Joe Maloy's guiding philosophy in life has always been, "Do the right thing, no matter what." His sense of what is right guided him through his youth in Alabama, service in World War II, almost a full year as a POW, a successful career and retirement.

For many in Fayette County, Joe Maloy's name is synonymous with the Olympics. Maloy was one of the representative torch bearers for Fayette County. More importantly to many, he was the representative for the veterans of World War II. Maloy, an avid runner since 1967, held the names of fellow POWs and others written on a piece of paper in the palm of his "torch" hand while he ran.

Maloy was born on Nov. 8, 1923 in Montgomery, Ala. He will celebrate his 75th birthday on Sunday. He grew up in Montgomery, going straight from high school into the Air Corps in 1942. Maloy was anxious to be a pilot like most of the boys at that time. However, he opted for Gunnery School as it was faster and he didn't want to take a chance the war would end before he finished school.

In 1942, many, if not most, of the news stories centered on the 8th Air Force in England.

"It seemed that all of the real action in the air war in Europe was being done by the 8th Air Force," Maloy said. "I hoped to be a part of it." He became part of the 8th Army in Dec. 1943.

At the end of the war, the 8th Air was the largest single unit and the most highly decorated unit. Also, more people were ultimately killed in the unit than all the Marines killed in battles in the Pacific. "I didn't know that or I might not have been so gung-ho to join them," Maloy noted.

By the time Maloy joined the 8th Air Force, they had swelled from 12 bombers to 1,000. Weather permitting, about 44 heavy four-engine groups, sometimes together, sometimes split, would fly to various targets in Germany and occupied Europe. Maloy would rise at 3 a.m., eat breakfast, get ready to fly then wait on the weather. There were two types of planes, the B-17 and B-24. Maloy's position on the plane was on the "underbelly" in an aluminum and plexiglass turret. It was too cramped for a parachute leaving him dependent on someone to get him out if something serious happened.

With a one-in-four chance of surviving a mission, "something serious" happened frequently on missions. Forty percent of the airmen were shot down before their fifth mission. Maloy was shot down on his fourth.

The planes flew at an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet. A round trip mission from Wendling to Berlin and back took roughly eight hours. When the planes reached their destination, the sky might be black with the smoke from anti-aircraft guns. The German's would send 100 to 200 planes up to counter the American attack.

On his third mission, the plane lost an engine over their target. Maloy noted he could hear the shrapnel bouncing off the planes, sounding like hail on a tin roof. They started falling back behind the formation, continuing to be strafed. Finally they lost another engine and both the pilot and co-pilot were mortally wounded. Maloy was also wounded, having shrapnel in his shoulder and back. The remaining crew finally had to jump out. Luckily Maloy landed near the navigator and the two hid out together.

Thinking they had made it into Holland they talked to some children, asking them if they were Dutch. The kids said, "Yah, Deutch." What the navigator and Maloy didn't realize was that "Deutch" meant German. Shortly after hiding in a ravine they were surrounded by German soldiers the children had hailed. Maloy says he likes to tease the navigator that he wasn't that good a navigator since he didn't know they were still 10 miles from the Dutch border.

They spent the night in a nearby town, being transferred by a bus and train to Frankfurt, Germany. "Everyone in the Air Corps went there for interrogation," he indicated.

One incident stood out in Maloy's mind, the German sergeant checking dog tags yelled at them in English with a Brooklyn accent. "You had to be careful. A lot of Germans from the States went back. They'd stick one in with you to try and find out as much as they could. We learned to trust only those we knew personally."

"One guy in my squadron was called out," Maloy continued. "We thought something serious was going to happen. It turned out the reason was one of the officers had recognized his name. He had worked for the soldier's father in Milwaukee before the war."

From Frankfurt, Maloy went by train to his next destination, Stalag 17 in Austria. He and about 40 other soldiers were crammed into two-thirds of a small box car. A German soldier with a machine gun laid claim to the other third of the car. For three days they had to take turns standing and laying down due to the shortage of space. At intervals, the train stopped and some watery soup and "cardboard" bread was thrust into the car.

Stalag 17 held around 4,500 American airmen and 30,000 Russians, Serbs, French, British and other nationalities. The Americans were segregated from the rest of the POWs due to the extreme suspicion and fear of the Germans.

The German propaganda painted Americans as "Flying Gangsters." The German press capitalized on a number of incidents when portraying the airmen as "Luft Gangsters." A B-17 with "Murder Incorporated" painted on it had crashed in Germany, leaving the picture intact. "Murder Incorporated" had been the name of a group of American gangsters specializing in murder for hire in the 30s. According to the German press, the "Luft gangsters" destroyed schools, hospitals, churches and nursing homes on every mission.

"We must have destroyed every church, hospital and school in Germany the way they wrote it," said Maloy.

In May 1944, the Russians were only about 50 miles from Vienna. The Germans decided to transfer the Americans to Hitler's home town in Bavaria. Hitler's "last grand scheme" was to get as many allied prisoners to one location then use them as bargaining chips. While this never materialized, Maloy's troop was one that made the trip.

They broke the soldiers into groups of 500 and marched them across the length of Austria, over 200 miles in 18 days. They had practically no food on the trip and had to resort to eating grass, tree bark and a few precious stolen apples. They drank water out of ditches and horse troughs. On the trip they were strafed by Russian airplanes on occasion, even though they would display small homemade American flags. To make matters worse, it rained or snowed all but two days of the trip.

