Good job, I always reach for "Stolen Valor" anytime the BS detector goes off.
Another good source for POW/MIA info is
http://www.miafacts.org/index.htm
a website put up by Joe Schlatter, Colonel, U. S. Army, Retired who was the Chief of the Analysis Branch, Defense Intelligence Agency special Office for POW-MIA Affairs
Col. Schlatter has put a dagger through most of the POW/MIA myths that have been around since the 70's. Take a look, I suspect that you will be surprised, I certainly was.
Yep, Schlatter is good on POW stuff, Chief, even if he's a flake on politics.
I worked for a Medal recipient who was a returned POW (actually, a posthumous Medal recipient! Who is still alive and well as I write this). He had severe health problems that resulted from wounds in his capture incident (his teammates saw him fall and he was carried as KIA-BNR until he was discovered alive in the prison system).
He used to bring in little shards of shrapnel that were still working their way out of him, over 10 years later. And he said that, "After the way they treated me, I don't believe there are any live POWs. If there were any in '73, they didn't live more than a couple more years."
I figured he knew, ya know?
The Carter Administration set up a hosing for those guys (on top of their amnesty for draft dodgers, deserters, and court-martial convicts). When you came back as a POW, Nixon ordered that physical requirements be waived and a job found for anybody that wanted to resume service. Many of the returnees left immediately (all of them could have had a disability retirement), but many others stayed in for their 20 or more.
But Carter's DOD ordered that, when these guys retire, they get no disability... after all, they were able to serve in the (Army/Navy/AF/Marines) no problem!
That nonsense was finally overturned in the Reagan Administration.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F