Missing in Action/Prisoners of War
 

Our MIA/POWs are people who have loved ones waiting for them. For more than five decades, their family members and friends have longed for their safe return and for closure as to what happened to them in Korea.  Our MIA/POWs are not mere statistics from a "police action" that nobody understands or bothers to understand.  They are brothers, husbands, relatives and buddies who are greatly missed.  This page of the Korean War Educator is dedicated to their memory.  See also the KWE Topic, "MIA Family Members Needed" for DNA testing information.

"On August 7, 1952, a day that is
emblazoned in my heart till I die,
my brother disappeared."

- Irene Mandra

Contents

• Introduction
• Brainwashing of POWs
• Korea-Cold War Families
• Links
• POW/MIA Accounting
  • Individual Deceased Personnel Files
  • Human Resources Command
• Prisoner of War and POW Camp Facts
• Civilian POWs
• 21 Non-Repatriated POWs
• "Where Are 944 Missing GI’s?"
• US Policy Toward POW/MIAs—A Critique
• Lest We Forget – Missing Veterans Memory Page
• NARA Database

Direct link to Korean War POW/MIA (PMKOR) Database Page

• List of Personnel Missing, Korean War (As of 5/6/2005) (PDF File)

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Introduction

A simple box was a device of punishment and torture during the Korean War. But there was really nothing simple about it. This device was conceived, built and used by the Chinese Communist Forces in Korea against United Nations troops held captive in POW camps. There were thirty or more American and British men who were subjected to this torturous device primarily in Camp #1, Chongsong, Korea. "The Box" is a reproduction that was built by Derek Conte under the supervision of his father, ex-Korean War POW Salvatore R. Conte of New York, New York. Terms of being "boxed or caged" varied from a few days up to seven months. The purpose of the box was to serve as punishment for various "crimes" such as stealing and escape (short term), but it was used primarily for "political crimes" (long term). Those who were placed in this box were always handcuffed and in some cases shackled at the ankles. Men incarcerated in these devices were required to sit at attention, cross-legged, until it was time to sleep. Other treatment by the guards ranged from tightening of handcuffs, poking of bayonets, and rifle-butting. Prisoners were only allowed out three times a day for use of the latrine. Silence was strictly enforced. The aim of the CCF was to break the morale and coerce POWs into confessing to trumped-up charges, imagined crimes, or to make speeches promoting Chinese propaganda. (The photograph above was taken by Bob Stallsworth while The Box was on display in a 1950s/60s exhibit in the Douglas County Museum, Tuscola, IL.)

There are 8,215 American men still missing in action from the Korean War (see http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmkor/files.htm for a roster of the Korean War MIAs). Among them are the two men at the top of this page. Since long before the truce was signed in 1953, the families of these men have been searching for answers regarding the fate of their loved ones. The Korean War Educator encourages its visitors to search the links and tribute page that follow this introduction. They will help you to gain a better understanding of the anguish of POW/MIA family members, as well as provide updates on recovery efforts, and phone numbers and e-mail addresses for government contacts.

Below the links is a page created for the use of families and friends of Korean War POW/MIAs. If you are related to or were friends with a veteran who has been declared missing in action in the Korean War, you are invited to post a photograph and tribute to your loved one by contacting The Korean War Educator. Since civilians were also held as captives in the Korean War, family members of civilian POWs are also welcome to post their loved one’s information on this page as well. By sharing information about your family member and/or friend, you can help the general public understand that Korean War POW/MIAs (and those from all wars in which the United States was involved) were people--living, breathing human beings-- whose lives were sacrificed for the sake of freedom. They were much more than mere government war statistics.

American Prisoners of War (1998 figures)
 

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Links Pertaining to POW/MIA Issues

1. Korea-Cold War Families of Missing in Action, Inc.
   
   Founded by Irene Mandra in New York, this active family support organization seeks the truth about what happened to America's Korean War and Cold War missing in action.  Its powerful website is located at http://www.koreacoldwar.org.
    
2. Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs
   
   This organization was founded as a support group for families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs. It has an informative newsletter and detailed website. The Coalition holds the government accountable for our missing Korean War/Cold War servicemen.
    
3. Defense Prisoners of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
   
   This government website contains an informational database on Korean War POW/MIAs, as well as other pertinent information about the latest government efforts to recover Americans who are missing from the Korean War. Its Webpage for Personnel Missing-Korea (PMKOR) is:
   http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmkor.htm . It contains a comprehensive list of those individuals who are unaccounted for after Operation Big Switch, Operation Little Switch, and Operation Glory.
    
4. POW/MIA InterNetwork
   
   This Website pertains to all American POW/MIAs from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Visit the site for the address and contact persons of the POW/MIA network nearest you.
    
5. Pray4POWs
   
   Your prayers for our POW/MIAs are truly needed. If you are a Christian who believes in the power of prayer, you will appreciate this website.
    
6. Canadian POW/MIA Information Center
   
   The United States is not the only country with missing servicemen from the various wars. This website concerns Canadians who are still MIA.
    
7. Korean War MIA/POW Help Desk
   
   MIA information for the countries USA, North Korea, South Korea, and China, with related web links. The site includes an interesting article about South Korean MIA/POWs.
    
8. The Korean War Project's POW/MIA section
   
   The United States government is currently conducting DNA testing of living relatives of America’s POW/MIAs. The Korean War Project, a premier site on the internet, has compiled information derived from government data on the current testing for DNA. It also contains important information regarding POW camps in Korea, and is actively seeking information and maps relating to those camps.
    
9. Alliance of Families for the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen
   
   This organization represents servicemen from all wars and their families. It publishes a newsletter with POW/MIA information and updates. Additionally, it provides assistance to family members who wish to research their loved one’s case.

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POW/MIA Accounting
Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office

The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Office (DPMO) in Washington, DC is the agency that coordinates government efforts to locate our nation’s missing war veterans. With the enactment of the Missing Persons Act in 1996, the agency’s name changed to Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO).

Its mission is to: "Exercise policy, control, and oversight within the Department of Defense of the entire process for investigation and recovery related to missing persons (including matters related to search, rescue, escape, and evasion) and coordinate for the Department of Defense with other departments and agencies of the United States on all matters concerning missing persons."

Following are text excerpts (pp. 10-14, pp. 22-26, and pp. 30-31) from the DPMO booklet entitled, "POW/MIA Accounting: Keeping the Promise" (1999, Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, 2400 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-2400). The excerpts are Korean War-related.

KOREA

On May 8, 1996, former Secretary of Defense William Perry signed a DoD policy statement stressing the Department’s priority and commitment to the Korean War accounting effort. In honoring these commitments, DoD has negotiated Joint Recovery Operations (JROs) with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), conducted dozens of recoveries, created a database on Personnel Missing-Korea, and contacted thousands of surviving family members.

Historical Context

North Korea returned several thousand remains during Operation GLORY in 1954. US graves registration teams ended a search for remains from South Korean battlefields in 1956. These efforts accounted for thousands of identified remains; however, officials declared about 854 unknown. Next, officials buried one unknown in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia, and buried the remainder in Hawaii in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific—known as the Punchbowl.

From the final repatriation of remains in Operation GLORY in 1954 until 1990, the US sought, through the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC), to no avail to persuade the DPRK to search for and return remains of US and Allied personnel lost in North Korea.

Between 1990 and 1994, the DPRK unilaterally recovered and returned 208 remains to the United Nations Command. Unfortunately, North Korean record keeping and recovery techniques greatly complicated the identification process. North Korean recoveries combined remains and mixed identification media. Consequently, DoD has identified fewer than 10 of these remains to date [1999]. Clearly, these efforts demonstrated the need for joint recovery operations, where the Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI) could exercise its vast experience and technical expertise to increase the effectiveness of identification efforts.

Joint Recovery Operations

In 1994, DPRK’s President Kim Il Sung unexpectedly accepted former President Jimmy Carter’s proposal to permit joint US-DPRK remains recovery operations. Though this surprising development was encouraging, the North Korean demand for almost $4 million in payment for the 162 sets of remains returned between 1993 and 1994 slowed further progress.

In January 1996 at CILHI, DoD met with North Korean representatives to resolve the compensation issue and to discuss joint recovery operations. These meetings moved the two sides closer to agreement. Then in May 1996, when talks resumed in New York City, the parties agreed on compensation and joint recovery operations.
Nine joint recovery operations occurred between July 1996 and November 1998, during which DoD recovered the probable remains of 29 American soldiers. As of January 1, 1999, CILHI has identified one and believes that the evidence recovered with the other remains should lead soon to more identifications.

Along with these successes, DoD won agreement to conduct archival research inside North Korea on wartime military operations. Two such visits took place, in 1997 and 1998, resulting in dozens of documents related to American prisoners.

Sightings of Alleged POWs Living in North Korea

DoD investigates reports of POWs in North Korea. Because of the publicity surrounding these efforts, additional reports have surfaced—some repeating earlier claims. The US government uses all available resources to investigate these reports; however, they have not yet been able to substantiate any of the information regarding alleged POWs. Analysts have correlated many of the reports to US defectors living in North Korea since the 1960s.

US-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs Korean War Working Group

Through this working group, the US government has investigated reports alleging the transfer of US POWs to the former Soviet Union during the Korean War. The working group follows a two-pronged approach. They investigate the possibility that transfers of US service members to the former Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China took place and they clarify the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of unaccounted-for US service members. Despite circumstantial evidence and intensive investigation, DoD has not yet found conclusive evidence of transfers.

