Country Cottage Honors Six Local Veterans

By Staff
Melissa Dozier-Cason
The Country Cottage honored its veterans Friday during a special luncheon celebrating the Veteran's Day holiday.
The Cottage currently has six World War II veterans living at the facility. The veterans were given a coffee mug from General Troy Oliver and a small American flag in observance of the holiday.
"I want you to know that we appreciate your sacrifice because with you [soldiers who served in World War II], our country would not be what it is today," Oliver said as he presented them with a their mug.
The guest speaker for the event was Ben Guyton, son of Benson Guyton, a World War II Prisoner of War. Guyton talked of his father's trials as a POW.
Guyton was captured in May 1942 in the Philippines, and was not released until the war was over in August 1945. During this time, he was sent to several prisons. He ended up at a prison in Japan.
Before he was taken prisoner, Guyton buried his dress uniform and fraternity pin in order to keep the Japanese from taking it from him. After the war was over, Guyton went back to the Philippines and retrieved his uniforms and his pin from the earth.
When the war was over, Guyton and other Non-Commissioned officers at the prison camp took control of the camp. The prisoners were given food and other supplies dropped by air attached to red, white and blue parachutes.
"The soldiers took those parachutes and made a flag," Guyton said. "The next day the United States flag flew over the prison."
Benson Guyton died in 1998, which is why he was not able to present his story himself. Before his death, he donated one of his dress uniforms to a history museum near his hometown in Mississippi.
Portions of Guyton's diary written when he was a POW can be found in the book Of Rice and Men, published after WWII.