Residents Put Up Ribbons in Support of War Prisoners

Simi Valley resident Thomas L. Hoard II went door to door in his neighborhood Friday to rally Ventura County support for the three American prisoners of war in Yugoslavia.

Hoard did what others already have done in the hometowns of the three soldiers and elsewhere--he asked neighbors to show their support by tying yellow ribbons around their trees.

“If everybody put up a little yellow ribbon, maybe they’ll hear that we’re doing it here in America,” said Hoard, as tears welled up in his eyes. “And it will give them a reason to fight to come home, instead of giving up.”

As U.S. missiles rained down on Belgrade, other county residents joined in showing support for the prisoners.

Along Phipps Avenue in Simi Valley, Marlena Havard was one of a handful of neighbors who agreed with Hoard that putting up ribbons was important. Although she said she hasn’t been following the situation closely, she feels for the troops and their families.

“God’s in control of the whole thing. He’ll bring them home safely,” said Havard, 32. “A lot of people need to just pray for what’s going on over there.”

Below the thick ribbon she had wrapped around a tree in her front yard, Havard taped to the trunk a quote from the Bible: “I have chosen you. So do not fear, I am with you . . . “

As a veteran, Hoard decided to canvass his neighborhood after seeing pictures of the three prisoners. Hoard served in the Army during Desert Storm, but was stationed in New York.

“The only thing people can do is show a little, ‘I love you, come home,’ ” he said.

At veterans’ lodges in Ventura, people said prisoners of war are an uncomfortable reality of military conflict.

“When you sign up, you know it can happen,” said John Walton, who served in World War II and was spending the afternoon at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 1679. “We don’t want it to happen to you. But it’s one of those things; it goes with the job.”

Still, he said, if “anything happens to those troops, [Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic] ought to be hung. And we should hang him.”

Mel Richardson, who was an Army squad leader in Korea, predicted Yugoslavia will continue to show the blurry images of the three captured soldiers to prod the United States and its allies into backing off.

But, he said, “with a war going on, you cannot stop the action for three people, as bad as it sounds.”

Richardson said he would advise President Clinton to press on with the NATO campaign, even to escalate the bombing.

“If three people are going to cause him to ease up now, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble later on,” he said.

There is solidarity among all soldiers, regardless of when and where they served, Mike Bera said. He said he felt angry, frustrated and sad as images of the captive American soldiers passed on the television screen.

He could only imagine what those men might be feeling or how scared they must be.

“I feel real sorry for them. What they’re going through right now has got to be really tough,” said Bera, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 10049, in Simi Valley. “Right now, they’re probably thinking the worst, like they’re going to die.

“It’s too bad it had to come to this.”

Times staff writer Coll Metcalfe contributed to this story.

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