After years of negotiations brought DoD access to Russian Military of Defense archives, the fates of more than 70 Americans has been clarified. By the end of 1998, the Russians had provided over 6,000 pages of text and nearly 300 photographs relevant to missing Americans that helped determine their fates. Additionally, US officials have extensive interview programs in Russia and the former republics of the Soviet Union. Interviews with Soviet veterans and other officials have provided additional information on the fates of several Americans.

Other Important Initiatives

DoD officials conduct extensive archival research around the world. Their efforts succeeded in locating a large collection of intelligence reports dating from the Korean War in the US National Archives which US researchers are currently analyzing.

The US government continues to ask the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for information on American POWs whose fates remain unresolved. While the PRC has assisted significantly on American World War II and Vietnam War cases, Chinese officials have hindered DoD access to Korean War records held in their country. DoD has submitted several specific Korean War case inquiries to the Chinese department; these cases are currently under consideration by the PRC.

DoD created the US government’s first comprehensive database on Personnel Missing-Korea (PMKOR) in 1998. PMKOR reconciles the three major casualty-related databases from the Korean War and provides the most accurate accounting baseline since the conclusion of hostilities in 1953. DoD made extensive efforts to ensure accuracy; however, PMKOR is a dynamic document, and will continue to change to reflect new discoveries achieved through archival research.

Based on increasing access to Korean War battlefields and the advent of new identification technologies, DoD and the Armed Forces have mounted a massive outreach effort to locate families of the more than 8,100 Americans unaccounted for from the Korean War. Unfortunately, a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis destroyed many US military personnel records holding evidence useful for identifying recovered remains. Therefore, DoD has requested family members’ support in its accounting efforts.

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Individual Deceased Personnel Files

Several years ago, a large fire destroyed records at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. As a result, a number of records were destroyed, including a significant number of Korean War-era records. However, there are thousands of documents still available regarding men who are KIA/MIA in the Korean War. They are known as "Individual Deceased Personnel Files" (a/k/a "293 files), and they are held by the U.S. Army Personnel Command. These files, maintained by at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI), are the records for those casualties who remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. A copy of the contents of the IDPA file on particular veterans is available free of charge to direct relatives of Korean War KIA/MIA.

The IDPF records can contain (but are not limited to) the following information: how a serviceman died; where he died (map coordinates, longitude/latitude), and his unit assignment at the time of his death. It can also include autopsy, anthropology studies, or the identification process used to identify a serviceman’s remains. If the body was recovered, who the military escort was. How or where a serviceman was originally buried. What unit provided the military honors at graveside. A word of caution: some of the material found in the IDPA files can be very graphic. The IDPF documents are extremely fragile. According to Major Keith Orage, Repatriation and Family Affairs Division, CILHI is in the process of imaging these documents because they are used to assist with search and recovery operations planning and execution.

Do you have a MIA/KIA/POW query? Family members are encouraged to contact a Service Casualty Officer to obtain information regarding your missing loved one. An approved family member may visit the DPMO office to review their loved one’s case file and meet with government officials, if desired. (The Service Offices will determine who constitutes an approved family member.) The Individual Deceased Personnel File is only a phone call away, which means that a trip to Washington DC is not necessary to find out about your loved one if distance and financial resources do not permit traveling to Washington DC. Call your Service Casualty Officer to establish the entitlement to review the file, then follow up with a written request.

Army: Department of the Army, TAPC-PER, 2461 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22331-0482; phone 1-800-892-2490. Website: http://www.perscom.army.mil/ .

Navy: Navy Personnel Command, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Casualty Assitance Branch, (NPC-621P), 5720 Integrity Drive, Millington, TN 38055-6210; phone 1-800-443-9298. Website: http://p621@persnet.navy.mil/ .

Marine Corps: Headquarters US Marine Corps, Manpower and Reserve Affairs (MRC), Personal and Family Readiness Division, 3280 Russell Road, Quantico, VA 22134-5103; phone 1-800-847-1597. Website: http://www.usmc.mil/ .

Air Force: USAF Missing Persons Branch, 550 C street West, Suite 15, Randolph AFB, TX 78150-4716; phone 1-800-531-5501. Website: http://www.afpc.af.mil/ .

Department of State: Department of State, Office of AmCitizens Services and CM, CA/OCS/ACS/EAP, Attn: Ms. Jenny Foo, 2201 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20520; phone 1-202-647-6769.

Human Resource Command

The United States Army
Human Resources Command (HRC)
Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Center (CMAOC)
PAST CONFLICT REPATRIATIONS BRANCH (PCRB)
1-800-892-2490

My name is LTC Julius H. Smith, Chief of the Army’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch (PCRB). We are the Army Representatives who provide the other Department of Defense (DoD) organizations with past conflicts Army/Army Air Corps personnel information, required to research and identify unaccounted-for MIA’s. Our mission is full circle. We are your starting point for contact, collecting mtDNA samples, family member updates, and your point of closure, to brief the family with the completed identification packet. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you our Army PCRB operations personnel. I also would like to say “thank you” for your patience and support as we continue the covenant to those still unaccounted-for from America’s past conflict’s, World War II, Korea and Southeast Asia. The POW/MIA motto, “You Are Not Forgotten” continues to loudly echo in this new millennium and the Army will continue its efforts until that promise has been kept.

PCRB Leadership: MAJ Paul Madrid, Mrs. Linda Baublitz, Mrs. Carolyn Floyd

Operations Section: SFC Tim Collins, SSG Melanie Moore, Mrs. Alice Clifton. They collect documents for genealogy research submission, contact researched genealogy information, and contact families for mtDNA collection for all past conflicts.

Southeast Asia Section (SEA): Mrs. Frieda Powell, Mrs. Lourdes Blanco are committed to providing casualty assistance support to family members of soldiers still unaccounted for from SEA. 567 remain unaccounted for. The good news is that we have contact with all 567 families.

Korea Section: Ms. Estrellita McGee, Mrs. Linda Henry and Ms. Evelyn Martin are committed to providing casualty assistance support to family members of approximately 6235 soldiers still unaccounted for from the Korean War. We have contact with 3928 of those families.

World War II Section: Mrs. Tracy Brown, Mr. Lincoln Berry, Mr. Mark Armstrong are committed to providing casualty assistance support to family members of approximately 38,000 soldiers still unaccounted for from World War II.

Identification Section: Mr. Johnny Johnson, Mr. Paul Bethke, Mrs. Rena Thompson, represent the Army’s completed identifications for soldiers recovered from past conflicts. Once the identification is received, the Identification Section assumes responsibility as the Army’s primary interface with the family. We coordinate all matters relating to the escort of remains from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), presentation of recovered personal effects, the funeral, interment in a government or civilian cemetery, military funeral honors and official travel of family members.

A word from the Chaplain to the families of our yet to be repatriated soldiers:

"I want to assure you that we who work at the CMAOC take the responsibility for repatriating the remains of your loved ones as a Sacred Duty. We hold these to be our brothers and sisters who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to God and Country. So we will not falter in our efforts to recover and repatriate. We are as joyful as you are when we succeed. There is, of course, no guarantee of success but our efforts will be ceaseless and we hope you find that our efforts give due honor to the memory and service of your “yet to be repatriated” loved one." - CMAOC Chaplain: LTC Paul Kauffman

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Prisoner of War & POW Camp Facts

General Information:

• Number of Korean War POWs
  • 2701 died in captivity; 4418 returned alive; 21 refused repatriation
• Names and dates of major POW exchanges
  • Little Switch (20 Apr to 3 May 1953)
  • Big Switch (5 Aug to 6 Sep 1953)
• Permanent Camps
  • Camp 1, Changsong, 1951-53
  • Camp 2, four cluster units inland from old Pyoktong as Camp 5, 1952-53
  • Camp 3, bayside camp below Changsong, 1951-52. Camp 3 annex was inland, 1953
  • Camp 4, Wiwon, 1952-53
  • Camp 5, [old] Pyoktong, 1950-52—town name moved after war
• Principal Holding Points*
  • Suan Bean Camp, Feb to Apr 1951
  • Suan Mining Camp, May to Dec 1951
  • The Valley at Sambakkol, mainly Nov 1950-Jan 1951
  • Death Valley at Pukchin-Tarigol, mainly Dec 1950-March 1953
  • Pak’s Palace northeast of Pyongyang, mainly Apr to Dec 1951
  • The Peace Fighters’ Camp east of Pyongyang, Apr to Dec 1951
  • The Bunkers at Chiktang, southeast of Pyongyang, intermittently 1951
  • Kangdong, farther east of Pyongyang, intermittently 1951-1952
  • Pike’s Peak east of Sunchon, from Mar 1952
  • "The Apex" camps at Chunggang-jin, Hanjang-ni, and An-dong, Nov 1950 to Oct 1951
  • Kanggye, used by POWs from the Chosin Reservoir, Dec 1950 to Mar 1951
  • Valley #1 at Teksil-li, north of Chosin Reservoir, en route to Kanggye [same dates]
  • The Pines and Peaceful Valley, holding points just north of the mid-Korean waist [recurrent]
  • The Collection Camp at Holgol and Soktal-li (twin villages), northeast of Suan, from Jan 1952.

    * POW camp numbers go up through 36, and some were used redundantly. For example, both Suan Mining Camp and Kanggye were called Camp 9. Kangdong was variously called Camp 8, Camp 9, Camp 11, and Camp 12—but not Camp 10. The above lists of permanent and holding camps account for 99+ percent of the POW population in Korea.
     

