All articles tagged with #pow
A 95-year-old former North Korean POW, Ahn Hak-sop, attempted to return to North Korea to be buried there but was turned away at the border due to logistical issues. He spent most of his life in South Korea, holding strong beliefs about North Korea and US influence, and wanted his final resting place to be in his homeland.
Douglas Brent Hegdahl, a young Navy sailor, fell overboard from the USS Canberra during the Vietnam War and was captured by the Viet Cong. As a POW at the infamous Hanoi Hilton, he pretended to be unintelligent, allowing him to gather and memorize critical information, including the names of 254 fellow POWs. His efforts helped reclassify 63 service members from MIA to POW, providing solace to families and valuable intelligence to the military. Hegdahl's story of resilience and ingenuity is detailed in a new biography by Marc Leepson.
The remains of Army Pfc. Arthur Barrett, a World War II soldier who died as a prisoner of war in the Philippines in 1942, were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Barrett was among thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members held at prisoner of war camps, and he died at the age of 27. After being exhumed and analyzed, his remains were identified using anthropological analysis and mitochondrial DNA analysis. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has identified nearly 1,200 soldiers since 2015, but over 72,000 soldiers from World War II remain unaccounted for.