The POW Experience
Thanks to a friend who attends our reunions and gathers recollections from the POWs. He then takes those recollections and combines them into a narrative which helps them with the recovery of those that still remain in Korea. Many of these reports are from him and give us some insight into what the POWs endured.
March 2009
New Year has begun, and we are looking back over many of our records. We’re trying to resolve several questions that could prove helpful to recovery teams going into the field in 2009. As I write in late January, we have not yet had direct contact with North Korean authorities. There is still a little time, as Winter moves toward Spring. But we do not have any firm basis for expecting to go back into North Korea this year. If we do return, it would likely be to one of the two base camp sites from which we were working 2005, either at the Chosin...
read moreDecember 2008
A lot has happened this year and we’re expecting even greater events in 2009. In passing, I’m writing a bit before the Presidential Election, at the end of October. More on that in a moment! Meanwhile, so far in 2008, Joint POW Accounting Command (JPAC) has successfully identified the remains of 17 service members from the Korean War and sent them home to their families. About 10 others have completed their laboratory work and are now being presented to families. We don’t consider an identification “done” until the family had been advised and...
read moreSeptember 2008
To follow-up on recent conversations, we’ve had quite a few questions on who and where and how many, with respect to missing men in the Korean War. Please let me give you my best numbers as of right now, 22 August 2008. These should prove useful, as we continue to discuss: 8,056 missing men 2,034 prisoners of war (POW) 1,784 killed in action (KIA) 4,140 missing in action (MIA) 98 non-battle deaths (NBD) We refer to KIA, POW, and NBD as “states of knowledge,” because companions saw these men, remembered them, and reported them. Those men...
read moreJune 2008
These are iffy times, a lot is happening, not all of it is obvious, but we seem to be moving to good purpose. A little bad news first, it’s not very likely that we’ll be going into North Korea this year. It is still barely possibly, but the North Koreans have not been “playing us” in that direction. I say this because their whole world is one of hints and signals and indications. They seldom “speak” until they’re ready to “do”. Surprisingly, a couple of outside factors may be working against an invitation this year, things that have nothing...
read moreMarch 2008
We do not have, just yet, an invitation from North Korea to do recovery work during 2008. It might come a little later, or not. I can’t speak to any specifics, but I haven’t given up on the possibility of “going North” later this year. Meanwhile preparations continue for work in South Korea. Our friends at the Joint POW Accounting Command (JPAC) hope to visit several areas, including the POW march routes leading north into the present Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Work there looks really promising. In just a first “road recon” last year, our JPAC...
read moreDecember 2007
The year is winding down, and quite a bit will be happening in 2008. As of right now, we do not have an invitation to enter North Korea for continued recovery work. But we are hoping. These things unfold at their own pace. But there are other developments that we can speak about… Between March and September 2007, our recovery teams explored across much of South Korea. This was not unusual, for we have a standing invitation. But we did have a chance to do something we hadn’t tried for a while. We walked parts of the POW evacuation routes...
read moreSeptember 2007
Last time we spoke of Tiger Group, the first organized gathering of U.S. POWs in the Korean War. Most were taken during the opening days, from 6 July near Osan falling back to 22 July 1950 near Taejon. Not everyone captured during this early period became part of Tiger Group, but many did. Picking up the story, by foot and train they worked north, reaching Manpo on the south bank of the Yalu River on or about 11 September. A lot happened at Manpo. There was a first camp, but the war now took a new turn. Our friends were hurriedly pushed on a...
read moreMarch 2007
This will be the start of a series of items I’m providing, but I’m also looking for odd bits of memory that might help things along a bit later, when we get back into North Korea. As POWs go, Tiger Group came first, they stayed longest, and many good men did not survive that first terrible Winter. Right now, we’re trying to “prep up” for one or more missions into the North. Not likely for 2007, but possible, and a much better chance in 2008. We’ve never been able to go to the far-away Apex Camps where Tiger...
read moreDecember 2006
One of the strangest stories to come out of the Korean War concerns a large group of POWs who simply disappeared. Sadly, we know exactly what happened to them, even though we do not know, by name, who they all were. Doesn’t seem possible, but it is all too true. Our story begins with the fall of Taejon, South Korea, 20-22 July 1950. Men were gathered up and began to march north. Some POWs had already gone north, from the first actions of the Korean War. This extended group joined up at Seoul early in August and continued on to Pyongyang in...
read moreSeptember 2006
At Nashville, some of you had questions about Camp 5 on the south bank of the Yalu River at Old Pyoktong. (In recent years, the North Koreans have moved the “name” several miles west, to create New Pyoktong, so the site of Camp 5 is now known as Tongju-ri. Up to their usual tricks…). How many men died at Camp 5? We have a tradition, based on best memory and best estimation, of 1600. But we can come up with only about 1100 names. Here’s why: many of the men who died in February and March of 1951 took with them the names and...
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