• Temporary Urban Holding Points
  • Sariwon
  • Sunchon
  • Anju/Sinanju
  • Pyongyang
  • Seoul
  • Sinuiju
  • Wonsan
• In Manchuria
  • Antung, perhaps 100 POWs in small groups for interrogation, returned to North Korea
  • Mukden, probably 26 US + 1 Canadian, including some post-Korean returnees

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Civilian POWs

War touches the lives of innocent civilians who are sometimes unexpectedly caught up in the violence of war because they just happened to be in the "wrong place" at the time war broke out. Veterans were not the only ones to be held captive in the Korean War. The following civilians—many of whom died in captivity—were also prisoners of war in Korea. The Korean War Educator posts their names in tribute to those who endured and survived, as well as those who endured and died. The following list is taken from a list of Tiger Survivors compiled by Timothy Casey. Mr. Casey is a strong advocate for and supporter of Korean War ex-prisoners of war and their families.

• "Johnny" (last name unknown), US government employee – Captured at Seoul. Died Nov. 3, 1950, during the Death March.
   
• Bastin, Sister Therese, a Carmelite Nun from Belgium – died Nov. 30, 1950 at
   
• Hanjang-Ni. She was born in 1901. Captured at Seoul on July 15, 1950.
   
• Blake, George, British legation. Captured at Seoul on July 2, 1950. Died March 21, 1953. He was born in 1923.
   
• Booth, Father William E., Catholic Priest from the USA. Captured at Seoul on July 11, 1950. He was later released from captivity on March 21, 1953.
   
• Bulteau, Father Joseph, a Catholic priest from France. Born in 1930, he died at Hanjang-ni on January 6, 1951. He was captured in 1950.
   
• Byrne, Bishop Patrick, an Apostolic delegate to Korea from the USA. Captured at Seoul on July 11, 1950. Died at Hanjang-ni on November 25, 1950. He was born in 1883.
   
• Cadars, Father Joseph, a Catholic priest from France. Captured at Taejon in July of 1950. Died at Hanjang-ni on December 19, 1950. He was born in 1880.
   
• Canavan, Father Francis, a Catholic priest from Ireland. Captured at Chunchon on July 2, 1950. Died December 6, 1950 at Hanjang-ni. He was born in 1915.
   
• Chaigh, Mr., a ROK politician from South Korea. Captured 1950. He was not released.
   
• Chang, Mr., a ROK politician from South Korea. Captured 1950. He was not released.
   
• Chanteloup, Maurice, Agence France Press. Captured at Seoul in July of 1950. Released March 26, 1953.
   
• Clare, Sister Mary, Anglican nun from Ireland. Captured July 2, 1950. Died on the Death March, November 6, 1950. She was born in 1910.
   
• Cooper, Bishop A. Cecil, with the Anglican Church in England. Born in 1880, he was captured in Seoul on July 2, 1950. Released on March 21, 1953.
   
• Coyos, Father Celestine, a Catholic priest from France. Captured in Seoul on July 17, 1950. Released on March 26, 1953.
   
• Crosbie, Father Philip, a Catholic priest from Australia. Captured July 6, 1950 at Hongchon. Released May 25, 1953. He was born in 1915.
   
• Dans, Louis Leo, a citizen of the USA who was with the Foreign Traders’ Exchange. Captured at Seoul June 29, 1950. Released April 30, 1953. He was born in 1912.
   
• DeL’Obit, Sister Henriette, a Carmelite nun from France. She was released on March 26, 1953. She was captured at Seoul on July 15, 1950.
   
• Deane, Philip, with the London Observer newspaper, England. Born in 1925, he was captured on July 23, 1950. Held at Pyong-dong until he was released March 31, 1953.
   
• Demeusy, Sister Eugenie, St. Paul de Chartes Orphanage, France. Captured at Seoul on July 17, 1950. Released on March 28, 1953.
   
• Descayaux, Sister Marie Bernadette, Carmelite nun from France. Captured at Seoul on July 15, 1950. She was released on March 26, 1953.
   
• Devriese, Sister Mechtilde, Carmelite nun from Belgium. Born 1888. Captured July 15, 1950. Died in captivity on November 18, 1950.
   
• Dyer, Nellie, Methodist Mission, USA. Born 1912. She was from Conway, Arkansas. She was captured on June 29, 1950. She was held in the Kaesong camp, and was released on April 30, 1953.
   
• Edouard, Sister Beatrice, St. Paul de Chartes Orphanage, France. Captured at Seoul on July 17, 1950. Died on the Death March November 3, 1950. She was born 1874.
   
• Eltringham, Walter Stanley, ECA Mining Engineer, USA. Captured at Seoul on June 29, 1950. Died November 17, 1950.
   
• Evans, William H. Sr., Mining Engineer, USA. Captured 1950. Marched in the Death March. Interned and killed in North Korea at Hanjang-ni, December 13, 1950. He was born in 1900.
   
• Funderat, Mrs., a widow from Russia, born 1881. Captured 1950. She died on the Death March November 3, 1950.
   
• Gombert, Father Antoine, Carmelite Chaplain from France. Captured at Seoul on July 17, 1950. Interred at Chung’gang-jin. Born 1874. Died in captivity on November 12, 1950.
   
• Gombert, Father Julian, Chaplain, St. Paul de Chartes, France. Born in 1876. Captured at Inchon in 1950. Interred at Chung’gang-jin. Died in captivity on November 12, 1950.
   
• Hale, George, electrical engineer, USA. Captured in 1950. Died in 1950.
   
• Hoang, Man Seng, son of Simone Hoang, France. Born 1941. Captured in 1950. Eventually released.
   
• Hoang, Mrs. Simone, mother of Man Seng Hoang, France. Captured in 1950. Eventually released.
   
• Holt, Vyvyan O.B.E., British Legation, England. Captured at Seoul on July 2, 1950. Released March 21, 1953.
   
• Hunt, Father Charles, Anglican priest from England. Captured at Seoul on July 2, 1950. Died at Hanjang-ni on November 26, 1950.
   
• Jensen, Anders Kristian, Methodist Mission, USA. Born 1897. From New Cumberland, PA. Captured June 29, 1950. Released April 30, 1953.
   
• Kijikoff, Ilian, from Russia. Born 1890. Died December 17, 1952 at Ujang.
   
• Kilin, Georgi, from Russia. Son of Ivan Kilin, he was born in 1949. Placed in captivity in 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Kilin, Mr. Ivan, from Russia. Husband of Marusya Kilin, he was born in 1915. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Klinin, Mrs. Marusya, from Russia. Wife of Ivan Kilin, she was born in 1922. Captured 1950. Released from captivity on March 1, 1954.
   
• Kilin, Nicolai, from Russia. Son of Ivan and Marusya Kilin, he was born in 1945. Captured 1950. Released from captivity on March 1, 1954.
   
• Klinin, Olga, from Russia. Daughter of Ivan and Marusya Kilin, she was born in 1943. Captured 1950. Released from captivity on March 1, 1954.
   
• Kim, Hyoo Sik, ROK Minister of Interior, South Korea. Captured 1950. Released.
   
• Kisch, Dr. Ernst, Methodist Mission Hospital, Austria. Born 1893. Captured at Seoul in 1950. Held at An-dong. Died June 29, 1951.
   
• Ko, Charlotte Gilese, from Germany. Captured in 1950. Released March 36, 1953.
   
• Lee, Mr., ROK politician from South Korea. Captured 1950. Never released.
   
• Leonoff, Mr., from Russia. Born 1880. Held in captivity at Hanjang-Ni. Captured 1950. Died in captivity December 9, 1950.
   
• Lord, Herbert A., Commissioner, Salvation Army, England. Born 1890. Captured July 2, 1950. Released from captivity on March 21, 1953.
   
• Marquier, Sister Marie-Madeleine, Carmelite nun from France. Born 1891. Captured at Seoul on July 15, 1950. Released March 26, 1953.
   
• Martel, Charles, French Consul Secretary from France. Captured at Seoul on July 7, 1950. Released from captivity on March 36, 1953.
   
• Martel, Mme. Amelia, mother of C. Martel. Born 1874. Captured in 1950 at Seoul. Released March 26, 1953.
   
• Martel, Mme. Marguerite, wife of C. Martel. Captured at Seoul in 1950. Released March 26, 1953.
   
• Marzlitsky, Andre, from Russia. ECA, US government. Captured at Seoul in 1950. Never released.
   
• Matti, Alfred G.F., manager of the Chosun Hotel. From Switzerland. Captured at Seoul in 1950. Died at Hanjang-ni on November 30, 1950. Born in 1902.
   
• Meadmore, Jean, French Vice Consul from France. Captured July 7, 1950 at Seoul. Released March 26, 1953.
   
• Moon, Hak Pong, ROK politician, South Korea. Captured at Kaesong in 1950. Never released.
   
• Orchestraia, Helena, Interpreter, Polish/Korean. Captured 1950. Never released.
   
• Owen, Norman, British Legation, England. Captured at Seoul July 2, 1950. Released March 21, 1953.
   
• Pak, Mr. "Big", ROK politician from South Korea. Captured 1950. Never released.
   
• Pak, Mr. "Small", ROK politician from South Korea. Captured 1950. Never released.
   
• Pat, Mr., ROK politician from South Korea. Captured 1950. Never released.
   
• Perruche, Georges, French Consul, France. Captured at Seoul July 7, 1950. Released March 26, 1953.
   
• Quinlan, Msgr. Thomas, Prefect Apostolic from Ireland. Captured at Chunchon on July 2, 1950. Released March 21, 1953.
   
• Rosser, Helen, Methodist Mission, USA. Captured at Kaesong on June 29, 1950. Released on April 30, 1953. She was born in 1905 and was from Macon, GA.
   
