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About 9 years ago, enemy fighters in Iraq captured then-19-year-old former Private First Class Jessica Lynch in a deadly ambush on the truck that she was driving. Eleven soldiers died in the attack, including one of Lynch’s closest friends. Later, Special Forces rescued Lynch from an Iraqi hospital and initial government reports portrayed her as a hero who went down fighting, claims which Lynch denied, saying that she didn’t shoot a single round in the attack. Today, Lynch joined Shepard Smith to talk about being in captivity, how she got the strength to call out the government on the false...

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The family of a U.S. soldier held captive by the Taliban for over two years said on Wednesday they were optimistic about the possibility of talks between the Afghan insurgent group and countries including the United States. They expressed hope that Bowe Bergdahl would be freed "as soon as possible" in a statement issued a day after the Taliban said they had reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office in the Gulf Arab country of Qatar. "We are optimistic about the possibility of diplomatic discussions between Taliban officials and government officials from other...

Astonishing drawings of British soldiers in brutal Japanese Prisoner of War camps have turned up nearly 70 years later on TV's Antiques Roadshow. The lost sketches showing the appalling conditions the men endured were drawn by artist soldier John Mennie who gave them to fellow PoW Eric Jennings. Mr Jennings never spoke about his wartime experiences and his family were stunned when they found the sketches stashed away in a shoe box after his death.

Astonishing drawings of British soldiers in brutal Japanese Prisoner of War camps have turned up nearly 70 years later on TV's Antiques Roadshow. The lost sketches showing the appalling conditions the men endured were drawn by artist soldier John Mennie who gave them to fellow PoW Eric Jennings. Mr Jennings never spoke about his wartime experiences and his family were stunned when they found the sketches stashed away in a shoe box after his death. One of the drawings is a rare image of the 'Selerang Square Squeeze' - a shocking atrocity meted out to 16,000 PoWs in Changi, Singapore...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A doctor once told Albert Brown he shouldn't expect to make it to 50, given the toll taken by his years in a Japanese labor camp during World War II and the infamous, often-deadly march that got him there. But the former dentist made it to 105, embodying the power of a positive spirit in the face of inordinate odds. "Doc" Brown was nearly 40 in 1942 when he endured the Bataan Death March, a harrowing 65-mile trek in which 78,000 prisoners of war were forced to walk from Bataan province near Manila to a Japanese...

Lisa and Minter Dial, on their way to the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. Photo courtesy of the Dial familyIn the spring of 1962, the United States Navy was excavating a site in Inchon, Korea, when the discovery of human remains led officers to believe they had come across the site of a prisoner-of-war camp. More than a decade earlier, during the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur commanded some 75,000 United Nations ground forces and more than 250 ships into the Battle of Inchon—a surprise assault that led, just two weeks later, to the recapture of Seoul from the North...

As this summer marks the 61st anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, it remains one of the least understood and most overlooked conflicts of the American experience. Time is running out for those who fought the war, as most surviving veterans are in or approaching their 80s. The Korean War Project, founded in 1995 by two Dallas brothers who are the sons of a decorated Korean War Marine, has established itself as a valuable resource for information on unit histories, casualties, battles and those missing in action.

Ahmed Altaie and Bowe Bergdahl—one born 1965 in Baghdad, the other two decades later in Hailey, Idaho—wouldn't seem to have much in common. But this weekend, as Americans take to beaches and barbeques to celebrate our independence, Messrs. Altaie and Bergdahl share a unique, practically unknown bond: They are the only two U.S. soldiers currently held captive as prisoners of war. Over the past decade, the U.S. has deployed more than two million troops abroad, with hundreds of thousands in war zones at any one time. Yet in a sign of how much warfare has changed since the time of...

RAF Spitfire pulled from Irish peat bog A Second World War RAF Spitfire has been excavated from an Irish peat bog almost 70 years after it crash-landed. A piece of the Wreckage of the World War Two spitire that crashed into the Bog in County Donegal A piece of the Wreckage of the World War Two spitire that crashed into the Bog in County Donegal 6:00AM BST 29 Jun 2011 Six machine guns and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition were also discovered by archaeologists searching the Inishowen Peninsula in Co Donegal. The British fighter plane was piloted by an American,...

Thousands of motorcycles poured into the D.C.-area today for Rolling Thunder, an annual event drawing motorcycle enthusiasts from across the country. The massive collection of motorcycle riders is descending on Washington in memory of the thousands of prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action from the Vietnam War.

~~Come on in and shoot the breeze~~   Gun Talk Radio   5/22/11~~07:00 CST

To be sure, waterboarding can be torture, depending on how it is carried out. “You can do waterboarding lots of different ways, “says former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, “you can get to the point that the person is actually drowning,” That would be torture- but that is not how the technique is carried out by the CIA. -Pg 131, Courting Disaster John McCain is intimately familiar with torture, having endured it at the hands of his Vietnamese captors during his years as a POW. But he was never waterboarded. Not by the Spanish Inquisition. Not by the...

Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl of Sun Valley, Idaho went missing on June 30, 2009 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan. He is currently being held in an unknown location, possibly moved to Ghazni Province or smuggled across the border to Pakistan making the logistics of rescue even more difficult. The Taliban has released several videos where Bergdahl is reading forced statements in violation of international law. In exchange for his release, they are demanding $1 million dollars, the release of 21 Afghan prisoners most of whom are held in Guantanamo Bay, as well as the freeing Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani terrorist...

The last US veteran of World War I, who lied about his age to join the army in 1917, has died at the age of 110, ending America's living connection with the Great War. The indomitable Frank Buckles, who also survived three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, died peacefully of natural causes early Sunday in his home near Charles Town, West Virginia, CNN said, quoting a family spokesman. Buckles celebrated his 110th birthday on February 1, but his family said his health had been failing since late last year. Born in the Midwestern state of Missouri in...

KABUL, Afghanistan – A new video released by the Taliban shows a man believed to be the only known American serviceman held captive in Afghanistan, a group that tracks militant websites said Wednesday.

Washington (CNN) -- The tattered journal, its pages yellow with age, contains the painful memories of a U.S. medic, a man who recorded the deaths of soldiers who survived one of World War II's bloodiest battles yet met their end as slaves in Nazi Germany. "Some were dying," said its author, Tony Acevedo, now 86. "Some died, and I made a notation of that." Flipping through the pages, you encounter a horrific part of world history through the eyes of a 20-year-old inside a slave labor camp. Amid the horror, the journal captures extraordinary human moments of war. Acevedo sketched...

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Police are searching for two men in a Red Pontiac G-6 in connection with a murder on a Walmart parking lot. Bruce Davis, Jr, was shot to death around ten Friday morning at the Jackson Walmart Parking lot, at Highway 18 and Greenway. Davis was shot in the chest and died about 30 minutes later at a local hospital. Davis and his cousin met two men in the parking lot. Police believe an argument started and Davis was gunned down. The two men were seen leaving the scene in a late model Red Pontiac G-6 and...

The day after police arrested a woman accused of threatening to blow up a Walmart in Old Saybrook, they made another arrest at the same store. John Carlo, 28, of Pawcatuck, is accused of saying he was “getting ready to start killing people.” Police arrested Carlo outside Wal-Mart Department Store, 665 Boston Post Road, at 12:12 p.m. on Thursday after receiving a 911 call. Police found Carlo hiding in a walk-in cooler at the A-Plus Sunoco gas station/convince store, police said. He was charged with breach of peace and threatening and is being held on a $1,000 bond. On Wednesday...

Six former U.S. soldiers taken prisoners of war in the Philippines by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II have failed to receive apologies from private industries that used them as slave labor. The former POWs are currently touring Japan with their families on a visitation program sponsored by the Japanese government. While they praised the reception from some of the Japanese companies they visited, they were disappointed that none offered words of apology and insist that post-war bitterness will linger until apologies are made. -SNIP- . . . representatives at Mitsui Futo (now a subsidiary of Taiheiyo Cement...

