Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           985/549-2341/fax 985-549-2061
    Date: 11/9/01
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   24

WWII POW SPEAKS ON ADVANCEMENT OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY, WAR
EXPERIENCES
By Dominick Trupiano Jr.                 
     HAMMOND -- Harold Bennett, a former prisoner of war during World War II was
around before most people had even heard of computers. He has seen computers progress from
the earliest versions to today's modern systems. 
     On Tuesday, October 30, as one of 75 guest lecturers at Southeastern Louisiana
University's Business & Technology Week Program, Bennett told Richard David Ramsey's
microcomputer applications class,   "I can remember inputting data into a computer by using
punch cards."  Bennett is a member of the Business Advisory Board for Southeastern's Students
in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Program, which co-sponsored the lecture.
     Anyone who can recall the Commodore 120, one of the earliest "modern" computers,
should get together Harold Bennett for coffee, when visiting his hometown of Kentwood. 
Bennett also described how computers much bigger and slower computers were in the late '40s
and early '50s. What now happens in seconds on a laptop would have taken hours on a machine
the size of a university classroom, he said.  
     Bennett has extensive knowledge of Louisiana's Department of Health and Human
Resources (DHHR) from which he retired as Personnel Director. He agreed with most of the
students in the class that computers are definitely part of the future of governmental agencies and
of society as a whole.  
     Bennett has endured many hardships in life that are perhaps easier to fathom in the
aftermath of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan.
     For 16 months he was a prisoner of war during World War II, in Stalag 17, the
German/Austrian POW camp made famous by a movie of that name.  The events in the film are 
                             (MORE)
BENNETT -- Add One
similar to what Bennett endured during the war.  He distributed to the class secretly made
photographs of the stark conditions. 
     Before his capture Bennett's main mission during World War II was similar to the current
bombing in Afghanistan.  He flew on a B24 and bombed strategic military targets such as
railroads, Luftwaffe bases, and oil reserves. 
     Just two members of his burning aircraft were able to parachute and survive when the
plane was shot down over Germany.  At one point Bennett thought a German officer was going
to have him executed, but the threat turned out to be hollow.  He and other prisoners were able to
befriend some of the German and Austrian guards, who were generally nicer to the Americans
and British than to the Russians.  
     Bennett grew up playing soccer in Kentwood, and he and some of the other prisoners
formed a soccer team in Stalag 17.  At first the German commander refused to let the prisoners
play the guards but finally relented and permitted the game, which Bennett and his fellow
Americans somehow managed to win.  He was liberated in 1945 by General George Patton's
army. 

CUTLINE....
Kentwood's Harold Bennett, a member of the Business Advisory Board for Southeastern
Louisiana University's Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Program, spoke at Southeastern's
Business & Technology Week on his experiences as a POW during World War II and on his later
observations on the development of computers.  Pictured after the lecture, which Bennett
presented to Dr. Richard David Ramsey's microcomputer applications class, are (left to right)
Bryan Palmer, Loranger; Elisa Costanza, Independence; Bennett; and Ro'Shundria Tate,
Kentwood.
CONTACT PERSON:
R. David Ramsey, Ph.D.
Box 10282, Southeastern Louisiana University
Hammond, LA  70402-0282
(985) 549-3075