• Salahudtin, Farid, born in 1938. USSR Tatar. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Salahudtin, Hamid, born 1949. USSR Tatar. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Salahudtin, Morat, born 1945. USSR Tatar. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Salahudtin, Mr. Salim. USSR Tatar. Husband of Faiza. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Salahudtin, Mrs. Faiza. USSR Tatar. Wife of Salim. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Salahudtin, Sagid, born 1933. USSR Tatar. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Salahudtin, Sagida, born 1934. USSR Tatar. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Salahudtin, Shaucat, born 1942. USSR Tatar. Captured 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Smirnoff, Mr., Russia. Captured 1950. Died at An-dong on June 3, 1951.
   
• Smith, Bertha, Methodist Mission, USA. Captured at Kaesong on June 29, 1950. Released April 30, 1953. She was from Marshall, MO.
   
• Sultan (Demirbelek), Ahmet. USSR Tatar. Captured 1950. Released March 1954.
   
• Sultan, Miss Sophia. USSR Tatar. Sister to Mrs. Salahudtin. Captured 1950. Released March 1954.
   
• Tihinoff, Ivan Nicolai. Cosmetic manufacturer from russia. Captured at Seoul in 1950. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Tsutsui, Kiyohito Mike, from Japan. HQ Btry, 63 FA Bn., 24th Division. Held at Camps 3, 5, 7. Born 1930. Released from captivity on September 6, 1953.
   
• Villemont, Father Paul, St. Paul de Chartes Orphanage, France. Born 1868. Captured at Seoul on July 11, 1950. Died at Hanjang-ni on November 30, 1950.
   
• Vorosoff, Alexsei, son born in captivity 24 Nov 1953. Released March 1, 1954.
   
• Vorosoff, Dimitri, husband of Maisara. Captured June 29, 1950 at Seoul. Born 1891. Released from captivity on March 1, 1954.
   
• Vorosoff, Maisara, wife of Dimitri (nee Daulatsch). Captured June 29, 1950 at Seoul. Born 1921. Released from captivity on March 1, 1954.
   
• Zellers, Lawrence Alfred. Methodist Mission, USA. Born 1922. From Weatherford, TX. Captured June 29, 1950 at Kaesong. Released April 30, 1953.

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Non-Repatriated: 23 (until two chose to come back to the USA--see below), making 21 non-repatriated POWs in the Korean War

1. Cpl. Clarence C. Adams of Memphis, TN
2. Sgt. Howard Gayle Adams, Corsicana, TX
3. Cpl. Claude J. Batchelor of Kermit, TX
4. Sgt. Albert Constant Belhomme, Ashland, PA
5. Cpl. Otho Grayson Bell, Olympia, WA
6. Sgt. Richard G. Cordon, East Providence, RI
7. Cpl. William Alton Cowart of Monticello, AR
8. Cpl. Edward S. Dickenson of Big Stone Gap, VA
9. Sgt. Rufus Elbert Douglas of San Angelo, TX
10. Cpl. John Roedel Dunn of Baltimore, MD
11. Andrew Fortuna
12. Lewis Wayne Griggs
13. Pfc. Samuel David Hawkins of Oklahoma City, OK
14. Cpl. Arlie Howard Pate of Carbondale, IL
15. Sgt. Scott Leonard Rush of Marietta, OH
16. Cpl. Lovell Denver Skinner of Akron, OH
17. LaRance V. Sullivan
18. Pfc. Richard Roger Tenneson of Alden, MN
19. Pvt. James George Veneris of Hawthorne, CA
20. Sgt. Harold Harvey Webb of Ft. Pierce, FL
21. Cpl. William Charles White of Plummerville, AR
22. Cpl. Morris Robert Willis, Fort Ann, NY
23. Cpl. Aaron Philip Wilson of Urania, LA

All of these former POWs returned to the United States eventually, with the exception of Rufus Douglas, who died in China, James Veneris, who still lives in China, and John Dunn who lives in Czechoslovakia. At least three of the 23 are now deceased. On two occasions, James Veneris returned to the United States to visit relatives in California. Former POW Howard Adams just came back to the United States a few years ago.

On the 26th of April 1953, Operation Little Switch ended. Both sides were given additional time for those who refused to go home to think it over. On 21 October 1953, Ed Dickenson decided to come over to the UN lines. Batchelor came over on 2 January 1954, just before the final deadline. Both were under the impression that if they came over the line there would be no disciplinary action taken against them. Instead, they were court-martialed, found guilty, and sentenced to 20 years hard labor for Batchelor and 10 years for Dickenson. Neither of them completed their sentences; they were both paroled after 4 or 5 years. One non-American also refused repatriation. He was Andrew Condron, Scot who was serving in the 41st Royal Marines and was captured at the Chosin Reservoir in November 1950. Like the Americans, he eventually returned home to the United Kingdom. The British government did not court-martial him, nor did they take any disciplinary action against him. It is believed he died a few years ago.

Former POW Willis, who was one of the 21 to refuse repatriation at the end of the war, eventually settled into a job in the Asian Studies Department at Harvard University. He also wrote a book titled, "Turncoat."
 

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"Where are 944 Missing GI's?"

Reprinted from pages 27 and 28, U.S. News & World Report, December 18, 1953

Hundreds of Americans still are being forcibly held in Communist prison camps, the real forgotten men of the Korean War. Evidence, now piling up, shows this: Americans positively identified as being in Communist hands, but unreported and not returned, total 944—most of them GIs. Some are known to have marched in a "victory" parade in Manchuria. Others are reported in Siberia, a few near Moscow. Most vanished from North Korean camps during the closing weeks of shooting war. What’s being done about it? Very little so far. Tendency by officials is to soft-pedal."

PANMUNJOM, KOREA

"Behind the Yalu River, the evidence now indicates, are hundreds of American soldiers and airmen, known to be alive in Communist hands but unreported—left as pawns of the Communist Chinese.

These Americans were positively identified as being in North Korean prison camps before the shooting ended. Most disappeared from those camps during the tense weeks just before the truce. Some were taken away at night, ostensibly for questioning. They never returned. Others were members of work parties sent from one camp to another. Work parties "lost" one or two members each, before they returned to their base camps. That attrition was virtually unnoticed during the high excitement of impending repatriation.

Altogether, there are 944 Americans now identified as being alive in North Korean camps, but not returned or reported. These are in addition to the 22 Americans who elected to stay behind. They are Americans who urgently wanted to come home, prisoners known to others who have since been repatriated, or whose names or pictures have been definitely identified in Communist propaganda releases. Most of them are almost certain to be still alive, spirited away across the Yalu by Communist guards.

The United States did not win the war in Korea. As a result, it cannot demand and expect to receive any reliable accounting for those still missing. Americans can only protest. But so far there has been no protest, except for an Army communique last September. There is a seeming reluctance by American officials to press the case of the GIs who are still missing. Emphasis, instead, is on finding a way to make a deal with the Communist Chinese on terms of peace. There is even pressure to speed a United Nations membership for Communist China. Any emphasis on the missing Americans, apparently, could complicate those proceedings.

Military men, unable now to exert pressure on the Communists under terms of the truce, refer to the missing as a diplomatic problem. State Department diplomats, in turn, say the problem of missing Americans is not yet under their jurisdiction, and won’t be until a political conference with the Communists either begins or is definitely abandoned. So they are doing nothing.

Meanwhile, new reports about the missing continue to flow in.

There is substantial evidence now, for example, that a number of American prisoners were marched through the streets of Mukden, deep inside Manchuria, in a "victory" parade. As far as is known here, none of those men has returned. No repatriated prisoner has said he participated in that parade.

Officials here know for certain that some Americans were sent to Manchuria. Capt. Lawrence V. Bach, a 29-year-old fighter pilot from Grand Forks, North Dakota, spent four days in Manchuria, where he was questioned by the Chinese, North Koreans, and the Russians. He was followed by Maj. Gen. William F. Dean, who spent some time in the Communist sanctuary in Manchuria. Both of these Americans were repatriated. Others who were sent there were not.

Most of the evidence, however, comes from reports, now evaluated, of American prisoners repatriated during Operation "Big Switch" here at Panmunjom. En route to the United States, former prisoners were questioned intensively about men who had died or disappeared either during the lengthy forced marches northward or while they were in camps.

During the long sea voyage, when the repatriates, in the comparative comfort of hospital ships and transports, could relax and tell coherent stories of what they saw, trained intelligence men checked and rechecked each report. A pattern finally emerged, out of this long and intensive probing, that showed not only systematic atrocities and deaths but slavery as well.

The Chinese Communists did not merely want Americans to work in salt beds of Shantung or the uranium mines of Sinkiang. They primarily wanted—and got—Americans who could handle the sensitive and complex instruments of modern war such as radar, airborne and ground, and infrared instruments for night combat. They were particularly interested in airmen with technical training, and in artillery men who knew the secrets of intricate fuses.

Communists offered General Dean command of a division or corps if he would fight for them. They could do nothing when he refused. But the lower-ranking technicians were not listed as prisoners, as General Dean was known to be. The Chinese were under no compulsion to explain what happened to these men. Communist records on prisoners of war were slipshod. When U.S. asked the whereabouts of specific Americans known to have been alive in Communist camps, the Chinese merely replied that they had no records to show these men were ever prisoners.

Reports of returned prisoners are that many U.S. enlisted technicians disappeared from communist camps in the final weeks of the war. The fact that they vanished indicates that the Communists could not persuade them to co-operate willingly. The Chinese could not afford to turn these technicians over to the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission and hope that they would refuse repatriation. Instead, those Americans became nonexistent as far as the Communist prisoner-of-war records were concerned.

