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Eagle photo/ Robert Reed
Urban Hopmann, Texas A &M class of '39 and a decorated veteran of captors during the 39 months he was a prisoner of war. Hopmann is
World War II, managed to keep his Aggie ring hidden from his Japanese shown in the inset picture in his A &M uniform and senior boots in 1939.
Ring of onor
Ex -POW says training at A &M saved his life in WWII
By MELINDA RICE Japanese and their possessions were confiscated, but
Eagle staff writer Hopmann managed to hang on to his Aggie ring.
The gold is worn smooth now, but he still wears it
Urban Hopmann has been called a hero. proudly on his right hand. "They got my Elgin pocket
He just calls himself an Atggie. watch and my pistol, but they didn't get my Aggie ring!"
Hopmann, who graduated from Texas A &M in 1939, he said.
fought in the Philippines during World War II. He earned At first, Hopmann concealed it in the waistband of his
a Silver Star, a Purple Heart and a Legion of Merit Cita- khaki pants. He then buried it in some loose soil by a post
tion before the Japanese took him prisoner on Corregidor at the foot of his cot at his first prison camp.
in February of 1942. "I was afraid somebody would check my khaki pants
During the 39 months as a POW, Hopmann endured and get it — even in the barracks," said Hopmann as he
hard work, beatings, disease, hunger and the threat of recalled the desperation of his fellow inmates and the
death by friendly fire. ruthlessness of his captors. "I just kept it hidden all the
And now the Aggie, who was in College Station recently time."
for a ceremony in his honor at the Corps of Cadets Center, He said the Japanese guards would have beaten him if
credits his training at A &M with his survival. they had known he kept the ring.
"It gave me more enthusiasm, more spirit to keep go- From the Philippines, Hopmann, then a first lieutenant,
ing," said the 78- year -old Hopmann on a recent visit to was shipped to Japan to work in the steel mills at Osaka.
College Station. I
American prisoners were routinely searched by the Please see RING, page A9
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Ring
would die. Once he even was left Hopmann was liberated on
for dead. Sept. 8, 1945 and eventually be-
I remembered two guys who came a rice farmer in Arkansas.
From Al died and the rats came and ate on Even then, he said his Aggie
them. That gave me some incen- training stayed with him.
tive," he said. "Sometimes things got tough
A Japanese civilian who and money was short, but you
About 200 men were loaded into worked in the factory with Hop- have to keep going," he said.
the rusty hold of a cargo ship for mann started slipping him food to
transport. help him survive. Once it was a Now Hopmann lives with his
Hopmann dug up his ring and can of sweetened condensed milk sorb Bill, a 1972 graduate of A &M,
wore it around his neck with his that Hopmann tied inside his in Florida. He suffers from a var-
dog tags. pants leg with a string. When the iety of health problems sparked.
For 18 days they were at sea. Japanese guards called the by his time as a prisoner of war,
Once a day, a bucket of rice and prisoners to attention, the string but the younger Hopmann said
another of water were lowered broke and the can of milk rolled his father never complains.
into the hold. Another bucket was out in front of the commander Hopmann does not talk about
lowered for use as a latrine, but who demanded to know whose it the war often, but he gabs en-
with most of the m en suffering was. thusiastically about his Aggie
from dysentery and sea sickness, "I spoke up and told them it was days. "All ' Aggies talk about
it was not sufficient. mine. I couldn't let someone else themselves and brag," he said
In Japan, the men were worked take the blame. The Aggies through a grin. But he does not
hard and fed little. Hopmann was wouldn't have allowed ' that," like to be called a hero. He said he
so weak, he said he thought he Hopmann said. was just doing his job.
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