Whitesides and Captain Floyd James Thompson was brought down by small arms fire. Whitesides was killed, and Thompson was taken prisoner; he would ultimately spend just short of nine years in captivity, making him the longest-held POW in American history.
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.
From 1961 to 1973, the North Vietnamese and Vietcong held hundreds of Americans captive in North Vietnam, and in Cambodia, China, Laos, and South Vietnam. In North Vietnam alone, more than a dozen prisons were scattered in and around the capital city of Hanoi.
Congressional Gold Medal Act to award Commander Everett Alvarez, Jr., the second-longest held Prisoner of War (POW) in U.S. history, Congress' highest honor. Commander Alvarez was born and raised in Salinas and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California.
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.
Hundreds of American POW's, mostly airmen, endured months of isolation and squalid conditions at Hỏa Lò. POWs were repeatedly interrogated and tortured at the hands of their captors and endured enormous levels of physical and mental abuse.
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.
More than 30,000 Australians became prisoners of war (POWs) between 1940 and 1945.
Joseph Alexander became a POW at 15. He was a military and civilian worker at Kelly AFB. Joseph Alexander never got to enjoy his youth. At just 14 years old, and with his grandmother by his side, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and is said to have been the youngest American prisoner of war.
However, nations vary in their dedication to following these laws, and historically the treatment of POWs has varied greatly. During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime ...
Once POW status is determined, the authority for payment of the Soldiers is moved from the field finance offices to the Secretary of the Treasury. Captive or POW Pay and Allowance Entitlements: Soldiers are entitled to all pay and allowances that were authorized prior to the POW period.
Our research and operational missions involve coordination with hundreds of countries and municipalities worldwide. As of the latest update on May 22, 2023, more than 81,000 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts.
Just over 4,000 Australians were taken prisoner during the First World War by the Turks and the Germans.
Mr. Alexander, the youngest POW in World War II, gave a brief synopsis of his WWII experience and answered questions by a flight of soon-to-be basic military training graduates before starting to become emotional.
In fact, while efforts to recover the remains of those individuals lost in action have been ongoing, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) estimates that more than 80,000 individuals never returned home.
Of the 22,376 Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, some 8,031 died while in captivity. After the end of the war, War Crimes Trials were held to investigate reports of atrocities, massacres and other causes of death.
From Florena Budwin, a Civil War woman who disguised herself as a man to join Union troops and was held in a Confederate prison camp, to the 67 Army nurses who were taken captive by the Japanese in World War II, there have been less than 100 military women held as POWs throughout American history.
Prisoners not only supported the war effort in surprising ways during World War II, they fought and died in it. A wave of patriotism swept the nation during World War II, and prisons were no exception.
The Japanese used many types of physical punishment. Some prisoners were made to hold a heavy stone above their heads for many hours. Others might be forced into small cells with little food or water.
Sergeant (Sgt) Hajime Toyoshima (left), the first Japanese prisoner of war (POW). Toyoshima was the pilot of a Japanese Mitsubishi Zero aircraft, A6M2 Zero, tail code BII-124, from the Japanese imperial navy aircraft carrier Hiryu, who participated in the first air raid on Darwin.
Over 22,000 Australian servicemen and almost forty nurses were captured by the Japanese. Most were captured early in 1942 when Japanese forces captured Malaya, Singapore, New Britain, and the Netherlands East Indies.
American POWs did escape from camps in North Vietnam, some of them from camps in Hanoi. At least five escaped twice from camps in North Vietnam, some from established camps, others from guards while en-route to Hanoi.
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.
The United States listed about 2,500 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action but only 1,200 Americans were reported to have been killed in action with no body recovered.