Not all of the missing were specialists, however. Of the 944 Americans identified in Communist camps and not returned, 610 were ground-force troops with a wide variety of backgrounds. Air Force fliers numbered 312; 19 served as Marines and 3 as Navy men. Some were captured as far back as 1950, others as recently as this year. Most of those from the Army and Marine Corps were enlisted men, representing all major ground-force units.

Just where they are now is less certain. There are reports from returning Japanese prisoners, repatriated this month from Russia, that some Americans have been seen in a prison not far from Moscow. War prisoners of many Western nationalities are reported to be working in a huge underground project in Siberia. Prison compounds in Manchuria are closed to neutral inspection. So are Communist research and development centers in that part of the world. Some of the 944 may be dead, victims of the torture techniques for "persuasion" widely reported by repatriated prisoners.

But U.S. intelligence officers believe that most of those missing Americans are probably somewhere in Manchuria. Chinese authorities carefully supervise all travel between Manchuria and the rest of China. Their bases along the Yalu River, at Port Arthur, Changchun, Mukden and Harbin are closely guarded and restricted for all but the military. There are enough Russians in these areas to make several hundred Americans inconspicuous. Elsewhere in China, Americans would be noticed and the grapevine would pass the news on quickly. But Manchuria is a closed military area and the Americans could live there, guarded, for years, with no opportunity for escape.

Behind the disappearance of these Americans are reasons that can be inferred, too. The need for technicians in expanding Communist forces accounts for most of the missing specialists, as U.S. military officials see it. There is conjecture that many of the others, resisting Communist persuasion methods, will be used for an experiment in long-term "brain washing," to see how Americans react. And there are big opportunities for Communists, in withholding some Americans, to enhance their bargaining position or to obtain ransom, as was done with American fliers forced down in Hungary.

What U.S. will do about Communist withholding of American prisoners, in direct violation of the truce agreement in Korea, is the big question now. Families of the missing men are beginning to wonder if 944 more Americans must be added to the price of going into a war without winning it."

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U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs- A Critique

On May 23, 1991, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff released a publication entitled, "An Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs." Verbatim text for pages 4-1 to 4-13 (the Korean War) is as follows (with footnotes at the end of the text):

The Korean War

"Unlike the result in World War II, Allied forces did not achieve a military victory in Korea. The Korean War ended at the negotiating table between Communist North Korean representatives and United Nations representatives.

With regard to POW repatriation, the North Koreans initially demanded an "all-for-all" prisoner exchange. In other words, the North Koreans wanted an agreement similar to the Yalta Agreement of World War II. The United States was reluctant to agree to this formula based on its World War II experience with mandatory repatriation, knowing that thousands of those forced to return to the Soviet Union were either shot or interned in slave labor camps, where most of them died. After two long years of negotiations, the North Koreans agreed to the principle of voluntary or "non-forcible repatriation." This agreement stated that each side would release only those prisoners who wished to return to their respective countries.

Operation BIG SWITCH was the name given to the largest and final exchange of prisoners between the North Koreans and the U.N. forces, and occurred over a one-month period from August 5, 1953 to September 6, 1953. (1) Chinese and North Korean POWs were returned to South Korea. Approximately 14,200 Communist Chinese POWs elected not to return to the Peoples Republic of china; but only 21 American POWs elected to stay with the Communist forces, and likely went to China. These 21 Americans are defectors and obviously are not considered as un-repatriated U.S. POWs.

However, U.S. government documents state that nearly 1000 known captive U.S. POWs—and an undetermined number of some 8,000 U.S. MIAs—were not repatriated at the end of the Korean War. Three days after the start of operation BIG SWITCH, the New York Times reported that ‘General James A. VanFleet, retired commander of the United States Eighth Army in Korea, estimated tonight that a large percentage of the 8,000 American soldiers listed as missing in Korea were alive. (2)

Leaves a Balance of 8,000 Unaccounted For

A report by the U.N. Combined Command for Reconnaisance Activity, Korea, five days into operation BIG SWITCH, stated: ‘Figures show that the total number of MIAs, plus known captives, less those to be US repatriated, leaves a balance of 8,000 unaccounted for." (Emphasis added). (3)

The report mentions numerous reports of U.N. POWs who were transferred to Manchuria, China, and the USSR since the beginning of hostilities in Korea. (4) Specifically, the report stated ‘many POWs transferred have been technicians and factory workers. Other POWs transferred had a knowledge of Cantonese and are reportedly used for propaganda purposes. (5)

The number of known U.S. POWs not repatriated from the Korean War was cited by Hugh M. Milton II, Assistant Secretary of the Army in January, 1954, in a memorandum he wrote four months after the conclusion of operation BIG SWITCH. Section 3, Part B reads:

B. The Unaccounted for Americans Believed to Be Still Held Illegally by the Communists (Secret)

1.  There are approximately 954 United States personnel falling in this group. What the Department of the Army and other interested agencies is doing about their recovery falls into two parts. First, the direct efforts of the UNC Military Armistice Commission to obtain an accurate accounting, and second, efforts by G2 of the Army, both overt and covert, to locate, identify, and recover these individuals. G2 is making an intensive effort through its information collection system world-wide, to obtain information on these people and has a plan for clandestine action to obtain the recovery of one or more to establish the case positively that prisoners are still being held by the Communists. No results have been obtained yet in this effort. The direct efforts of the UNC [United Nations Command] are being held in abeyance pending further study of the problem by the State Department….

2. A further complicating factor in the situation is that to continue to carry this personnel in a missing status is costing over one million dollars annually. It may become necessary at some future date to drop them from our records as ‘missing and presumed dead." (6)

In fact, the Defense Department did in fact "drop them" from DOD records as "missing and presumed dead," as were the non-repatriated U.S. POWs from the American Expeditionary force in World War I and World War II. In a memorandum to Milton from Major General Robert Young, the Assistant chief of Staff, G-1 of the U.S. Army, Young updates Assistant Secretary Milton on the progress on dropping the U.S. POWs from DOD records:

2.  Under the provisions of Public Law 490 (77th Congress), the Department of the Army, after careful review of each case and interrogation of returning prisoners of war, has placed 618 soldiers, known to have been in enemy ands and unaccounted for by the Communist Forces in the following categories: 313 – Finding of Death – administratively determined, under the provisions of Public Law 490, by Department of the Army; 275 – Report of Death – reported on good authority by returning prisoners; 21 – Dishonorable Discharge; 4 – Under investigation, prognosis undecided. Missing in Action for over one year; 2 – Returned to Military Control. (7)

The number had already been dropped from 954 to 618 through a series of presumed findings of death for the "unaccounted-for Americans believed to be still held illegally by the Communists." Presumed findings of death were also used to whittle down the number of U.S. soldiers listed as MIA.

According to the "Interim Report of U.S. Casualties," prepared by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as of December 31, 1953 (Operation BIG SWITCH ended September 6, 1953), the total number of U.S. soldiers who had been listed as Missing in Action from the Korean War was 13,325. Still listed as MIA in January 1, 1954 were 2,953, and the figure for died, or presumed dead, was 5,140. 5,131 MIAs had been repatriated and 101 were listed as "Current captured." (8)

"These people would have to be ‘negotiated for’"

On June 17, 1955, almost two years after the end of operation BIG SWITCH, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, issued an internal report titled, "Recovery of Unrepatriated Prisoners of War." The report admitted that,

After the official repatriation efforts were completed, the U.N. Command found that it still had slightly less than 1000 U.S. POWs [not MIAs ‘unaccounted for’ by the Communists. (9)

Although frank and forthright, this report—written by staff of the Office of Special Operations—provides a glimpse into the thinking of those involved in the Korean POW issue. Sections of the report follow:

At the time of the official repatriation, some of our repatriates stated that they (the Communists) were holding ‘some’ U.S. flyers as ‘political prisoners’ rather than as prisoners of war and that these people would have to be ‘negotiated for’ through political or diplomatic channels. Due to the fact that we did not recognize the red regime in China, no political negotiations were instituted, although [the] State [Department] did have some exploratory discussions with the British in an attempt to get at the problem. The situation was relatively dormant when, in late November 1954, the Peking radio announced that 13 of these ‘political prisoners’ had been sentenced for ‘spying.’ This announcement caused a public uproar and a demand from U.S. citizens, Congressional leaders and organizations for action to effect their release. (10)

The eleven U.S. "political prisoners," were not the only U.S. servicemen the Chinese held after the Korean War. The New York Times, reported:

Communist China is holding prisoner other United States Air Force personnel besides the eleven who were recently sentenced on spying charges following their capture during the Korean War. This information was brought out of China by Squadron Leader Andrew R. MacKenzie, a Canadian flier who was released today by the Chinese at the Hong Kong border. He reached freedom here two years to the day after he was shot down and fell into Chinese hands in North Korea….Held back from the Korean War prisoner exchange, he was released by the Peiping [sic] regime following a period of negotiations through diplomatic channels…Wing Comdr. Donald Skene, his brother-in-law who was sent here from Canada to meet him, said guardedly at a press conference later that an undisclosed number of United States airmen had been in the same camp with Squadron Leader MacKenzie….Wing Commander Skene said none of the Americans in the camp was on the list of eleven whose sentencing was announced by the Chinese November 23 [,1954]. (11)

"American POWs reported in route to Siberia"

Despite some political inconvenience to the Department of Defense, the government felt that the issue and controversy had been controlled. A concluding report, "Recovery of Unrepatriated Prisoners of War," stated:

