A.J. Cobb survived one of the most brutal German prisoner of war camps of World War II, Stalag 17B. For 40 years, he rarely talked about it.

He lived the tacit message he received from the postwar military: You survived. Get over it. Get on with your life.

2005 file photo (ENLARGE)

A.J. Cobb had a second career with Lockheed Martin.

"There was a stigma to being a prisoner of war, not from civilians but from the military," said his wife, Joan Cobb of Marietta. "He didn't have any bitterness. He just didn't talk about it for years."

By 1985, Mr. Cobb and his wife had organized the North Central Georgia chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War. He talked about his war years to students, senior citizens and other veterans. He was consulted to provide authenticity for the play "Stalag 17" when it was performed in Atlanta in 1995.

"You keep these things to yourself for so long, and then you run into the guys who have been through the same thing," Mr. Cobb said in a 1995 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. "It helps to talk about it."

The graveside service for Alvie J. Cobb, 83, of Marietta, who died of cancer Monday at Metropolitan Serenity House, is 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Georgia National Cemetery. H.M. Patterson & Son, Canton Hill, is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Cobb was a high school senior when he joined the Army Air Force in 1942 and became a B-25 flight engineer and turret gunner.

He was severely wounded on May 15, 1944, on a Mediterranean mission. The plane landed on an island, and the crew was captured by the Italians. Mr. Cobb was treated in a hospital, then sent to a German POW camp in Bavaria. From there, he survived a monthlong forced march to Stalag 17B in Austria.

The treatment he endured at Stalag 17B is described in a 1944 War Department intelligence report as brutal. In the fading light of the Third Reich, the prisoners were forced to evacuate the camp. Mr. Cobb marched across Austria at the point of German bayonets, 180 miles in 18 days, to another camp. He slept on the ground, drank water from horse troughs, ate grass roots and beets.

"That was the hardest part: the march without food," Mr. Cobb said in the article.

On May 3, 1945, the prisoners were liberated by Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army. Among his medals, Mr. Cobb was awarded two Purple Hearts, his wife said. He carried shrapnel in his thigh the rest of his life.

He returned home, graduated from high school and rejoined the Air Force in 1948. An aircraft systems technical trainer, he retired in 1965. Lockheed Martin's Marietta facility snatched him up to train the crews from the corporations and countries that bought its planes, his wife explained.

At home, Mr. Cobb used his vast array of tools to tinker with everything except television sets, worked in his garden daily and read the Air Force Times. That's where he learned of the American Ex-Prisoner of War organization. He and his wife attended its national convention and came home ready to organize a local chapter.

Bill Price of Marietta became Mr. Cobb's friend through the ex-POW chapter and joined him in speaking engagements.

"He and I both came out of our so-called shell, so to speak," Mr. Price said. "If you keep it inside all the time, it makes it worse."

"He was such a likable person and a fantastic friend," he said. "He was down to earth and would help you out without you even asking."

The two swapped war tales and would try to one-up each other's POW story. Mr. Cobb, he said, could even find the humor in some of them.

Survivors include a son, David Cobb of Roswell; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.