Mike Shaffer, of Tyler, set out to learn about his great uncle, killed during World War II.
Eight years after his death, the U.S. Navy posthumously awarded Elbert Knox a Purple Heart and a Prisoner of War Medal.Commanding Officer Albert Seeman presents the Prisoner of War medal to Elbert Knox’s grandnephew, Mike Shaffer of Tyler at the Navy Reserve Region Readiness & Mobilization Command in Fort Worth, September 10, 2024.
Shaffer began researching his great uncle four years ago, when he learned about the Prisoner of War Medal. Five generations of his family have served in the military, including Shaffer, who served in the U.S. Army from 1973 to 1976, and Shaffer wondered why his great uncle had never received the medal. He began making phone calls and digging online.Knox enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 19 and served as a cook at an Army hospital in Illinois after World War I.
Knox remained on Wake Island working for Japanese forces until September 1942, when he and about 200 other contractors were relocated. Knox landed at Fukuoka Prisoner of War Camp No. 18 in Yunoki. Medical care and food were scarce, and prisoners were given little clothing to endure frigid winters.Knox was eventually caught fashioning a blanket into an article of clothing — some said it was a shirt, others said socks — to try to stay warm.
Elbert H. Knox, a World War I Army veteran who later worked as a Navy contractor for Morrison Knudson Company constructing a runway on Wake Island during WWII was posthumously honored with the Prisoner of War medal and the Purple Heart medal.“No one should have to go through what we went through,” Shaffer said. “Nobody should have to suffer this way.”
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