Such as they are, our current efforts in the political field, plus the ‘stand-by’ alternatives developed by the military, represent the full range of possible additional efforts to recover personnel now in custody of foreign powers. On one hand, we are bound at present by the President’s ‘peaceful means’ decree. The military courses of action apparently cannot be taken unilaterally, and we are possessed of some rather ‘reluctant’ allies in this respect. The problem becomes a philosophical one. If we are ‘at war,’ cold, hot or otherwise, casualties and losses must be expected and perhaps we must learn to live with this type of thing. If we are in for fifty years of peripheral ‘fire fights’ we might be forced to adopt a rather cynical attitude on this for political course of action something like General Erskine outlined which would (1) instill in the soldier a much more effective ‘don’t get captured’ attitude, and (2) we should also push to get the military commander more discretionary authority to retaliate, fast and hard against these Communist tactics. (12)

Reports of the fate of these Americans continued to come to the attention of the United States government. One such report, a Foreign Service Dispatch (cable) by Air Pouch dated March 23, 1954, sent from the U.S. diplomatic post in Hong Kong to the State Department in Washington, sheds some light on the fate of hundreds of U.S. POWs captured during the Korean War. The report reads:

American POWs reported en route to Siberia

A recently arrived Greek refugee from Manchuria has reported seeing several hundred American prisoners of war being transferred from Chinese trains to Russian trains at Manchouli near the boarder of Manchuria and Siberia. The POWs were seen late in 1951 and in the spring of 1952 by the informant and a Russian friend of his. The informant was interrogated on two occasions by the Assistant Air Liaison Officer and the Consulate General agrees with his evaluation of the information as probably true and the evaluation of the source as unknown reliability. The full text of the initial Air Liaison Office report follows:

First report dated March 16, 1954, from Air Liaison Office, Hong Kong, to USAF, Washington, G2.

‘This office has interviewed refugee source who states that he observed hundreds of prisoners of war in American uniforms being sent into Siberia in late 1951 and 1952. Observations were made at Manchouli (Lupin), 49 degrees 50’-117 degrees 30’ Manchuria Road Map, AMSL 201 First Edition, on USSR-Manchurian border. Source observed POW’s on railway station platform loading into trains for movement into Siberia. In railway restaurant source closely observed three POWs who were under guard and were conversing in English. POWs wore sleeve insignia which indicated POWs were Air Force noncommissioned officers. Source states that there were a great number of Negroes among POW shipments and also states that at no time later were any POWs observed returning from Siberia. Source does not wish to be identified for fear of reprisals against friends in Manchuria, however is willing to cooperate in answering further questions and will be available Hong Kong for questioning for the next four days.’

Upon receipt of this information, USAF, Washington, requested elaboration of the following points:

1. Description of uniforms or clothing worn by POWs including ornaments.
2. Physical condition of POWs.
3. Nationality of guards.
4. Specific dates of observations.
5. Destination in Siberia.
6. Presence of Russians in uniform or civilian clothing accompanying movements of POWs.
7. Complete description of three POWs specifically mentioned.

The Air Liaison Office complied by submitting the telegram quoted below:

"FROM USAIRLO SGN LACKEY. CITE C4. REUR 53737 following answers submitted to seven questions.

(1) POWs wore OD outer clothing described as not heavy inasmuch as weather considered early spring. Source identified from pictures service jacket, field, M1943. No belongings except canteen. No ornaments observed.

(2) Condition appeared good, no wounded all ambulatory.

(3) Station divided into two sections with tracks on each side of loading platform. On Chinese side POWs accompanied by Chinese guards. POWs passed through gate bisecting platform to Russian train manned and operated by Russians. Russian trainmen wore dark blue or black tunic with silver colored shoulder boards. Source says this regular train uniform but he knows the trainmen are military wearing regular train uniforms.

(4) Interrogation with aid of more fluent interpreter reveals source first observed POWs in railroad station in spring 1951. Second observation was outside city of Manchouli about three months later with POW train headed towards station where he observed POW transfer. Source was impressed with second observation because of large number of Negroes among POWs. Source states job was numbering railroad cars at Manchouli every time subsequent POW shipments passed through Manchouli. Source says these shipments were reported often and occurred when United Nation forces in Korea were on the offensive.

(5)   Unknown.

(6)   Only Russian accompanying POWs were those who manned train.

(7) Three POWs observed in station restaurant appeared to be 30 or 35. Source identified Air Force non-commissioned officer sleeve insignia of Staff Sergeant rank, stated that several inches above insignia there was a propeller but says that all three did not have propeller. Three POWs accompanied by Chinese guard. POWs appeared thin but in good health and spirits, were being given what source described as good food. POWs were talking in English but did not converse with guard. Further information as to number of POWs observed source states that first observation filled a seven passenger car train and second observation about the same. Source continues to emphasize the number of Negro troops, which evidently impressed him because he had seen so few Negroes before.

….Comment Reporting Officer: Source is very careful not to exaggerate information and is positive of identification of American POWs. In view of information contained in Charity Interrogation Report No. 619 dated 5 February 54, Reporting Officer gives above information rating of F-2. Source departing Hong Kong today by ship. Future address on file this office.’

In this connection the Department’s attention is called to Charity Interrogation Report No. 619, forward to the Department under cover of a letter dated March 1, 1954, by Mr. A. Sabin Chase, DRF. Section 6 of this report states, "On another occasion source saw several coaches full of Europeans who were taken to USSR. They were not Russians. Source passed the coaches several times and heard them talk in a language unknown to him." (13)

"Prisoners in Peace and Reform Camps will not be exchanged"

The report from Hong Kong was specifically discussed in Major General Young’s April 29, 1954 memorandum to Assistant Secretary of the Army, Hugh Milton II. Young, responding to Milton’s request to "consolidate information on prisoners of war which may remain in Communist hands," states that the Hong Kong report:

Corroborates previous indications UNC POWs might have been shipped to Siberia during Korean hostilities….reports have now come [to the] attention [of the] U.S. Government which support earlier indications that American prisoners of war from Korea had been transported into Soviet Union and are now in Soviet custody. Request fullest possible information these POWs and their repatriation earliest possible time. (14)

One CIA intelligence report, which had an information date as of October 1950-February 1951, confirmed that hundreds of Negro troops were held by the North Koreans. The CIA report stated:

(1) One Republic of Korea soldier who was captured by the Communists on 29 October 1950 was sent to a war prison camp at Pyoktong (125-26, 40-36) in North Pyonman. This camp in early November had about 1,000 American war prisoners, of whom about 700 were Negroes, approximately 1,500 ROK prisoners, and about 300 civilian employees of the United Nations forces. (15)

A different three page CIA intelligence report, on Prisoner of War Camps in North Korea and China, with information dated January-May 1952, described the Chinese Communist system of camps for U.N. POWs.

War Prisoner Administrative Office and Camp Classification

1. In May 1952 the War Prisoner Administrative Office (Chan Fu Kuan Li Ch’u) (2069/0199/4619/2810/5710) in P’yongyang, under Colonel No-man-ch’I-fu (6179/7024/1148/1133), an intelligence officer attached to the general headquarters of the Soviet Far Eastern Military District, controlled prisoner of war camps in Manchuria and North Korea. The office, formerly in Mukden, employed 30 persons, several of whom were English-speaking Soviets. LIN Mai (2651/6701) and NAM IL (0589/2480) were deputy chairmen of the office.

2. The office had developed three types of prisoner-of-war camps. Camps termed ‘peace camps,’ detaining persons who exhibited pro-Communist leanings, were characterized by considerate treatment of the prisoners and the staging within the camps of Communist rallies and meetings. The largest peace camp, which held two thousand prisoners, was at Chungchun. Peace camps were also at K’aiyuan Ksien (124-05, 42-36) and Pench’I (123-43, 41-20).

3. Reform camps, all of which were in Manchuria, detained anti-Communist prisoners possessing certain technical skills. Emphasis at these camps was on re-indoctrination of the prisoners.

4. Normal prisoner-of-war camps, all of which were in North Korea, detained prisoners whom the Communists will exchange. Prisoners in peace camps will not be exchanged.

5. Officials of North Korean prisoner of war camps sent reports on individual prisoners to the War Prisoner Administrative Office. Cooperative prisoners were being transferred to peace camps. ROK (Republic of Korea) officers were being shot; ROK army soldiers were being reindoctrinated and assimilated into the North Korean army. …

The report also stated (#13) that:

On 6 January four hundred United States prisoners, including three hundred negroes, were being detained in two buildings at Nsiao Nan Kuan Chaih, at the southeast corner of the intersection, in Mukden.  One building, used as the police headquarters in Nsiso Nan Knan during the Japanese occupation, was a two-story concrete structure, 30 meters long and 20 meters wide. The other building, one story high and constructed of gray brick, was behind the two-story building. Both buildings had tile roofs. All prisoners held here, with the exception of three second lieutenants, were enlisted personnel. The prisoners, dressed in Chinese Communist army uniforms, with a red arm band on the left arm, were not required to work. Two hours of indoctrination were conducted daily by staff members of the Northeast Army Command. Prisoners were permitted to play basketball in the courtyard. The attempt of three white prisoners to escape caused the withdrawal of permission for white prisoners to walk alone through streets in the vicinity of the camp. Two Chinese Communist soldiers guarded groups of white prisoners when such groups left the buildings. Negroes, however, could move outside the compound area freely and individually. Rice, noodles, and one vegetable were served daily to the prisoners in groups of 10 to 15 men. One platoon of Chinese Communist soldiers guarded the compound. (16)

"Devoid of any foundation whatsoever…"

In an attempt to resolve the unrepatriated U.S. POW problem from the Korean War, by diplomacy, the United States officially communicated with the Soviet government on May 5, 1954. The official U.S. request to the Soviet Union stated:

The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics and Has the honor to request the Ministry’s assistance in the following matter.

