Skip to main content

Two veterans groups came together in Memphis, Tennessee Wednesday to celebrate the liberation of two military veterans captured during WWII.

April 2020 marks 75 years of freedom for veterans Luke McLaurine and Olin Pickens, so the Forever Young Veterans and Patriot Guard Riders threw a liberation themed parade for the two men, riding motorcycles and waving flags as they drove through their neighborhoods, reported WMC 5.

“I was captured the 16th or 17th of November, one of those two, and I was liberated on the 29th of April, 1945, about six months,” said McLaurine.

“I was at one camp which was Stalag 3 in Saigon, Poland, and when the Russians started coming through, well the Germans moved us out of there to Neuenbürg to Stalag 11. And when the Americans started coming through Neuenbürg, well they moved us out of there to Stalag 7A in Noodsberg which is close to Munich,” and that’s where he was freed. 

“[During this parade] I got to see more people out here than I’ve seen out in the yard for years,” he said. 

Olin Pickens also received a parade outside his house in Nesbit, Mississippi. Pickens was captured in North Africa and spent 26 months as a POW before being liberated on April 29th, 1945.

26 Comments

Leave a Reply