Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 2 : Fall 2010 | Page 24

to survive the bombings and make it out of the city with
their German captors. Harding recalled, “The scene where
Scarlet O’Hara is escaping from Atlanta in Gone with the
Wind, there was an orange glow, Dresden was like that.
When we got about five miles out, we turned around and
looked at the city. It was like the whole world was on fire.”

After being forced to clean up the rubble of Dresden,
the American POWs were rushed along by their German
guards, who were in retreat from the Russian army. The rule
was that if anyone stumbled, he was shot. Near exhaustion,
Harding fell, and heard a man say in a thick English accent,
“I say, old chap, you look a bit down at the bump! Can
I give you a hand?” Harding was helped to his feet by a
British soldier and managed to march on. However, with
the German army in full retreat, it was pandemonium.
Harding and a group of American soldiers managed to slip
away from the Germans, and soon after that were picked up
by Russian soldiers. They took shelter in a farmhouse with a
clear view of the road, and watched as the combined armies
of the Allies marched by. “What was surprising,” Harding
remarked, “was that the Russians were so unkempt and so
dirty, and they brought along the cavalry, actual horses,
all polished, just like they came out on parade, stallions
prancing along. It was a beautiful sight.”

After hiding out in the farmhouse, the American
soldiers managed to get a truck, fixed it up enough to run,
and headed out. The Russian soldiers greeted them with
cries of “Amerikanski!” and cheered them on until they
made it back to the American lines. Upon arrival they
were arrested by an American officer and held in custody.
They were filthy and in rags, and convincing him that they
were American soldiers without uniforms was difficult.
The officer only wanted their truck, so they gave it to
him in exchange for their release. It was a small price to
pay. Following the war, Harding left Albion and came to
Aroostook to work as a lawyer, later becoming a founder of
Northern Maine Community College and a member of the
Legislature.

Vietnam proved to be a much different war than
World War II. While previous wars were against known foes,
in Vietnam, American soldiers faced an enemy who did not
always wear a uniform or have recognizable territory lines.
Ken Peters knew this perhaps more than many of his fellow
soldiers. He came to Aroostook from Eastport, Maine, to
attend the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and after
graduation, taught in Caribou. When he was drafted in
September of 1967, Peters opted to go to Officer Candidate
School, where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
in the Combat Engineers. He spent twenty weeks at Army
Intelligence School in Maryland, landing in Vietnam in
July of 1969.

He was assigned to work in Hue City with a South
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