The United States government has recently received reports which support earlier indications that American prisoners of war who had seen action in Korea have been transported to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and that they are now in Soviet custody. The United States Government desires to receive urgently all information available to the Soviet Government concerning these American personnel and to arrange their repatriation at the earliest possible time. (17)

On May 12, 1954, the Soviet Union replied:

In connection with the note of the Embassy of the United States of America, received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on May 5, 1954, the Ministry has the honor to state the following:

The United States assertion contained in the indicated note that American prisoners of war who participated in military actions in Korea have allegedly been transferred to the Soviet Union and at the present time are being kept under Soviet guard is devoid of any foundation whatsoever and is clearly far-fetched, since there are not and have not been any such persons in the Soviet Union. (18)

The Soviet response predicates denial of access to the men on its refusal to characterize the U.S. personnel as "prisoners of war." In fact, the Soviets made it a practice to refuse to acknowledge the U.S. citizenship of the U.S. soldiers; as a result—from the Soviet’s standpoint—the Soviet denial is accurate.

Nor was this lesson ever learned. According to a April 15, 1991 press advisory issued by the United States Department of State, the United States once again requested that the Soviets "provide us with any additional information on any other U.S. citizens who may have been detained as a result of World War II, the Korean conflict or the Vietnam War," (19) a request that repeated the mistake of asking for information only about U.S. citizens that the State Department made 37 years earlier.

The State Department also made a point of including in its recent press advisory the government’s usual statement that "in the interest of following every credible lead in providing families of U.S. service members with information about their loved ones." (20) Furthermore, according to the press advisory, the State Department specifically asked the Soviets only about "two U.S. planes shot down in the early 1950’s," (21) and did not ask the Soviets any specific questions about any non-repatriated POWs from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It seems apparent that if the Department of State had expected to get solid information from the Soviet government, then the State Department would have sent a much more comprehensive and appropriately phrased request.

The sincerity of the State Department’s declared intention to follow "every credible lead in providing families of U.S. service members with information about their loved ones" is, therefore, suspect. One U.S. government document dated January 21, 1980, a memorandum from Michael Oksenberg to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor under President Carter, reveals the cynical view and attitude of at least one U.S. government official with regard to the non-repatriation issue,

A letter from you is important to indicate that you take recent refugee reports of sighting of live Americans ‘seriously.’ This is simply good politics: DIA and State are playing this game, and you should not be the whistle blower. The idea is to say that the President [Carter] is determined to pursue any lead concerning possible live MIAs (22)

"POWs who might still be in Communist custody"

The executive branch’s disinformation tactics against concerned mothers and fathers extended to Congressmen and Senators. One case is found in a December 21, 1953 letter sent to the Secretary of State from Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson with regard to a constituent letter from Mr. Paul Bath of Marshall, Texas, who wrote Senator Johnson about a U.S. News and World Report article titled "Where are 944 Missing GI’s?"

The first reaction of the Secretary of State’s office was to call Johnson and dispose of the matter by phone. However, as a written reply was requested, Thruston B. Morton, the Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, was tasked to reply. The evolution of the text of Morton’s letter to Johnson—which took four rewrites to complete—definitively illustrates the ambivalence with which the United States government has approached the non-repatriation issue. The four drafts still exist today, and they illustrate how the State Department artfully sought to mislead the most powerful leader in Congress at the time.

The first draft of the State Department’s response contained the following text:

On September 9, the United Nations Command presented to the Communist representatives on the Military Armistice Commission a list of approximately 3,404 Allied personnel, including 944 Americans, about whom there was evidence that they had at one time or another been in Communist custody. The kinds of evidence from which this list was drawn included letters written home by prisoners, prisoners of war interrogations, interrogations of returnees, and Communist radio broadcasts. The United Nations Command asked the Communist side for a complete accounting of these personnel.

On September 21, the Communists made a reply relative to the list of names presented to them by the United Nations Command on September 9, in which they stated that many of the men on the list had never been captured at all, while others had already been repatriated. (23)

This entire section was crossed out by Morton, but a persistent foreign service officer sent Morton back the second draft, with the section quoted above unchanged, as well as a new sentence at the end of the introductory paragraph which read:

He [Mr. Paul Bath of Marshall, Texas] can be assured that efforts are being made to obtain the release of all our men in Communist custody and may be interested in having the following information about this matter. (24)

The second draft also contained a new page which followed the paragraphs used in the first draft. The second page of the second draft read:

General Clark, in a letter of September 24 [1954, two and a half weeks after Operation BIG SWITCH ended] to the Communist side, stated that he considered their reply [that the 944 U.S. men were never captured or had been repatriated] wholly unacceptable, and pointed out that by signing the armistice agreement the Communists had undertaken a solemn obligation to repatriate directly or to hand over to the custody of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission all of the captured persons held by them at the time the armistice was signed. He pointed out that this obligation was binding upon them and applied to all United Nations Command persons regardless of where captured or held in custody. I am enclosing a copy of General Clark’s letter of September 24 which you may wish to send to your constituent.

On November 21, the United Nations Command provided the Communist side with a revision of its original list of unaccounted for Allied personnel which it had presented to the Communists on September 9. The revised list contained a total of 3,400 names, and the figure for United States prisoners of war unaccounted for was increased by eight to a total of 952.

On November 21, the United Nations Command protested in the Military Armistice Commission to the Communists that they had still failed to give a satisfactory reply concerning the list of unaccounted for United Nations Command personnel, and pointed out that additional evidence provided by three Korean prisoners of war who recently defected to the United Nations side corroborated the United Nations Command statements that the Communists were withholding prisoners of war. The United Nations Command demanded that the Communists ‘hand over to the custody of the Custodian Forces of India all those prisoners that your side still retains.’

Ambassador Arthur Dean has also referred to this problem in the course of his negotiations with the Communists at Panmunjom.

Your constituent may be assured that it continues to be our determined purpose to obtain the return of all personnel in Communist custody and the United Nations Command will make every effort to accomplish the objective. (25)

Assistant Secretary Morton rejected all the proposed changes in the second draft by crossing them out. The third draft of the letter to Johnson was so disagreeable to Morton that he typed out two sentences and attached it to the draft and crossed out all others that related to the State Departments reply. As a result, the final letter read:

My dear Senator Johnson:

I refer to your letter of December 21, acknowledged by telephone on December 30, with which you enclose a letter from Mr. Paul Bath of Marshall, Texas concerning an article in the December 18 issue of ‘U.S. News and World Report.’ It is believed that Mr. Bath refers to the article ‘Where are 944 Missing GI’s?’ on page 27 of this publication.

I am enclosing copies of a statement recounting the efforts being made to secure the return of American prisoners of war who might still be in Communist custody which I believe will be of assistance to you in replying to your constituent. As the statement points out, it continues to be our determined purpose to obtain the return of all personnel in Communist custody and we will do everything possible to accomplish this objective. [emphasis added]

With regard to questions as to whether there are military personnel or other United States citizens in the custody of the Soviet Government, a few of the prisoners-of-war of other nationalities recently released by the Soviet Government have made reports alleging that American citizens are imprisoned in the Soviet Union. All of these reports are being investigated by this Department with the cooperation of other agencies of the Government.

You are probably aware that representations from the United States Government recently made to the Soviet Government resulted in the release in Berlin on December 29 of Homer H. Cox and Leland Towers, two Americans reported by returning [German] prisoners-of-war as being in Soviet custody. The Department will investigate, as it has done in the past, every report indicating that American citizens are held in the custody of foreign governments.

Sincerely Yours,
For the Secretary of State,
Thruston B. Morton (26)

It is noteworthy that Morton’s letter contained no specific or accurate information, as contrasted with the three rejected drafts which had such information. The rhetoric of the State Department could not go beyond the word "might" to describe the possibility of U.S. soldiers being held by Communist forces. On the one hand, the State Department was taking credit for having released two Americans from the Soviet gulag and for investigating, "every report indicating that American citizens are held in the custody of foreign governments," but on the other it was dismissing any real possibility that there could be more POWs in Communist prisons.

‘They…would hold me like they had done these other guys"

The People’s Republic of China, as noted earlier, released a Canadian Squadron Leader thirteen months after the last U.N. POW was repatriated by the Communist forces. In 1973, Chinese Communists released two American POWs who had been captured during the Korean War, along with a pilot, Philip smith, who was shot down over the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam war. During Smith’s seven years in solitary confinement in a PRC jail, he had been shown the two U.S. POWs from the Korean War whom the Chinese Communists were still holding. Smith said the Chinese told him:

They wouldn’t release me, and would hold me like they’d done these other guys until I recanted. (27)

Most Americans would find it incomprehensible that the Chinese would hold U.S. POWs from the Korean War, and release them two decades later; yet, to the Chinese Communists, this policy had some rationale.

At the conclusion of operation BIG SWITCH, the United States Government failed to pursue vigorously credible reports and left U.S. citizens, held against their will, in custody of the North Koreans, the mainland Chinese, and the SSR. Whether any of these men are still alive is—tragically—unclear.

