Dr. Alvin Charles Poweleit
Kentucky Post, Saturday, 5 October 1940, page 3
Appointments of Dr. Alvin Poweleit and Dr. Vernon Sloan as members of the Newport Board of Health were approved late Friday by Newport city commissioners.
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Kentucky Post, Saturday, 27 June 1942, page 1
Captain Alvin C Poweleit, Newport physician, reported missing since the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, has been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, relatives said Saturday. The award, disclosed first in letters from Newport soldiers stationed with Dr. Poweleit, was made after the 35 year old physician and another soldier rescued a sergeant from a burning vehicle.
Following the invasion of the last Phillipine strongholds by the Japanese, Capt. Poweleit's wife, Mrs. Loretta Thesing Poweleit, 327 Park avenue, Newport, received word from the War Department that her husband was missing. No other word has been received since, members of the family said Saturday. Last letter from Dr. Poweleit was dated Feb. 16 and was received by Mrs. Poweleit several weeks later. The Poweleit's have two children, Alvin Jr. and Judith Ann. Dr. Poweleit is a brother of Arthur Poweleit, Newport and a half brother of Roy Poweleit.
Dr. Poweleit was called to active service before the Pearl Harbor bombing as a lieutenant in the ROTC. He received the promotion to captain en route to the Phillipines.
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Kentucky Post, Monday, 17 May 1943, page 1
Fourteen months of unwavering hope had been rewarded Monday for Mrs. Loretta Poweleit, 327 Park avenue, Newport. It was on March 21, 1942, that the War Department notified Mrs. Poweleit that her husband, Capt. Alvin C Poweleit, was missing in action in the Philippines. Capt. Poweleit, a graduate of the University of Kentucky, was stationed on Bataan Peninsula. When Bataan fell, he was taken prisoner with all the other Americans who were unable to escape. Following his graduation from the University of Kentucky, where he won the heavyweight boxing championship, Capt. Poweleit took a pre-medical course at the University of Cincinnati, then attended the University of Louisville College of Medicine, from which he graduated.
He served his intership at St Elizabeth Hospital, Covington. Prior to entering the Army, he had his office at Third Street and Washington avenue, Newport.
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Kentucky Post, Wednesday, 16 August 1944, page 3
DMrs. Alvin W Poweleit, 327 Park Avenue, Newport, has received word from her husband Captain Poweleit, who has been a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines for the past three years. Captain Poweleit, a physician of Newport, stated he was well and they should not worry about him. This was the first word Mrs. Poweleit has received from her husband since Aug 3, 1943. They have two children, Alvin and Judy.
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Kentucky Post, Wednesday, 24 October 1945, page 1
Major Alvin C Poweleit visited his home at 327 Park avenue, Newport, recently following 40 long months as prisoner of the Japanese. Prior to his entry into the Army in February 1941, Maj. Poweleit was a member of the hospital staffs of Booth Hospital. Following the fall of Bataan, he was captured by the Japanese on April 9, 1942. His first three places of interment were Camp O'Donnell, Camp Bongaong and Camp Cabanatuan, all in the Philippines. He spent 10 months in each of those three places. His last months were spent at Shirakaw in Formosa, where the interned men suffered their worst treatment.
"My duties most of the time were the care of the American sick and wounded. At Camp Bongabong, I tended to the needs of the captured Philippine guerillas," he stated. Maj. Poweleit stated he believed he was spared many beatings because of a Jap grammar book he bought in Honolulu on this way to the Philippines. "From it I learned a little Japanese, enough to understand phrases and what they wanted to do while in the prison camps."
Major Poweleit left this home Friday to report to Thayer General Hospital, Nashville, Tenn. He said he expected to remain there only a short while and he expected a discharge in the near future. After discharge he will return to his home in Newport.
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Kentucky Post, Wednesday, 5 October 1949, page 6
Dr. Alvin C Poweleit, eye, ear, nose and throat specialist will tell his personal experiences in the Pacific Theater in World War II.