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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
U.S. ARMY INTELLIGENCE COMMAND COMMENCES OPERATION HOMECOMING
On 12 February 1973, the first American prisoners of war (POWs) held by North Vietnam were released as part of a peace agreement between the U.S. and the communist country. Initially called EGRESS RECAP, the phased process of repatriation became better known as Operation HOMECOMING. It included an intelligence debriefing conducted by counterintelligence agents of the U.S. Army Intelligence Command (USAINTC).
Phase I was the actual repatriation. Between 12 February and 29 March, North Vietnam released 591 Americans known by the Department of Defense (DoD) to be either POWs or missing in action (MIA). Most had been held in camps in North Vietnam, although some had been imprisoned in South Vietnam, Laos, and even China.
Phase II began when the returnees arrived at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. There, after physical and mental evaluations, medical treatment, and a phone call home, they were debriefed by agents of their respective services. These initial debriefings focused on time-sensitive information, like the identification of additional captives possibly remaining in North Vietnamese camps. Because many of the returnees had memorized the names of prisoners who came and left the camps, they proved the best source of information about casualties and survivors.
Once the returnees were moved to hospitals in the United States, more detailed Phase III debriefings took place. During Phase III, the returnees answered additional questions about the individuals they had named during their previous debriefing. At this time, they also had the opportunity to tell “their story” of their capture and confinement. Final agent reports recorded not only information about additional POWs or MIA personnel but also details on camp security, enemy interrogation and indoctrination techniques, and medical care.
For the Phase III debriefings, each military service developed an operational plan that was coordinated through the DoD POW/MIA Task Force. The task force ensured standardization in the processing of POWs but also allowed the services to modify it for their specific needs. For U.S. Army POWs, USAINTC was the lead for the debriefings. It developed a careful training program consisting of video-taped seminars and detailed training packets sent to debriefing teams stationed at eight U.S. Army hospitals across the country. These products provided specific instructions about how to act while conducting the debriefings. Foremost, the training tried to prepare debriefers, first, to understand the psychological trauma many of the returnees might have experienced as prisoners and, second, to maintain a professional and dispassionate demeanor to avoid causing additional emotional damage or in any way influencing what the returnees chose to share. To provide context and insight into the returnees’ experiences, debriefers were given a copy of Maj. James “Nick” Rowe’s Five Years to Freedom. Rowe had been a POW with the Viet Cong from 1963 until his escape in 1968.
In after action reports, agents praised the training and the debriefing process, but they commonly found the Phase II debriefing reports to be hurried and incomplete. They often had to cover the same information in the Phase III debriefings. Ultimately, however, based on information provided by the returnees, the DoD determined all men known to be in the enemy’s prison system either came home during Operation HOMECOMING or were accounted for at that time.
Since 1973, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has accounted for an additional 1,063 service members who died during the Vietnam War. As of late 2023, it continues to track 1,578 unaccounted for cases, including Medal of Honor recipient and MI Hall of Fame member Capt. Humbert Roque Versace, executed by the Viet Cong in 1965. [See "This Week in MI History" #8 26 September 1965]
"This Week in MI History" publishes new issues each week. To report story errors, ask questions, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.09.2024 14:48 |
| Story ID: | 463610 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 82 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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