The fate of the more than 8,000 men listed as MIA who were administratively found to be "presumed dead" is a mystery. No rebuttal was ever made to General Van Fleet, who stated in the fall of 1953 his belief that a large percentage of the 8,000 American soldiers listed as missing in Korea were alive. (28) "A large percentage" translates into thousands of U.S. soldiers who were never repatriated by the Communist forces after the Korean War.

Seven years after operation BIG SWITCH, one Foreign Service Dispatch to the State Department in Washington contained the names of two U.S. Korean POWs working in a Soviet phosphorus mine. (29) The cable, recently "sanitized" by the United States government, originally contained the names of the two U.S. POWs, but the names were blacked out in the sanitized version. According to the United States government, the names were blacked out to protect the abandoned POWs "privacy." It is absurd that the U.S. government, having abandoned soldiers to a life of slave labor and forced captivity, is attempting to protect the same abandoned soldiers’ "privacy." (30)

Footnotes

1. Korean War Almanac, Harry G. Summers, Jr., Colonel of Infantry, Facts on File, pp. 33, 62.
2. "8,000 Missing, Van Fleet Says," The New York Times, August 8, 1953.
3. Report, U.N. Combined Command for Reconnaissance Activity Korea, (CCRAK). CCRAK SPECIFIC REQUEST Number 66-53.
4. The United States had not recognized the People’s Republic of China and, as a result, the U.S. did not deal directly with the Chinese throughout the negotiations.
5. (CCRAK) Report, REQUEST Number 66-53.
6. Memorandum, classified Secret, "TO: Secretary of the Army, Subject: The Twenty-One Non-Repatriates and the Unaccounted-For Americans Believed to Be Still Held Illegally by the Communists, From: Assistant Secretary Milton," January 16, 1954.
7. Memorandum, classified Secret, "To: Hugh Milton, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, (M&RF) Subject: United States Personnel Unaccounted for by Communist Forces, From: Major General Robert N. Young, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1," April 29, 1954.
8. See "Interim Report of U.S. Battle Casualties," as of December 31, 1953 (Source: Progress Reports and Statistics, OSD, as of January 25, 1954).
9. Report, classified Confidential, prepared by Defense Advisory Committee on Prisoners of War, Study Group III, titled "Recovery of Unrepatriated Prisoners of War, a document presented by the Office of Special Operations, Office of the Secretary of Defense, written by James J. Kelleher, Report No. CPOW/3 D-1, June 8, 1955.
10. Ibid.
11. "Freed Flier Says Peiping is Holding More U.S. Airmen, Canadian Now in Hong Kong Brings News of Americans Other than 11 Jailed," The New York Times, December 6, 1954.
12. Report, classified Confidential, prepared by the Defense Advisory Committee on Prisoners of War, Study Group III, "Recovery of Unrepatriated Prisoners of War," a document presented by the Office of Special Operations, Office of the Secretary of Defense, written by James J. Kelleher, Report No. CPOW/3 D-1, June 8, 1955.
13. Cable, Foreign Service Dispatch "From: AMCONGEN, Hong Kong, To: The Department of State, Washington, by Air Pouch, signed Julian F. Harrington, American Consul General, cc: Taipei, Moscow, London, Paris, No. 1716," March 23, 1954.
14. Memorandum, classified Secret, "To: Hugh Milton, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, (M&RF) Subject: United States Personnel Unaccounted for by Communist Forces, From: Major General Robert N. Young, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1," April 29, 1954.
15. Report, CIA, No. SO 6582, Country: Korea/China; Date of Info: October 1950-February 1951.
16.  16 Report, CIA, "Subject: Prisoners-of-War Camps in North Korea and China," No. SO 91634, July 17, 1952.
17. See diplomatic note.
18. U.S. State Department press release 249, May 13, 1954.
19. See United States Department of State press advisory, Office of the Assistant Secretary/Spokesman, "USSR: Allegations of U.S. POWs in the USSR," April 15, 1991.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Memorandum, National Security Council, "To: Zbigniew Brzezinski, From: Michael Oksenberg," January 21, 1980.
23. Letter, first draft "To: Senator Johnson, From: Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, Thruston B. Morton," file number SEV 611.61241/12-2153.
24. Letter, second draft "To: Senator Johnson, From: Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, Thruston B. Morton," file number SEV611.61241/12-2153.
25. Ibid.
26. Letter, final "To: Senator Johnson, From: Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, Thruston B. Morton", file number SEV611.61241/12-2153, January 20, 1954.
27. "ExPOWs Recall Psychological Terror, Coercion," The Free Press Enterprise, January 22, 1991.
28. "8,000 Missing, Van Fleet Says," "The New York Times," August 8, 1953.
29. Cable, "From: the American Embassy in Brussels, To: the State Department in Washington," September 8, 1960.
30. "Men Who Never Returned," Editorial, The Washington Times, March 13, 1991.

Back to Contents

Lest We Forget

THE MISSING VETERANS MEMORY PAGE

"To live in the hearts of those left behind,
is never to have died."
 

William Evans, Sr.

Information provided by Bill Evans, Jr. of Richardson, Texas.
My father was an American civilian who was rounded up only because of his nationality, interned and killed in Ah Jan Ri, North Korea on December 13, 1950. He marched in the now infamous "Death March." And there were other civilians. Official commemorations never honor them or even remember them.

Sgt. Philip V. Mandra

Dedicated to Sgt. Philip V. Mandra, my beloved brother, my friend, my playmate, my protector, till we meet again. – Contributed by Irene Mandra (reprinted from Vol. 3, Issue 1, 2000 of the newsletter of the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs)

Born May 2, 1931, Philip was my older brother. We attended Catholic grammar school and had the good fortune to belong to a closely-knit Italian family. Phil was an altar boy. He was deeply religious throughout his life. There was a three-year difference in our ages, yet we double dated together and had mutual friends. When the Korean War broke out, Philip joined the Marines in September 1950. Our first cousin and uncle was a Marine; and when you earned the title "Marine" upon graduation from basic training, you deserved it. It wasn’t willed to you. It isn’t a gift. The title "Marine" is a title few can claim. No one may take it away. It is yours forever. Phil loved the Marine Corps.

Phil landed in Korea January 1952 as part of D Company, 2 Battalion, 5th Regiment, First Marine Division. In July 1952, Phil was involved in fierce fighting. He was hit in both his arms with shrapnel, yet he wrote home telling us not to worry. He was awarded the Purple Heart with a cluster. It wasn’t until years later, that my family was notified that on that July 5th and 6th, Phil bravely maintained his position in the face of intense enemy artillery, mortar and small arms fire. Phil seized an automatic weapon and delivered effective counter-fire on the hostile troops, inflicting heavy casualties on the attackers. Encountering one of the enemy, armed with an automatic gun, Phil maneuvered his fire team in a tight defensive perimeter around the outpost, and immediately charged and killed the intruder with his bayonet. Phil rendered invaluable assistance to the outpost commander, constantly encouraging the men and administering first aid to the wounded. For his leadership, conspicuous gallantry, and courage in helping other wounded Marines, Phil was awarded the Silver Star. I accepted that medal on Phil’s behalf, telling myself that Phil will be surprised when he comes home.

On August 7, 1952 a day that is emblazoned in my heart till I die, my brother disappeared. I did not find out until much later that four other Marines also disappeared during the battle on Bronco Hill with my brother. Bronco Hill is the outpost for a larger hill called Hook. The four other Marines who disappeared with my brother are Sgt. Junior J. Nixon, Sgt. Robert H. Malloy, Cpl. Thomas L. Edwards and Pvt. Thomas Montoya. Some of these men were wounded due to concussion grenades thrown by Chinese forces. My brother was one of the men that was hit and knocked unconscious.

I was fortunate to find a Marine who witnessed what happened on that day. I was told that within fifteen minutes, my brother’s unit got reinforcements and charged the hill again and learned all the wounded men "disappeared." I don’t think I have to tell MIA family members about the anguish and tears, when you don’t know where a loved one is and how a loved one is surviving.

In September of 1993, a Russian Colonel contacted the American Embassy in Russia. He heard a radio broadcast that the U.S. government was looking for Americans who were brought into Russia as prisoners of war. Anyone with information was asked to contact the USA Task Force. In the meanwhile, Task Force Russia was absorbed into Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) and this reorganization essentially dismantled the task force as we knew it. The S task force visited a Colonel Malinin in the Soviet Union, who spoke of seeing an American POW in a prison in Magadon, Siberia in 1962. When the task force showed Colonel Malinin an album of approximately 100 pictures of missing men, the Colonel picked my brother’s picture out twice--two different pictures, one when he was young and a computerized age enhanced picture of Phil at age sixty. Colonel Malinin told the story of visiting a prison which was part of his job and going into the Commodore’s office and looking out the window. The Colonel observed a man who was brought out of his cell and walked in the court-yard. The Colonel asked the Commandant, "Who is this man?" The explanation given was that "he is an American", sent to him "from the Gulag". This took place in 1962, and Colonel Malinin saw the same American in 1965 when visiting the prison again.

When I learned this news, I packed and left for Russia. I met with Colonel Malinin and he told me that as he was leaving the prison, he heard three prisoners yelling out the window, "I’m American." He couldn’t see their faces, but he heard what they were yelling. The Colonel again identified my brother’s face as the prisoner that he saw in that courtyard. I showed him other pictures of my brother and his reply was he could never forget that lone prisoner who was kept in solitary confinement and not allowed to be with other prisoners walking in that courtyard. I also visited the Commandant, who claimed he didn’t remember my brother and denied that there were any Americans in that prison. I spent two weeks in Russia searching for answers, but hitting many a brick wall. My oldest brother Sal accompanied me to this frozen la