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POWs Return Home in Operation HOMECOMING

February 12, 1973

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1973-02-12_OpHomecoming_DSC_0100(2)
Returning Prisoners of War cheer as a U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter takes off from Gia Lam Airport, Hanoi, for the flight to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. (National Archives)

A U.S. Air Force C-141, the "Hanoi Taxi," airlifts the first American prisoners of war to freedom from Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi, North Vietnam. From February 12 to March 29, U.S. transport aircraft fly POWs home from Southeast Asia as part of Operation HOMECOMING. In all, 591 American military and civilian prisoners are released, including individuals held by North Vietnam, the Viet Cong, the Pathet Lao, and the People’s Republic of China.1

1Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 507–8; Vernon E. Davis, The Long Road Home: U.S. Prisoner of War Policy and Planning in Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2000), 491–92, 499–502, 510–11; Defense Prisoner of War, Missing Personnel Office, “Vietnam,” http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/index.htm (link is external) (accessed 11-12-14).