<p>KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A senior U.S. military official and Afghan officials say the body of a second U.S. sailor who went missing in a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan has been recovered.</p> <p>The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information, says the family of Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove — a 25-year-old from the Seattle area — has been notified of his death.</p>

LIMA (Reuters) – An ancient ceremonial ground used by a Pre-Columbian civilization for human sacrifices has been uncovered on Peru's northern coast, archaeologists said on Thursday. The discovery appears to reinforce prevailing theories about a ceremony known as "the presentation" that was carried out by the Moche people, an agricultural civilization that flourished between 100 B.C. and 800 A.D. Carlos Wester La Torre, director of the Bruning Museum in Peru and a leader of the dig, said the ceremonial site likely hosted ritual killings of prisoners of war. Photographs taken at the site show more than half a dozen skeletons...

LONDON: Jack Harrison, who survived the Great Escape plot by Allied prisoners in a German prison in World War II, has died at age 97, his family said. As a camp gardener, Harrison helped dispose of the dirt excavated from three escape tunnels. He was 98th on the list of some 200 inmates designated to make the escape on March 24, 1944 from Stalag Luft III prison near Sagan in Germany — now Zagan, Poland. Only 76 got away before guards detected the breakout. The breakout was celebrated in the 1963 film 'The Great Escape.' Only three men managed to...

In the end, it was only time from which he could not escape. Jack Harrison, the last of those involved in the 'Great Escape', has passed away, peacefully and quietly, at the age of 97. It has been 66 years since the dark night when he waited with bated breath, preparing to crawl through ‘Harry’ and under the wire of Stalag Luft III. Many years after the war the former RAF pilot, and his brave and resourceful comrades, would be immortalised by the iconic 1963 film - starring Richard Attenborough and Steve McQueen - which remains the staple fare of...

LONDON — A British former prisoner of war has been telling of the enduring friendship he built up with his Japanese guard after corresponding with him for 64 years. John Baxter, 91, regularly exchanged birthday and Christmas cards with Hayato Hirano after the time they spent at a camp in the town of Inatsuki, Fukuoka Prefecture, during World War II. Despite their two countries being former bitter enemies, the two men were anxious to heal the wounds of war through their exchanges. This act of reconciliation contrasted starkly with the views of many former POWs who were virulently anti-Japanese due...

Decorated Vietnam prisoner of war Orson Swindle Wednesday endorsed Republican Rob Simmons in the Connecticut Senate race. The support comes at an opportune time -- just two days after the New York Times reported that leading Democratic candidate Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had wrongly said he had served in Vietnam. Swindle was Federal Trade Commissioner (FTC) from 1997 to 2005 and he also served the Reagan administration. He retired from the Marine Corp as a Lieutenant Colonel. In a statement, Swindle praised Simmons as “my fellow Vietnam Veteran” and offered a sharp critique of Blumenthal that recalled his own days...

I hope I am wrong, but I see something very inconsistent with this POW situation. I am an Army combat arms veteran and I have worked in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I feel that I am somewhat qualified to bring up a doubt I am having regarding this story. First off, PFC Bergdahl is the only U.S. service member being held captive in Afghanistan. That makes his situation unique and different than normal. I find the assorted still-photos of him wearing various stages of an Army uniform very peculiar. If/when he was captured, why would he have on his person...

There are moments in Jeremiah Denton's past that he wishes he could forget. One of the highest-ranking American officers to be captured during the Vietnam War, the retired rear admiral spent seven years and seven months as a POW, four of them in solitary confinement. Denton, who went on to become a U.S. senator from Alabama, will revisit some of that history Saturday at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle with a lecture on his book "When Hell Was in Session." Recently re-released, the volume is a firsthand account of Denton's time in some of the most...

(AP) Shoshana Johnson survived gunshot wounds to both legs and 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq. Life wasn't so easy when she came home, either. In a new book out this week, the 37-year-old single mother describes mental health problems related to her captivity and tells how it felt to play second fiddle in the media to fellow POW Jessica Lynch, who was captured in the same ambush. "It was kind of hurtful," the former Army cook said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "If I'd been a petite, cutesy thing, it would've been different."

An organization dedicated to honoring the nation's prisoners of war and missing in action service members is outraged that a federal law against lying about military medals is facing First Amendment challenges. Lawyers in California and Colorado cases have made similar arguments against the "Stolen Valor Act," saying that lying is protected by the First Amendment unless it does real harm.

