Vietnam era POW question

I'd reword the thread title to something like 'POW notification' and ask a moderator to port this over to the Story Research board.

There's someone who knows almost everything over there and that's the best way to find them.

Title changed and thread moved by the Roundtable Fairy.

I haven't found anything re POW notification, but after the Korean Conflict all death notifications were in person by a uniformed representative of the branch of service of the deceased. I would think POW would be in person also, but have found nothing that says specifically.

Ironically, for the Korean Conflict and prior, even death notifications were made by Western Union. Kind of reminds me of when I was a kid (in the fifties) and a teenager (in the sixties), receiving a long distance phone call was reason for concern until you found out who was calling and why. LD was expensive and usually reserved for things like "Grandma died this morning".

MM

Yes...

Soldiers Missing In Action had wife or parents notified in person. Until a soldier is confirmed as a POW he is MIA. Once he is confirmed as POW, again, the wife or parents are notified in person so there would be a second notification.

The problem is, often times, we did not know if a soldier was MIA, POW, or even KIA, as in Killed in Action until there is/was visual evidence.

I might add, the person officer telling the wife or parents was very cautious on what he said. Many times, he did not know the full details.

Also, on missions that were Not in country, meaning Laos or Cambodia and were secret, the Military would not admit anything other than MIA...

I want to emphasize something Thothguard51 said. It would be very, very unusual for an initial notification in any combat situation to be for POW. I don't think there were any such notifications during Vietnam. Normally the notification would be for MIA. POW status requires some type of notification to the US government that the individual is in fact a POW. Notification during Vietnam could be weeks, months, or even years after the MIA report.

Mostly I think they were in the months or years range. The North Vietnamese weren't big on notification. Several of the POWs that were released at the end of the conflict had not been acknowledged as POWs until their release. You might want to look at Vietnam War POW/MIA issue - Wikipedia

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

And sometimes the notification by North Vietnam wasn't even official notification.

Here's a link to one where photos of the USAF officer were released by Hanoi almost before our government had a chance to notify the family that he was MIA.

http://www.c141heaven.com/66/homecoming2.html

It's the second story.

MM

In the movie 'We were Soldiers' (Mel Gibson) there was a powerful scene where the military was using a taxi driver to deliver death notices to NOK's on a military housing complex. Don't know if MIA's were the same.

Steve Collins said:

In the movie 'We were Soldiers' (Mel Gibson) there was a powerful scene where the military was using a taxi driver to deliver death notices to NOK's on a military housing complex. Don't know if MIA's were the same.

Click to expand...

I think it likely that was creative license for dramatic effect. Growing up as a 'brat' in the fifties and sixties, I doubt very much this would have happened.

MM

The Army does have a strong support arm mostly headed up by military spouses. Often a unit commander's wife would lead the team. They're often informed of a notification going out and will quickly follow to the spouse's house to provide comfort and support. They also do social things together so that life as a military spouse isn't so lonely. It's a very important part of the military family.