The U.S. has achieved a historic first: There are now no U.S. military personnel held captive in Afghanistan. Bergdahl was the last POW.
Beaudry Robert "Bowe" Bergdahl (born March 28, 1986) is a United States Army soldier who was held captive from 2009 to 2014 by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
STATUS OF THE POW/MIA ISSUE: April 28, 2023
1,579 Americans are now listed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) as missing and unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: Vietnam - 1,241; Laos–285; Cambodia-48; Peoples Republic of China territorial waters–7.
There are 1,582 Americans still unaccounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
A U.S. Military First: The War in Afghanistan Ended With Zero M.I.A.s. After two decades of combat, there were no American troops missing in action, reflecting a major shift in military priorities.
Soldiers designated with Captive, Missing, or Missing in Action (MIA) status are entitled to receive the pay and allowances to which entitled when the status began or to which the Soldiers later become entitled.
Bagram Air Base in Parvan Province, Afghanistan
Bagram Air Base is operated jointly by the United States Army and Air Force. Occupying forces include the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
United States Army Colonel Floyd “Jim” Thompson, the longest held prisoner of war (POW) in American history, and his wife, Alyce, were products of the idealism of post-World War II America. When Thompson was shot down and captured, they began a journey that changed them forever.
Our research and operational missions involve coordination with hundreds of countries and municipalities worldwide. As of the latest update on May 22, 2023, more than 81,000 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts.
The Third Geneva Convention governs the treatment of prisoners of war, effective from the moment of capture. This includes obligations to treat them humanely at all times. It is a war crime to willfully kill, mistreat, or torture POWs, or to willfully cause great suffering, or serious injury to body or health.
More than 30,000 Australians became prisoners of war (POWs) between 1940 and 1945. The Germans and Italians captured Australians during the Mediterranean and Middle East campaigns, and also at sea in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Of the 22,376 Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, some 8,031 died while in captivity. After the end of the war, War Crimes Trials were held to investigate reports of atrocities, massacres and other causes of death.
Over 22,000 Australians became prisoners of war of the Japanese in south-east Asia.
Joseph Alexander became a POW at 15. He was a military and civilian worker at Kelly AFB. Joseph Alexander never got to enjoy his youth. At just 14 years old, and with his grandmother by his side, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and is said to have been the youngest American prisoner of war.
Story highlights. A former Soviet Army soldier who went missing in action in 1980 during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has been found alive almost 33 years after he was rescued by Afghan tribesmen.
The inhospitable terrain, the unforgiving and unpredictable weather, fractured tribal politics, turbulent relations with the local population and armed civilians: these are just some of the issues that led to Britain's downfall in Afghanistan.
There are no known living POWs left in Vietnam from the American War. Many veterans and survivors of those terrible years have returned to the country to visit and pay respects to their peers left behind.
Of the nearly 1,600 Americans still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War, hundreds are believed to be in a “non-recoverable” category, meaning after rigorous investigation DPAA has determined that the individual perished but does not believe it is possible to recover the remains.
The national organization of former Vietnam POWs (NAMPOWs.org) includes men who served in the Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Army. These remarkable men averaged more than 5 years of torture and inhumane treatment as POWs. As of July 2021, only 407 remain alive out of the original 662 military POWs.
During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
The Midnight Massacre is remembered for being "the worst massacre at a POW camp in U.S. history". A museum was opened at Camp Salina in 2016.
The reasons for the Japanese behaving as they did were complex. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) indoctrinated its soldiers to believe that surrender was dishonourable. POWs were therefore thought to be unworthy of respect. The IJA also relied on physical punishment to discipline its own troops.
Although the U.S. at one time had more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and more than 160,000 troops in Iraq, the military pulled out of Afghanistan completely in 2021. And, in Iraq, operations are limited now to just a handful of troops performing advise-and-assist missions only.
Marines were deployed to Ukraine for 'high risk' operations, former military official reveals.
Our military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31st. The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart.