I said in an earlier article I was not going to attempt a comprehensive list of POWs taken in terrorist incidents. That\u2019s still true; I simply don\u2019t have the time to conduct a comprehensive review of terrorist incidents to determine if any US military personnel were taken prisoner in same and later declared POWs.<\/p>\n
However, in the interest of completeness I decided I\u2019d post the information that I do have concerning the subject.<\/p>\n
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE INFORMATION BELOW IS<\/em> NOT<\/strong> \u2013 I REPEAT,<\/em> NOT<\/strong> \u2013 TO BE REGARDED AS COMPREHENSIVE<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n While I believe the information below to be correct, I do NOT claim that what follows is a full and complete<\/em> listing of US military personnel who were taken prisoner in Cold War and terrorist incidents and later formally declared to be POWs by DoD. There is IMO a very good chance I\u2019ve missed one or more individuals that should be listed here. As new information becomes available, I’ll modify this article accordingly.<\/p>\n What’s Not Here<\/span><\/p>\n Not listed below are POWs held by 3rd countries due to the Vietnam and Korean Wars.\u00a0 The two US military personnel who were detained by China while participating in combat operations in conjunction with the Vietnam War<\/em> were accorded POW status as Vietnam War POWs. I discussed that in the notes to this previous TAH article<\/a>.<\/p>\n Additionally, published reports indicate that a number of US military personnel were detained by China (as opposed to by Chinese forces assisting North Korea) as the result of their participation in combat operations during during the Korean War; those same published reports indicate that at least 11 US military personnel were released by China in mid-1955. It is my understanding that these US military personnel were later recognized as Korean War POWs; they’re thus not listed here either.\u00a0 (I’ve not yet been able to locate anything more than a number and date of release for these individuals.\u00a0 If anyone has additional information concerning this group – or a by-name list of these individuals – please indicate that fact in the comments section.)<\/p>\n US military personnel taken prisoner by insurgent forces In Iraq or Afghanistan are also not listed here.\u00a0 (None are known to have survived such captivity.)\u00a0 They are listed in a previous article in this series.<\/p>\n That said:\u00a0 what follows is the pertinent information I have collected so far regarding US personnel taken prisoner during Cold War hostile fire and post-Vietnam terrorist incidents who have been formally declared by DoD to have been POWs.\u00a0 The names of the individuals who appear to be deceased as of the date of publication of this article are in italics<\/em>.<\/p>\n Cold War China <\/span><\/p>\n At least one US sailor is known to have been taken prisoner by Communist Chinese forces under circumstances related to neither the Korean nor Vietnam Wars. He was later formally accorded POW status by DoD.<\/p>\n