Asked about his mind set during this experience, Maloy stated, "As I grew up I was highly patriotic. People deferred to the vets of World War I, they were held in awe. We didn't really want to go off to war and get killed. However, when the war started, my worst fear was that I wouldn't get in and be able to do my part for our country. Once I was at war, in the place where I was, I couldn't let my buddies down. I really didn't think about being patriotic or about any philosophy."

"Somehow it never dawned on me that I wouldn't make it back. I didn't see myself getting killed."

On the long trek to Bavaria, Maloy said two incidents stood out in his mind. On about the eighth day the German guards came running in screaming "The war is over. The 'Jew' Roosevelt is dead." The POWs explained to the guard that they still had to worry about Patton and Eisenhower and, even if the President was dead, the war wasn't over.

About three days later as they left a small Bavarian village, they started hearing what sounded like pistol and rifle fire. Coming around a blind area they encountered about a 1,000 people coming toward them. "They looked like someone went into a biology lab and stretched some skin across bones. They were wearing striped outfits with a large yellow star on the chest. German soldiers in trucks were running them down, shooting them in the head and killing them. The roads were littered with bodies."

As it turned out, they had erroneously strayed close to the Matuhausen Camp near Lentz, Austria. While it was not a well-known camp, Maloy later discovered that between 30,000 and 40,000 people were murdered there.

He noted the incident gave many the incentive to live. That was the first that any of the POWs knew of Hitler's plan to exterminate all of the Jews. They spent close to two hours sitting in front of the camp while the German's decided whether to put them in the camp or continue on to their destination.

"We maintained a military organization, always operating just like we were in regular service. We decided we would fight rather than go into the camp," Maloy said.

Luckily, the Germans chose to continue on to their original destination. They arrived in late April to a beautiful area on the Inn River. The guards herded the POWs into a one-acre grouping of trees and set up artillery around them in cleared areas.

On May 3, American troops came across the one remaining bridge in a jeep brigade and freed the POWs. They were sent down the road about five miles to a town the Americans held. They were there helping for one day before being put on a plane to France, then on a "rusty boat" to the United States.

While on leave, the war ended and Maloy returned to civilian life. He attended the University of Alabama, receiving a Masters in Engineering. In his second year of college he married Ida.

Prior to going overseas, Joe had a "sort-of" girlfriend. While he was a POW and out of touch, her family moved away. By the time Joe tracked down his "sort-of' girl friend, she had met another soldier and gotten married.

Maloy said, "I think her father felt some sort of obligation to me because he introduced me to Ida who worked for him in his insurance business."

After graduating, Maloy went to work first for St. Regis in Florida, then for Dupont. When the couple's son, Bruce, was born, Joe decided it was time to find a job which didn't entail a lot of travel. In 1955, he started work for Kimberly Clark, retiring in 1988 after a very successful career. Joe was instrumental in assisting many in attaining their goals and is proud of his accomplishments.

The Maloy's had planned to retire in North Carolina as they had spent a considerable amount of time there. However, family obligations and the colder winters motivated them to move to Georgia. Their first choice destination was Newnan. Joe said it was ham sandwiches that drew him to Newnan.

When he returned to the States after the war, he took a bus from Atlanta to Alabama. One of the stops the bus made was in Newnan. In small towns lacking restaurants it was customary for vendors to come onto the buses to sell drinks and sandwiches to travelers. In Newnan, a lady brought sandwiches on the bus not to sell, but to give to the soldiers. When she saw Joe, she said, "Honey, you better take two." The warm impression Joe had of Newnan stayed with him through the years.

However, when Joe and Ida reached the intersection at Ga. Highway 34, they decided to go left to look at Peachtree City. They liked the city, "especially the cart paths for running purposes," noted Joe.

When Joe first started running in 1967 there were no "running" shoes and it was considered strange. Recently, Joe has had to curtail his running due to the potential heart problems. He continues to walk six miles every day but Sunday and is a member of the Peachtree City Running Club. He will receive his "10,000 mile jacket" this Christmas. To be awarded the jacket, it is necessary to run or walk at least 1,000 miles in a one-year period.

Maloy was chosen as an Olympic torch bearer more because of his concern that veterans be represented than his long-term running skills. Coca-Cola, the organization responsible for the torch bearers, had asked for heros to be nominated. When Joe looked at the final list of chosen torch bearers, he saw many community "heros" but noticed there were not any veterans. He wrote to the president of Coca-Cola stating the importance of recognizing the group that had given so much to our country.

As a result, Joe was asked to be a torch bearer and to represent his fellow prisoner's of war and other veterans.

"I thought some might think it was a little corny to carry the names of my friends and fellow POWs in my hand, but it was important to me," said Maloy.

The Maloys attend the First Baptist Church of Peachtree City. Ida is a volunteer with the Fayette Community Hospital. The pair plan to stay in Peachtree City, near their son, his wife, Leslie and grandchild, 13-year-old Whitney. Bruce and Leslie are both attorneys and live in Morningside in Atlanta.

Joe B. Maloy, Jr.

Born: Nov. 8, 1923, Montgomery, Ala.

Family: Wife Ida Weston, son and daughter-in-law Bruce and Leslie, granddaughter Whitney

Record of Public Service: U.S. 8th Air Force, 392 Bomb Group, 557 Squadron, Ball Turret Gunner B-24 (Liberator) Bomber

War stories: P.O.W. from April 29, 1944 to May 3, 1945 at Stalag 17

Former Occupation: Manager of Personnel and Public Relations for Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Professor of Engineering and Engineering Management at Pensacola Jr. College, University of Tennessee (Nashville and Memphis) and Augusta College

Accomplishments: "Stalag 17," a Broadway play, 1950-52; Movie with William Holden, 1953; Carried the Olympic Torch to honor veterans in 1996

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