Ledyard — For 56 years Ernie Plantz didn't talk about the 42 months he spent in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on an Indonesian island, almost dead from starvation, dysentery, malaria, and the terror of watching other prisoners beheaded, or having their whiskers pulled with pliers.

"He just bottled it up. He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want sympathy, and he always felt guilty because he had worked for the Japanese while he was in captivity during the war," said his wife, Caroline Plantz.

Ernest V. Plantz, recipient of a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, and one of the first inductees to the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame, died at his Gales Ferry home Saturday at the age of 95.

"Ernie was an American hero," said John Carcioppolo, a past commander of U.S. Submarine Veterans Groton Base. "He suffered immense punishment as a POW and he went on to serve for 30 years or so after he was released. After being repatriated he stayed in the Navy; when he got healthy again he stayed in the Navy, and that's pretty amazing."

Plantz was imprisoned from March 1942 until August 1945, but his wife said he never spoke of the horrors of the camp until about 2001, when she encouraged him to attend a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder group at the VA Medical Center in West Haven.   

"It just got him to finally talk about it," she said. "Each time we were driving home, he would open up a little more."

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Plantz, who weighed just 80 pounds when he was freed and would spend 10 months in a Navy hospital recuperating from illness and injuries, returned to duty when he was fit again.

He served in the Navy until 1970, when he retired at the rank of lieutenant as director of advanced engineering at the Naval Submarine School in Groton.

He was also a sought-after public speaker at school, military, veteran and other functions, where he shared his story and served as an inspiration.

"He always looked on the bright side. He would always see the good in someone and in a situation," said his daughter, Linda Ross. "He taught me to be strong; that tomorrow would be a better day."

Plantz suffered adversity not only in the Navy, but in his personal life as well. In 1963, his first wife died in a boating accident in Key West, Fla., leaving Plantz a single father of three. He later married Caroline.

The couple had two more children together, and she adopted the first three. They recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

"We're a big, happy family," said Caroline Plantz, who described her husband as "a great guy who suffered a lot of real tragedies in his life but always overcame adversity and was always so positive."

Once he started talking about being a POW, it was like the floodgates had opened and he couldn't stop, she said, adding that schoolchildren, veterans and others always learned from his stories and appreciated hearing them.

Plantz, who was born in Spring Hill, Va., enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and reported to the submarine USS Perch eight months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Perch was on its second war patrol when a Japanese destroyer escort forced it to submerge and was joined by other Japanese ships that dropped depth charges on it.

According to Plantz, the Perch was badly damaged but not destroyed because it sank into a muddy bottom.

Later, when the submarine surfaced, the crew realized they were not able to submerge again and were forced to abandon the Perch and scuttle the sub.

Plantz and others on the crew were captured by the Japanese not long after.

When talking about his 1,297 days in captivity, Plantz said he resorted to eating grass and grub worms to supplement the small portions of rice and watery soup his captors fed him.

For work, he was required to help build railroad tracks in a swamp and to disassemble and reassemble a radio tower, as well as other jobs.

When he first spoke about the ordeal, he explained his long silence about the experience this way: "I think I felt guilty and a little ashamed," he said. "Guilty because I didn't understand why my friends died and I didn't. Ashamed because I worked for the enemy."

At a recent submarine birthday ball, Caroline Plantz said a young man patiently waited to talk to her husband and, when he got his chance, told him a name and asked if he remembered the man.

It turned out the man had served on the Perch with Plantz and yes, he did remember him. 

The young man, who was at sub school at the base, told Plantz the former shipmate was his great uncle and later invited Plantz to attend his sub school graduation.

The young man struck up a friendship with Plantz and after graduation gave him a dolphin pin as a gift. (The insignia of the U.S. submarine service is a submarine flanked by two dolphins.)

Caroline Plantz said her husband was touched by the gift and pinned it to a favorite hat, which he lost not long after.

"Those were very special dolphins on that hat, and we couldn't find it anywhere," she said.

At the next gathering of the sub vets, Caroline Plantz asked if anyone had seen Ernie's hat.

John Carcioppolo hadn't, but he did find it later, hanging it on a hook at Parke's Place restaurant in Preston. It turns out that Plantz had left it there a couple of months earlier, and when Carcioppolo delivered it to him he was thrilled.

"He was like a little kid at Christmas when he saw those dolphins," said Carcioppolo. "It was just a fabulous day."

Plantz, who was active as recently as the sub vets' Veterans Day remembrance in November, was a fixture at local military gatherings.

"He was very active within sub vets and Submarine Veterans World War II," said Carcioppolo. "He seldom missed a memorial service."

Just a week before his death, Ernie Plantz received a copy of the book "Trial and Triumph: The Accounts of Ernie Plantz as WWII Submariner and POW," written by author Stephen Leal Jackson, who visited Plantz weekly for 18 months to chronicle his war service.

"Ernie was very honored," his wife said.

a.baldelli@theday.com

Twitter: @annbaldelli