If Joseph Lovoi could speak with Army Spc. Alex Jimenez, he would tell him that "life is worth it." Cooperate with your captors, Lovoi would say.
And pray.
"Anything to save your life," former U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Lovoi said last night from his Methuen home. "You're just a kid. Your whole life is ahead of you."
And then, with his voice quivering, forcing forward the words: "Goddammit. You shouldn't be there in the first place."
An emotional Lovoi spoke after learning Jimenez was believed captured by al-Qaida during an ambush in Iraq Saturday. His reaction: "Oh my God."
He knows how it feels. After his plane was shot down over Austria in World War II, he was taken prisoner by the Nazis and held in Germany for six months in 1944 and 1945.
At the time, he took it as a reality he had to face. But later, it changed.
"When I retired, my world just caved in on me. All of the sudden, the post-traumatic stress came to life. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep," Lovoi said.
John Katsaros knows it too. Like Lovoi, his plane was shot down in 1944. Katsaros went down over France. Germans captured him for four days, but he escaped with the help of French resistance fighters. Six weeks later, he was captured again and held for two days. Again he escaped.
"The feeling is like being a man without a country and survival is only with the help of other people and yourself," Katsaros, 83, of Haverhill said.
To be captured in Iraq would be "more of a traumatic experience than I've experienced in my life," former U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Katsaros said. "The terrorists out there have no feeling for life, their life included."
Katsaros' family had no idea where he was from March 20 to July 6 of 1944. That feeling, felt now by Jimenez's family, must be horrible, Katsaros said.
"You can imagine what this family is going through, knowing what these terrorists do to people," he said. "We can only pray for them now."
Merrimack Valley
POWs' advice to Jimenez: Do 'anything to save your life'
- Merrimack Valley
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Health violations issued for historic Osgood Street property
Andover officials have issued numerous health-law citations against Susan Odle, owner of this historic pre-Revolutionary property at 116 Osgood St., over the piles of full trash bags piling up around the property.
ANDOVER — A broken-down mini-van filled with clutter, beat-up furniture and weathered toys are scattered across the historic Osgood Farm property.
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Neighbors have said the unsightly materials have been piling up in the yard and inside the home at 116 Osgood St. for years. But the latest addition — hundreds of full trash bags in the front yard — has become a cause for concern for many of them. -
Still moving in the same comfortable rhythm
Editor's Note: In the spirit of Valentine's Day, The Eagle-Tribune asked readers to tell us stories about their lasting relationships — how they worked through the challenges over the years and kept their love healthy and alive. The series continues through tomorrow, highlighting compelling stories of Love's Enduring Promise.
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Sending the kids away: Strikers' children went to safety in Vermont
When Salvatore Savinelli was just 4 years old, he hopped on a train bound for Barre, Vt., with 35 other children and his father as the group made its way out of the city in the midst of one of the biggest strikes in U.S. history.
Continued ... - Vermont town proud of its role
- State officials asked to investigate Adams
- Love's Enduring Promise: By Peggy's side
- Despite new law, local towns say no to GIC
- Mass. schools suspend thousands under 'zero-tolerance'
- Don't print that
- Pets of the week
- Community calendar
- Saturday, February 11, 2012
- Early morning, two-alarm fire on High Street, Haverhill drives family out of house
- Back on the home front
- Marine gets big welcome
- Gym damage forces shift of voting site
- Five candidates to run for Andover's top board
- Burglars hit fire damaged home
- Church celebrates renovations, anniversary
- Couple caught stealing $889 in groceries
- Man charged with hat theft
- Man arrested after chase
- Friday, February 10, 2012
- Spanish class exchange lets LHS, Phillips Academy students discover common interests
- Write your own success stories, students told
- State of city deadline missed again
- Retiring moderator's advice: 'Stay out of arguments'
- Man facing child porn charges said that he attended Merrimack
- Lantigua fails to file campaign finance reports
- Methuen, Lawrence Democrats to elect state convention delegates
- Councilor withdraws customer service crackdown
- Moran planning a run for 17th Essex Representative
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