese Kempeitai. Yet, he has not held prisoner as just a POW. He was considered a particular prisoner of war because he was a flight engineer of the B-29 super fortress. Sixty-four men from his mission joined him in the POW camp. In all, 2000 prisoners were held there.

For six grueling months, Fiske suffered at the hands of the Kempeitai. He endured severe starvation seeing as how individual prisoners received fewer rations than pows. In addition to torture, he received no clothing, no personal hygiene products, and no medical care. Many times, Fiske wondered why he was chosen to survive while so many perished. He continued to survive 14 different situations, which should have killed him.

"Once even speaking with a preacher at a church he had spoken at. That preacher told him, 'because God wanted you to tell what happened and that is what you are doing, Mr. Hanley,'" said Mark Donahew, President of Roll Call in Fort Worth, where Fiske was a member. Of the 2000 prisoners with him, only 60 survived to walk out the day they were liberated on August 29, 1945.

After returning home, Fiske would become employed for General Dynamics as an engineer. He would remain with the company until his retirement 44 years later. He experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the form of nightmares that haunted him in the middle of the night. Fiske would resort to putting those terrors in his mind onto paper as a means of dealing. The resulting product would be his first book, "Accused American War Criminal."

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