#FlashbackFriday: When POWS Headed Home, the Exchange Was There for Them

The third Friday of September is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. In 1979, President Carter signed a proclamation establishing the day, which has been commemorated every year since.

“All Americans should recognize the special debt we owe our fellow citizens who, as prisoners during wartime, sacrificed their freedom that we might enjoy the blessings of peace and liberty,” the proclamation reads in part. “Likewise, we must remember the unresolved casualties of war—our Soldiers who are still missing. The pain and bitterness of war endures for the families, relatives and friends.”

Since World War II, exchanges have helped provide freed American prisoners of war with a taste of home. During the Vietnam War, Clark Air Base in the Philippines was the first stop for nearly 600 POWs airlifted out of Hanoi. The Clark Exchange was the first store the former POWs would visit. Above, in a 1973 photo, Army Maj. Floyd Thompson, who was captured in 1964 and was the longest-serving American POW, embraces Clark associate Donna Richards.

Below are some other photos from Clark, as well as a couple of other phots from the Exchange’s history of supporting POWs and honoring POWs and the missing but not forgotten.

A Clark associate chats with one of the recently released POWs (left) and his military escort.

Capt. Jeremiah Denton, wearing hospital clothing, and fellow former POWs and their escorts shop the camera counter at Clark. Denton, who later became a rear admiral and U.S. senator from Alabama, died in 2014. According to his New York Times obituary and other sources, during a Japanese-taped interview broadcast on American TV on May 17, 1966, Denton blinked out “T-O-R-T-U-R-E” in Morse code, the first confirmation that American POWs were being subject to torture. You can watch footage of this on YouTube. He was captured in July 1965 and spent seven years as a POW.

In a photo taken at the Sheppard Air Force Base Exchange, Air Force Col. Robinson Risner and his wife shop for clothing. Risner, who was one of the Nation’s most decorated pilots in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, was a POW who spent seven and a half years in the “Hanoi Hilton.” According to his New York Times obituary, Risner, who died in 2013 at age 88, organized a church service at the prison in 1971, even though he knew he would be punished. As guards took him to solitary confinement, more than 40 POWs sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in support. He was promoted to brigadier general when he retired in 1976.

From 2020: From left, Somdeth “Abe” Nakhiengchanh, Personnel Security Specialist and Army retiree; Sedric Thomas, MILITARY STAR Call Center Manager and Army Veteran; and Johnny Brown, Jr., Exchange Credit Program Quality Assurance and Training Manager, U.S. Army Veteran, and U.S. Navy retiree, set a special table at the Exchange headquarters food court in honor of missing Warfighters and government civilians on Sept. 18, National POW/MIA Recognition Day. This has been an HQ tradition since 2014.

Sources: Exchange Post archives, Exchange History Flickr, Department of Defense, New York Times