On Dec. 20, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Miami awarded
U.S. Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Cornelius Reagan, now 95, the
Prisoner of War Medal — 65 years after Reagan was released by
the Japanese weighing just 92 pounds. Reagan’s P-40 aircraft was
shot down over the Indonesia jungle during World War II,
survived for six months on his wits, tropical fruit, and the
flesh of raw animals. Then Japanese forces found him and locked
him away in a series of internment camps for more than three
years. “I thought to myself, if I can just survive, I’ll be able
to get home,” a beaming Reagan said at the ceremony, as he stood
proudly with his new medal pinned to the lapel of his gray suit.
To gentle laughter, Reagan said he has been recognized before,
with a presidential citation and a Purple Heart for being killed
in action. Because he was missing so long, the military had
presumed Reagan was dead — and told his mother that during the
war. “We’re here to set the record straight,” Japhet Rivera, the
VA’s associate direc