American ex-POW marks 63rd anniversary of capture by Germans

Sitting comfortably at his dining room table in his home west of Chiefland, 83-year-old Raymond O. Knisley Jr. spoke on Dec. 31, 2007 about a life-changing event that happened to him on Dec. 31, 1944.

New Year's Eve 1944 was 63 years ago, but Knisley remembers being captured by German soldiers during World War II -- like it was yesterday.

It was about 2 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1945 when the Army private heard small arms fire, he said.

Knisley had dug himself a snug foxhole, as he was inclined to do, complete with some brush to make him comfy. He heard a commotion and thought some of the other men in the 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron Mechanized had captured German prisoners.

"I put on my jacket and boots, and it's a good thing I did," he said. "Just as I was getting out of my foxhole, I had a German rifle barrel pointed right at my nose."

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