Wounded and captured in 1944 in France, the German spent his time in Texas a a prisoner of war.

But since then he has kept only fond memories of Camp Bowie and his American captors, and he finally wrote a Brownwood newspaper recently asking how the camp had changed.

His query sparked the interest of A. J. Turner, 79, of Brownwood, who was a chaplain at Camp Bowie during the war and wrote to Gies in Germany.  "I knew I had been there at the time and wondered if I knew him," Turner said.

The two exchanged letters and photographs and finally Gies, 68, arrived in Brownwood last weekend to see the town and what remains of the camp.

Gies and his interpreter, Willi Pohle, spent five days with Turner.

"I wanted to see the country and to revive my memories of the camp.  I had never been out of the camp and didn't get to the city for the two years I was a POW in Camp Bowie," Giles said through his interpreter.

Said Turner, "I remembered him as one of the volunteers who helped clean the chapel.  He was always nice to us and I recognized him as soon as I saw his picture."

One of the highlights of Gies' visit was a tour of the camp's remaining barracks, which have been renovated as industrial facilities.

Gies was especially interested in the senior citizens center, which he remembered as a noncommissioned officers club.  Murals painted by the POWs highlit the main room of the center.

For years, the murals have been covered with wallpaper and forgotten, but during a renovation of the building in the 1970's the wall was stripped for painting and the work was discovered.

A Brownwood artist retouched the art work, and Gies saw it during his trip.

"I am not an artist, but I knew some of the men who painted the mural," Gies recalled.

While he was a prisoner, Gies said, he was a cook in the officers' mess hall and helped keep the chapel in good order.  It was there that he met Turner.

"I look back on those two years when I was a prisoner of war as the best years of my life" up to that time, he said.

"I was glad when taken prisoner by the Americans," Gies said.  "I had been having a hard time and from the moment I was captured, I was happy.  The Americans were always friendly to me."
Gies, who had been attached to the German Coast Naval Artillery, was brought to Texas as a POW on Sept. 19, 1944.

"I had always, even as a young boy in Germany, thought about how wonderful it would be to come to America," Gies said.

He said he has yet to come fact to face with a real cowboy.

After the war, Gies worked as a butcher in his father's shop, an din the evenings he played in a band at an American club, he said.  He now is semi retired, working part time at a funeral home.