Stanton tried not to meet the eye of the prison camp warden as the man inspected the row of newly captured German prisoners. When the inspector came to the young officer, Stanton was looking down, staring at the toes of his own boots .Suddenly he saw, heard and felt the the inspector's wooden staff come to rest with a loud snap squarely against the leather shaft covering the calf of his left leg. Stanton's officer's boots were a matter of great pride for him. They had been an expensive gift from his family when he was commissioned. Even though he had worn the soles paper thin, he had always kept the leather well conditioned and, whenever possible, perfectly shined. Stanton's boots were also large. When the boot maker had measured the young mans socked feet, he wrote down the number "13", followed by (!!).Whether it was the size or the shine Stanton couldn't tell. But he knew his boots had definitely sparked the interest of his captor, and, under the circumstances, he wished they hadn't.

Immediately, Stanton was hauled out of line to a separate room where guards tied him down to a ladder. One end of the ladder was then raised so that Stanton's feet were several inches higher than his head. After a long period, during which Stanton started to grow dizzy from the blood flowing to his head, the warden entered the room. Without looking directly at Stanton he wrote something across the sole of one of Stanton's elevated boots and immediately left. Shortly, a hooded interrogator entered the room and Stanton could see his eyes scanning the warden's message. He couldn't resist the temptation to ask if he might know what the warden had written on the sole of his boot. The man in the hood didn't answer. He bent over Stanton and suddenly ripped his uniform tunik and shirt wide open. Then he did the same with Stanton's breeches. Even before the buttons from Stanton's fly had stopped rolling across the floor, he felt the man in the hood grab hold of this left foot. Then, with a few rough tugs, his boot was yanked off then held so its sole was just inches from his face.
"HERE! READ IT FOR YOURSELF!"
Stanton read the message aloud,
"TRASH HIS UNIFORM- BUT SAVE HIS BOOTS."