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A returned POW steps off the bus and salutes the flag before boarding the waiting C-141 Starlifter for the flight to the states. Returned POWs from Hanoi and Loc Ninh were flown to Clark for medical checkups prior to returning home
A returned POW steps off the bus and waves to the crowd as he walks to the waiting C-141 Starlifter for the flight to the states. Returned POWs from Hanoi and Loc Ninh were flown to Clark for medical checkups prior to returning home
U.S. Navy CPT Jerimiah Andrew Denton, (Captured 18 Jul 65) the first of the released Prisoners of War, talks in microphones to the waiting crowd and press after deplaning from the C-141 Starlifter. CPT Denton was released in Hanoi by the North Vietnamese on February 12, 1973 and then flown to Clark Air Base, Philippines for a medical check-up and then to Travis
Viet Cong POWs, some on crutches, under the watchful eyes of South Vietnamese military police walk to the waiting C-123 transport aircraft. The POWS will be airlifted to Loc Ninh, South Vietnam for the prisoner exchange between the United States/South Vietnam and North Vietnam/Viet Cong militaries
At Gia Lan Airport, surrounded by North Vietnamese and American officials, the press and public, an unidentified, just released ex-POW walks with his escort to the waiting C-141 transport for the trip to Clark Air Base
Viet Cong soldiers carry a litter with injured American POW, CPT David Earle Baker, (Captured 27 June 72) from the hospital tent to the release point. American and South Vietnamese prisoners were exchanged for Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese (NVA) prisoners
An Air Force honor guard waits for the arrival of a C-141 Starlifter aircraft carrying the remains of POW's and MIA's from North Vietnam
A returnee waves from a hospital bus at Clark Air Base shortly after being released from a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam
Former POW and U.S. Air Force CPT James Richard Shively answer questions from the press after arriving, via C-141 Starlifter, with fellow POWs from Clark AB, Philippines. CPT Shively was captured on 5 May 67 and released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 18 Feb 73
A line of returned POWs from Viet Cong and North Vietnamese prisons walk from buses to the waiting C-141 Starlifter for the trip to the states. After their release they were flown to Clark AB hospital for medical checkups
Summary
The original finding aid described this photograph as:
Subject Operation/Series: HOMECOMING
Base: Clark Air Base
State: Luzon
Country: Philippines (PHL)
Scene Camera Operator: TSGT Eddie P. Boaz
Release Status: Released to Public
Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files
On January 27, 1973, the United States agreed to a ceasefire with North Vietnam allowing withdrawal of American military forces from South Vietnam. The agreement also included the release of about 600 American prisoners of war. On Feb. 12, 1973, three C-141 flew to Hanoi, North Vietnam, and one C-9A aircraft was sent to Saigon, South Vietnam to pick up released prisoners of war. The first flight of 40 U.S. prisoners of war left Hanoi in a C-141A, later known as the "Hanoi Taxi". From February 12 to April 4, there were 54 C-141 missions flying out of Hanoi, bringing the former POWs home, the total number of returned was 591. The return of the nearly 600 POWs increased the polarization of the public and media. A majority of the POWs returned in Operation Homecoming were bomber pilots shot down while carrying out the campaign waged against civilian targets located in Vietnam and Laos. Many viewed the freed POWs as heroes, while others questioned if treating these men as heroes served to distort and obscure the truth about the war. Some felt these men deserved to be treated as war criminals or left in the North Vietnamese prison camps. Many worried that Homecoming hid the fact that people were still fighting and dying on the battlefields of Vietnam and caused the public to forget about the over 50,000 American lives the war had already cost. Veterans of the war had similar thoughts concerning Operation Homecoming with many stating that the ceasefire and returning of prisoners brought zero sense of an ending or closure. Operation Homecoming has been largely forgotten by the American public.