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A former POW shakes hands with COL Raymond G. Lawry, Deputy Site Commander, Joint Homecoming Reception Center, waiting is COL John W. Ord, Clark Hospital Commander and LGEN William G. Moore, Commander 13th Air Force is on far left. The POW is flying to the states after a medical checkup at Clark
Former POW and U.S. Air Force COL Robinson Risner, at the microphone, waves his thanks to the crowd and press upon arriving on a flight from Clark Air Base. 22nd Air Force Commander, MGEN John Gonge stands behind COL Risner. COL Risner was captured on 16 Sep 65 and released by North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 12 Feb 73
US Air Force (USAF) Colonel (COL) Brooks Bash, left, the 437th Airlift Wing (AW) Commander, greets the CHIEF of STAFF (CS) of the French Air Force, General (GEN) Richard Wolsztynski, upon his arrival to Charleston Air Force Base (AFB), South Carolina
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Former POW and U.S. Air Force COL Robinson Risner, at the microphone, express his thanks to the crowd and press upon arriving on a flight from Clark Air Base. COL Risner was captured on 16 Sep 65 and released by North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 12 Feb 73
Former POW and U.S. Air Force LCOL Richard P. Keirn (Captured 24 Jul 65) shakes hands with COL Raymond G. Lawry, Deputy Site Commander, Joint Homecoming Reception Center prior to boarding the plane that will return him to the United States
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: Sp-5 Logan L. Mcminn
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.