KABUL - The family of a U.S. soldier captured in eastern Afghanistan more than five months ago pleaded for the release of their son Friday and urged him to "stay strong." Lt. Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard issued a statement from the family of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. airborne infantryman who was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province June 30.

In the wee small hours of Wednesday morning my dear friend of over 30 years left this mortal plane and headed for his next adventure. His name was John D., most of his friends referred to him as J.D. and his wife affectionately called him “The Old Warrior”. J.D. grew up with my Father, both of them came from that can do group known as “The Greatest Generation”. Today would have been J.D.’s 86th Birthday . He was of that vanishing breed that fought a war, came home, married, had a family and contributed to the success of the Greatest...

KABUL - The family of a U.S. soldier captured in eastern Afghanistan more than five months ago pleaded for the release of their son Friday and urged him to "stay strong." Lt. Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard issued a statement from the family of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. airborne infantryman who was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province June 30. In their statement, the family asked the captors "to let our only son come home."

1/15/2010 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) -- A Thunderbird pilot killed in Southeast Asia and listed as missing in action for more than 40 years returned to the location of his last Air Force assignment Jan. 14 for a celebration of his life among a sea of family and peers. "Today, we welcome Maj. Russell C. Goodman home," said Brig. Gen. Russell J. Handy, the 57th Wing commander during a funeral service with full military honors at the Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron hangar at Nellis Air Force Base. "We welcome him home to the United States, welcome...

KABUL (AP) - The Taliban released Friday a video purporting to show a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

During World War II, the Germans would throw you into a POW camp free of charge. Today, POW Escapes will sell you the experience of spending a week in a newly-constructed Luftwaffe prisoner of war facility for just $3,500. For a short time, you will feel what it was like for airmen captured and held captive by the Lufwaffe during the war. $3,500 buys you a sightseeing tour of the Jewish Ghetto and Nazi installations, a week in the camp, your meals, a POW camp uniform, recreated documents and a “liberation dinner” at the end of your stay where your...

Miss. Survivor Of Vietnam's Hanoi Hilton Dies At 82 Pitchford Survived 7 Years In Prison Camp UPDATED: 3:48 pm CST December 3, 2009 JACKSON, Miss. -- Retired Air Force Col. Jack Pitchford, a fighter pilot from Mississippi who survived seven years in the Vietnamese prison camp known as the Hanoi Hilton, has died. He was 82. The Natchez, Miss., native was shot down in 1965 and taken to the Hoa Lo prison, a hellish place where Americans, including famous veterans like U.S. Sen. John McCain, were tortured. Pitchford was released in 1973. His brother said Pitchford died Wednesday after battling...

11/12/2009 - SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- With the traditional "I do's" and exchange of wedding bands some 54 years ago on Oct. 1, 1955, James and Phyllis Hivner began their life's journey together which, like many young couples, began with not knowing what the future held. That journey was rocked 10 years later, almost to the day, when then-Capt. James Hivner and his co-pilot, 1st Lt. Thomas Barrett, were shot down Oct. 5, 1965, in their F-4C Phantom fighter-bomber over North Vietnam. About 10 minutes after ejecting from the wounded aircraft, the pair was captured by North...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Lynn O’Shea, Director of Research for the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen. FP: Lynn O’Shea, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Tell us what your Alliance is currently working on. O’Shea: Currently, we are working toward the passage of House Resolution 111, calling for the formation of a Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in the House of Representatives. It is our hope that the House Committee will pick up where the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs ended in 1993. When the Senate Committee published its final report, it contained several...

Thousands of World War II prisoners ended up in mills, farm fields and even dining rooms across the United States In the mid-1940s when Mel Luetchens was a boy on his family’s Murdock, Nebraska, farm where he still lives, he sometimes hung out with his father’s hired hands, “I looked forward to it,” he said. “They played games with us and brought us candy and gum.” The hearty young men who helped his father pick corn or put up hay or build livestock fences were German prisoners of war from a nearby camp. “They were the enemy, of course,” says...

He was a soldier in one of the most fanatical divisions in Hitler's war machine. As a member of the SS, Heinrich Steinmeyer expected little mercy as he surrendered to British troops towards the end of the Second World War. But instead, he says he was treated with humanity by both the troops who captured him and the guards at the Scottish prison camp where he was kept until the end of the war. Sixty-five years later, Mr Steinmeyer has pledged to leave his home and life savings of £430,000 to elderly residents in the village of Comrie, Perthshire, as...

CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C., Aug. 21, 2009 – A senior noncommissioned officer assigned here recently returned from a recovery mission to find the remains of an American pilot in Laos. Air Force Master Sgt. Wesley Housel sifts through dirt while conducting a recovery mission in Houaphan province, Laos. Housel was part of a 10-member recovery team on a deployment to recover the remains of Americans lost during the Vietnam War. DoD photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Air Force Master Sgt. Wesley Housel of the 437th Operations Support Squadron spent a 36-day deployment as a digger assigned to...

The Crowley County veterans affairs officer is disputing claims by military historians that he lied about being a prisoner of war. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Ronald Crumley said he is a former POW and that he will prove it at a meeting next week. "All of the allegations will be answered by two people. One is a four-star Marine general and the other is a former assistant U.S. attorney general," Crumley said. "I see how this has happened to other people and I want to take care of it now," Crumley said. Military historian Doug Sterner of Pueblo and...

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2009 – Nearing the end of his 42-year career in the Navy, Adm. Timothy J. Keating today reflected on those who served alongside him, giving special emphasis to troops whose fates remain unknown. Keating, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, addressed the National League of POW/MIA Families, a group that strives to account for the more than 1,750 veterans of Vietnam and other wars still missing. “We’re going to do whatever it takes, with appropriate support, to have you reach some sort of conclusion in your minds and in your hearts as to where your loved one...

U.S. Army Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, is no longer a combatant in the Afghanistan war. Instead, he is now playing a part in an increasingly desperate information war being waged by the Taliban. Pfc. Bergdahl was recently identified in a video distributed by his captors, the Afghan Taliban, a religious-based insurgent group now fighting American, NATO and Afghan government forces under the command of Mullah Omar. Despite the nature of the conflict, Bergdahl is not a prisoner of war - he is a terrorist hostage. The difference is important. The United States government classifies persons held...

Here is a video report on a massive search underway in Afghanistan to try and find captured U.S. Solder Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl. He was captured on June 30, and a videotape released by the Taliban showed him eating and speaking on Sunday. The Pentagon is pouring over the tape for any clues it might give as to his whereabouts. . . . . (Watch Video)

#5 Jim Thompson POW and Legendary Badass Who was he? Jim was just a store clerk, until he decided he could probably impress more girls by telling them he was a Green Beret, which he became. How He Stared Down Death: During the Vietnam War, Jim was captured and held as a prisoner of war, at which time he was beaten and tortured. The time we're speaking of by the way was a period of nine years, giving him a pretty bittersweet record for being held as a POW.

I'm trying to find a source that lists the amounts of people freed by the US military in its various wars and conflicts for a speech; if anyone can point me to one I'd appreciate it, Thank You.

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said American commanders are “sparing no effort” to locate a U.S. soldier who went missing early this month in Afghanistan. Speaking to reporters today during a Pentagon news conference, Gates also expressed his disgust at the exploitation of Army Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, who the Defense Department identified as the missing soldier and who is featured in a video apparently released yesterday on the Internet by his captors. “Our commanders are sparing no effort to find this young soldier, and I also would say that my personal reaction was one...

Here is a video report on the Pentagon's announcement confirming the identity of the U.S. Soldier captured and being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan who appeared in a video released last night. The soldier is identified as Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Ketchum, Idaho. He was captured on June 30 this report says, after wandering away from his base without his weapon or his body armor. In the tape released, Bergdahl says he is scared he won't be able to return home, and after being prompted by a captor off camera, he appeals to Americans to bring all the troops...

A Taliban commander in southeastern Afghanistan today said that a captured U.S. soldier was being held unharmed by insurgents, but warned he would be killed if efforts were made to find him. The soldier has been missing in Paktika province since late June, just before thousands of U.S. Marines began a major new offensive. The U.S. military has said he was presumed captured. Taliban commander Mawlavi Sangin said the group's leadership would decide the soldier's fate, but accused U.S. soldiers of harassing and arresting Afghans in Paktika and neighbouring Ghazni province. 'They have put pressure on the people in these...