There are no known living POWs left in Vietnam from the American War. Many veterans and survivors of those terrible years have returned to the country to visit and pay respects to their peers left behind.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists 684 POWs returned home alive from the Vietnam War — the majority after the U.S. pulled out of the war in 1973. (The war officially ended April 30, 1975). There are 1,582 Americans still unaccounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Garwood. Robert Russell Garwood (born April 1, 1946) is a former United States Marine. Often cited as the last verified American prisoner of war (POW) from the Vietnam War, Garwood was captured on September 28, 1965 by Việt Cộng forces near Da Nang, Quang Nam Province.
In 1973, after the peace accords, Hanoi returned 591 American prisoners and said these were all the prisoners they had. Yet more than 2,200 American military men are still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. Half or more of those men are known to be dead though their remains have never been recovered.
As of 2022, the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency classifies 470 of the 1244 soldiers still unaccounted for in Vietnam as "non-recoverable", meaning that there is conclusive evidence that the persons were killed during the conflict, but that it is not believed that it will be possible to recover their bodies.
According to the Pentagon's Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, there are currently 83,204 unaccounted for U.S. personnel, including 73,547 from World War II, 7,883 from the Korean War, 126 from the Cold War, 1,642 from the Vietnam War, and six from Iraq and other recent conflicts, including three Defense ...
In 1973, the United States listed 2,646 Americans as unaccounted for from the entire Vietnam War. By October 2022, 1,582 Americans remained unaccounted for, of which 1,004 were classified as further pursuit, 488 as non-recoverable and 90 as deferred.
Although North Vietnam was a signatory of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, which demanded "decent and humane treatment" of prisoners of war, severe torture methods were employed, such as waterboarding, strappado (known as "the ropes" to POWs), irons, beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement.
U.S. Private First Class Robert R. Garwood is often cited as the last U.S. POW from the Vietnam War. In 1979, Garwood reemerged, claiming he and other POWs had remained imprisoned after the war.
North Vietnamese torture was exceptionally cruel--prison guards bound POWs' arms and legs with tight ropes and then dislocated them, and left men in iron foot stocks for days or weeks. Extreme beatings were common, many times resulting in POW deaths.
United States Army Colonel Floyd “Jim” Thompson, the longest held prisoner of war (POW) in American history, and his wife, Alyce, were products of the idealism of post-World War II America. When Thompson was shot down and captured, they began a journey that changed them forever.
Nearly 30% of America's POWs since World War I are still living (29,350). More than 90% of our living POWs were captured and interned during World War II. In 1980, Congress mandated VA to conduct a study of former POWs to assess their health needs, and make recommendations for improvement of benefits and services.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - 2023 marks 50 years since Vietnam prisoners of war were freed. Among them is the longest-held enlisted prisoner, Captain Bill Robinson, who now lives in Lenoir City.
From 1964 to 1973, the North Vietnamese had captured Americans, mostly pilots and crews of downed aircraft, and delivered them to prisons. Among the most notorious of these facilities was Hoa Lo, known by Americans as the Hanoi Hilton.
Purcell was the highest ranking Army officer captured during the war. Purcell twice attempted to escape from captivity, but was recaptured both times and held prisoner until 27 March 1973 when he was released during Operation Homecoming.
"Of the 2,709,918 Americans who served in Vietnam, Less than 850,000 are estimated to be alive today, with the youngest American Vietnam veteran's age approximated to be 60 years old."
3. Lackland Air Force Base is now known as Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. 4. Of the 4,000 dog handlers and dogs deployed to Vietnam, approximately 270 handlers and 500 dogs were killed in action, according to McClouds.
At the end of the war, there were approximately 79,000 Americans unaccounted for. This number included those buried with honor as unknowns, officially buried at sea, lost at sea, and missing in action. Today, more than 73,000 of those lost Americans remain totally unaccounted for from WWII.
Among the 12,000 prisoners taken by the Viet Minh, two-thirds died in "re-education" camps and were buried in mass graves. As for Ho Chi Minh's forces, their losses are estimated to be between 4,000 and 8,000 dead, depending on sources.
They were intended to cow the populace, liquidate opponents, erode the morale of South Vietnamese government employees, and boost tax collection and propaganda efforts. Terror was meant to demonstrate that the South Vietnamese government could not protect them.
During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
On both sides, prisoners were tortured, abused and violated. This is shown by previously classified sources from the U.S. National Archives. NZZ / til. Much has been written in the United States about the treatment of American prisoners in North Vietnam.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR INCREASED RESULTS! Accountability: As of today, the Department of Defense lists 1,579 Americans as missing and unaccounted-for, over 90% of them in Vietnam and in areas of Cambodia and Laos where Vietnamese forces operated during the war. from Vietnam, 43 from Cambodia and 3 from the PRC.
Twenty-six years after he disappeared without a trace in Vietnam and 17 years after the Army declared him dead, Master Sgt. Mateo Sabog has turned up alive. And to top it off, the 73-year-old man is still in the Army.