An Aeromedical Evacuation of POWs Mission
Primary Aeromedical Evacuation Crew Members:
Capt Linda Moore, Flight Nurse
Capt Patricia Mayer, Flight Nurse
1Lt Joyce Fester, Flight Nurse
MSgt William Horn, Med Tech
SSgt Terry Cole, Med Tech
SSgt William Rodgers, Med Tech
Additional Medical Crew Members:
LtCol Robert L'Ecuyer, Flight Surgeon
Maj Robert Williams, Flight Surgeon
Aircraft: C-141A, tail number 60177
(now a C-141B model based at the 445th Airlift Wing, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio)
Operation Homecoming started 12 Feb, 1973, with three C-141A aircraft heading to Hanoi, North Vietnam, and one C-9A aircraft to Saigon, South Vietnam. They all departed Clark Air Base, Philippines, early that morning, with the C-9A departing first. Later that day, the arrival of each aircraft was to be broadcasted live by satellite around the world (a telecast of this scale was a first ever).
All aircraft had an aeromedical team of two flight nurses and three aeromedical evacuation technicians with a couple of flight surgeons. The areomedical crew for the C-141 aircraft were composed primarily of 10th Aeromedical Evacuation Group (10th AEGp) personnel. Front end crews were from various bases of their aircraft. The C-9A aeromedical crews were from the 9th Aeromedical Evacuation Group (9th AEGp) based at Clark AB, Philippines. Their front end crews were from the 20th Aeromedical Operations Squadron and co-located with the 9th AEGp. The flight surgeons were from the Clark AB Hospital. Along with the medical and flight crews were two escorts for each POW and an AF News media team.
Each dedicated C-141A aircraft (all were 'A' models back then) was especially painted white and marked with a red cross on their tail to clearly mark its peaceful intention to all. All C-9A aircraft had those markings, already. Back then, aircraft 60177 was assigned to the 63rd Military Airlift Wing at Norton AFB, California.
The mission was for three C-141As to fly towards the North Vietnam border as a group, then enter North Vietnam, one at a time. While aircraft 60177 and its medical crew (above) flew into Hanoi to pick up our American POWs, the other two C-141s circled to distanced themselves by 30 minutes each. This was a precaution before preceeding across 'enemy territory' to minimize potential loss.
Aircraft 60177 and its crew, like the others, brought back 40 POWs. These POWs had been imprisoned the longest. During the early part of Operation Homecoming, groups of POWs released were selected on the basis of longest length of time in prison.
This first mission crew also brought back the first litter-carried POW patient. He was placed on a crudely made Vietnamese litter that gave very poor support. It had two very rigid support struts that went straight across from pole to pole, positioned directly under where a normal size person would place their neck and mid thighs. I'm told that this POW rode that litter for hours over rough roads the morning of his release, very much in discomfort. Even with the discomfort showing, the Vietcong would not allow time (nor the publicity) for the crew to transfer him onto an American made litter. The medical crew had to wait until he was placed onto the aircraft, well out of sight, before they could transfer him. The litter was brought back by the medical crew and is now part of the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Wayne Everingham, USAF Retired
According to the Paris Agreements of January 27, 1973, all "captured military personnel and foreign civilians" of the signatory powers were to be returned to their respective homelands. To the Americans, this meant primarily the PoWs held in North Vietnam. They were to be released progressively, in line with U.S. troop withdrawals from the south: as soon as the last U.S. soldier left Vietnam, the last PoW would be set free.
Operation Homecoming brought back 600 POWs, including then Maj. R.E. "Gene" Smith, who was among the jubilant group repatriated in March 1973 and who went on to become an AFA president and board chairman. He had been a POW since 1967.
The Communists provided a list of 587 American citizens in their charge (a figure amended later to 591 as the Chinese agreed to release men held by them). Operation Homecoming began on February 12, 1973, when the first batch of PoWs was handed over. Hanoi soon fell behind schedule, however, and it was only after President Nixon had suspended U.S. troop withdrawals that the process continued smoothly, ending on March 29. Meanwhile, in Vietnam itself, Saigon officials released 26,508 NVA and VC prisoners, while the Communists repatriated about 5,000 South Vietnamese. Since 1973, there have been persistent rumors of U.S. prisoners still in Communist hands, as part of the total of 2,494 servicemen and civilians missing from the Vietnam War era.-- "Vietnam Decisive Battles," by John Pimlott (1990), pg. 178
"In the Vietnamese conflict, a major concern in negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam was the release of hundreds of American prisoners of war and the repatriation of both North and South Vietnamese prisoners. By 1971 the prospects of U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam depended largely on a solution of the prisoner-of-war problem, which had been employed as a bargaining point by North Vietnam. On February 12, 1973, after the signing of the cease-fire in January, the first contingent of 143 American military and civilian prisoners of war arrived in the Philippines. During the following weeks, 444 prisoners were released. Two decades later, more than 2000 U.S. soldiers remained unaccounted for and are listed as missing in action." - Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Additional Sources:
www.aeromedevac.org
members.aol.com/bear317/nwvets.htm
www.wpafb.af.mil
www.sandiego-online.com
www.flughafengallery.com
