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Former POW and U.S. Navy LCMDR Frederick R. Purrington talks on the phone in the lounge. LCMDR Purrington was captured on 20 Oct 66 and released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 18 Feb 73
Former POW and U.S. Navy LCMDR Joseph Charles Plumb Jr. talks on the phone in the lounge. LCMDR Plumb was captured on 19 May 67 and released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 18 Feb 73
Former POW and U.S. Navy CMDR Robert Harper Shumaker (Captured 11 Feb 65) shares a magazine with fellow ex-POW U.S. Navy LCMDR Phillip Neal Butler (Captured 20 Apr 65) in the hospital reading lounge. CMDR Shumaker and LCMDR Butler were released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 12 Feb 73
Former POW and U.S. Navy LCMDR Porter Alex Halyburton talks on the phone in the passenger lounge after his arrival from Clark Air Base, Philippines. LCMDR Halyburton was captured on 17 Oct 65 and released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 12 Feb 73
In front of the Honor Guard, ex-POW and U.S.Navy CMDR Frederick Raymond Purrington (Captured 20 Oct 66), salutes the press and well wishers prior to boarding the C-141 Starlifter that will transport him to the United States. LCMDR Purrington released in Hanoi by North Vietnam on 18 Feb 73
Former POW and U.S. Air Force LCOL Alan Leslie Brunstrom. LCOL Brunstrom was captured on 22 Apr 66 and released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 12 Feb 73
Released Prisoner of War, U.S. Navy CPT Jeremiah Andrew Denton (Captured 18 Jul 65) stands behind microphones on the flight line and faces a phalanx of well wisher and media on his arrival. CPT Denton was in the first group released by the North Vietnamese on Feb 12, 1973 in Hanoi
Returned POW U.S. Navy LCMDR Everett Alvarez (Captured 5 Aug 64) looks at a letter in his room at the base hospital. LCMDR Alvarez was held longer by the North Vietnamese than any other American POW. He was released on 12 Feb 73 in Hanoi
Former POW and U.S. Navy LCMDR Frederick R. Purrington with Navy officer in the lounge. LCMDR Purrington was captured on 20 Oct 66 and released by the North Vietnamese in Hanoi on 18 Feb 73
Summary
The original finding aid described this photograph as:
Subject Operation/Series: HOMECOMING
Base: Travis Air Force Base
State: California (CA)
Country: United States Of America (USA)
Scene Camera Operator: SSGT Phillip M. Porter
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.