Longest Held American POW Begins His Time in Captivity

March 26, 1964

U.S. Army Special Forces Captain Floyd J. Thompson

Overview

Viet Cong small arms fire downs a U.S. Air Force observation plane carrying pilot Captain Richard L. Whitesides and U.S. Army Special Forces Captain Floyd J. Thompson near the DMZ. Whitesides is never found and presumed killed. Thompson is severely wounded and eventually captured. Thompson is not released until nine years later on March 16, 1973, becoming the longest held American POW in U.S. history.1

¹Stuart I. Rochester and Frederick Kiley, Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961–1973 (Washington, D.C.: Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1998), 60, 81–85; Douglas Martin, “F. J. Thompson, 69, Longtime P.O.W., Dies,” New York Times, July 18, 2002; Elaine Woo, “Floyd J. Thompson, 69; Held Longest of Any U.S. POW,” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2002; Tom Philpott, Glory Denied: The Vietnam Saga of Jim Thompson, America’s Longest Held Prisoner of War (2nd edition; New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012), 447; John Prados and Ray W. Stubbe, Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991)