Largo, Florida - At the Armed Forces Military Museum, visitors are treated to some walking-talking history, as volunteer Bill Allen shares his experiences from the Korean War.
"I was captured by the Chinese, but the North Koreans ran the camps," Allen tells one couple looking at a display.
Back at his Tierra Verde home, Allen jokes about his collection of military memorabilia, "This is my war room," he says with a laugh. But the tone turns serious when Allen recounts his two-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war.
At Pyoktong Camp 5, he survived brutal cold and just plain brutality. "It wasn't very pleasant. In the first winter alone, we had 3,000 prisoners in our camp and we buried 1,600 within three months," says Allen, who at times had to try and dig graves in the frozen ground.
When Allen was released in 1953, he carried emotional scars he didn't understand. At the time, Veterans Administration doctors didn't understand either. "I was told, 'The only trouble with you guys is you're a bunch of babies,'" says Allen of one exchange with a doctor.
So for decades, Allen struggled with what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. He freely admits that his wife, children and friends suffered because of it too.
"When I got to a point where I was sitting in the closet with a shotgun in my hand, I knew I had to do something," says Allen.
Eventually, Allen did get some counseling. At age 80, he now has a better understanding of PTSD and it's one that he wants to share with others. He frequents mental health centers and now counsels returning vets.
"I've walked the trail that the veterans have walked," he says. And for returning vets now at war with PTSD, Allen's making that trail a bit smoother. "I'm just trying to make it a little bit easier for them."
If you'd like to talk with Allen about PTSD or have him speak to your group or class about his POW experiences, you can email him at wallen2@tampabay.rr.com