WILTON – Philip Walters wasn’t sure why he was called to the front of the town meeting Monday night as firefighters gathered to escort him.

Walters, 88, was honored before the town and his family for his service during World War II, when he was held in a German prison for 10 months.

Maj. Michael Backus of the Maine National Guard awarded Walters with the Maine Silver Star Honorable Service medal for his courage and willingness to serve. State Rep. Tom Saviello, U-Wilton, told townspeople about Walters’ experiences and presented him with a certificate of citizen appreciation. Walters was given a standing ovation.

“It was nice of them,” he said Tuesday morning.

He said he was stationed in Italy during World War II, a tail gunner and engineer on a B-17. The 10-man crew was on a mission that targeted oil fields in Romania when they were hit with gunfire from an enemy aircraft.

The plane was ditched in the Adriatic Sea and the crew set out for land in life rafts. They were taken prisoner by the Germans when they reached the coast, Walters said.

From there, he was sent to a prison camp, Stalag 4 in Poland where he met another Maine prisoner, Ernie Henderson of Augusta. When the Russians were preparing to take over the camp, the Germans moved the prisoners out on foot, marching them west.

According to Saviello, Walters carried the injured Henderson on his back as the POWs marched for several days.

“It was quite an experience, but I happened to be pretty lucky and was in good health, which helped me make it through,” Walters said.

He said the Germans starved the POWs. His weight dropped from 185 pounds to less than 125 as he tried to survive on small pieces of black bread and soup.

Marching west out of Poland during the winter of 1945, the Germans marched them back toward the Russians when they got too close to the allies, he said.

Walters was finally liberated by the British Second Army and sent to Camp Lucky Strike on the coast of France, where allied prisoners were taken before being shipped home.

Back home, he lived in California before returning to Maine, where he worked as a pilot for International Paper’s woodlands department in Jay for 27 years.

He lived in Wilton with his wife, Edith, and their two sons.

“It’s been quite a life … lot to be thankful for that I lived through it while so many paid with their lives to give us the victory we received. I just happened to be lucky,” he said.