There is a person I am aware of thats passing himself off as a former P.O.W...He is 61 and I have serious doubts to his claim. Is there a accurate database somewhere? Thanks to all who reply

Sneak up behind him and yell "MAO!!"

report back with reaction.  Bonus points if you put a Nagant pistol in front of him first.

Two bullets!  Two bullets!!!!!

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

And request his service records with a Freedom of Information Act request.

He's 61?  Too young for Vietnam.  Last US units left RVN in March 29, 1973.  POWS were released February - March 1973.  Born in 1956, he'd have been 17 (in 1973).  He would have enlisted at 15 to get through training and be assigned to a unit in Vietnam, captured and released.  And policy was that you had to be 18 to go to Vietnam.

So what other opportunities to be a POW?  Grenada?  None.  Panama?  None.  El Salvador?  None.  A contra POW taken by the Sandinistas?  1 - Eugene Hasenfus, but he was born in 1941 and was 45 when he fell out of the C-123.  And he was CIA.  DESERT SHIELD / STORM?  Is he on this list of POW/MIA?

Also these guys.  And my favorite "busters".

POW during what engagement?  If he's 61 now, wouldn't that put like 16 yrs old in 1972?  Seems too young for Vietnam.

Panama?  Desert Storm?

None that we know of........................,.....................................................................................

Posters like you are a big reason I come to arf.com.  Thanks

If he's 61, that would mean he had to have served within the last 44 years-if he enlisted at 17. That would mean he joined in 1973 or later.

The last flights of repatriated POWs from Vietnam occurred in March 1973. So, we can rule out his having been a Vietnam War POW.

If his name is not on this list, he wasn't a POW since the end of the Vietnam War.

The 35 POWs captured since the end of the Vietnam War:

Lebanon DEC 1983
Lt Cdr Robert Goodman

Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm 1990/91
Lt Col Clifford Acree
CPT William Andrews
CPT Michael Berryman
MAJ Rhonda Cornum
SGT Troy Dunlop
COL David Eberly
LTC Jeffrey Fox
MAJ Thomas Griffith
CWO Guy Hunter
PVT Lem Jeffries
SPC David Lockett
SPC Melissa Rathburn-Nealy
1LT Kevin Rice
CPT Harry Roberts
CPT Russell Sanborn
LT Lawrence Slade
MAJ Joseph Small
SSG Daniel Stamaris
LT Richard Storr
1LT Robert Sweet
MAJ Jeffrey Tice
LT Robert Wetzel
LT Jeffrey Zaun

Somalia 1993
CWO Michael Durant

Kosovo 1999
SSG Christopher Stone
SSG Andrew Ramirez
SPC Steven Gonzalez

Operation Iraqi Freedom
SPC Edgar Hernandez
SPC Joseph Hudson
SPC Shoshana Johnson
PFC Jessica Lynch
PFC Patrick Miller
SGT James Riley
CWO David Williams
CWO Ronald Young

Of the ones on that list, Bobby Goodman, Thomas Griffith, and Jeffrey Tice, are possiblities. Goodman graduated from the USNA in 1978, putting his year of birth around 1956, which would make him 61 this year. MAJ Griffith, captured during ODS, graduated from the USAFA in 1979, so he could possibly be 61, depending on his birthday. MAJ Jeffrey Tice was 35 when he was captured in 1991, 26 years ago, so he'd be 61 right now.

$10 says when confronted he says "It was classified."

Is he claiming to be an AMERICAN POW, though? If he's an immigrant, he would have had plenty of time to get into trouble in the old country.

Can he lift his arms above his shoulders?

He might fall into one of these categories:

Ask him to hold onto a watch for you. Ask for it back in a week ava smell it.

pmag says there isn't a "confrontation."

Are you going to call him out over it?

One of my friends Capt William Andrews (BA) is on the list.  Sadly he died of brain cancer last year.

POW MIA Network

Why didn't you just ask him "Where/When?" immediately upon him saying he was a POW?

For those missing space shuttle door gunners.  Nights get damn cold in those prison cells on Arcturas Prime.

^Dude, that's fvcked up lol..

Ask him if you could see is dd form 214 or if he could get an erb not sure how that all works for soldiers of wars past but it's worth a shot if your that concerned.  I know a lot of people could care less about stolen valor but i think it's a bunch of shit. Is he trying to use that status for any type of financial gain?

Seems like someone once said.... "I like people who weren't captured"

Seems like a lot of officers captured during Desert Storm/Shield. Anybody know why that happened?

Who flies airplanes for $500 Alex.

The Marine guards taken hostage at the Embassy are NOT considered POW's?

I worked for a captain in 1995 or so who was one of the Marine security guards and was still on active duty.

61?

Lol, my Dad is 60, he graduated highschool in 1975.

Fuckstick is too young to have been anything other than a cold war veteran.

Yay Math!


ETA: He would've been 35 for the Gulf War. Too old to be a grunt, so unless he was a pilot, he is most likely full of shit.

The guy is probably full of shit, for sure.

But all grunts aren't PFCs.  There are 35 year old grunts.  Lots of NCOs in the infantry business.

That is true, if he wasn't a fuck up, or wasn't broken by then he would've been an NCO. I'll freely admit that I'm not sure how age works in the army, but I wouldn't be surprised if an infantry guy was all fucked up from doing infantry things by the time they hit 35.

Back in 1991, I was a 20-year old Infantry Private, stationed in Germany, with a roommate who was a 32-year old PFC with less than a year of active duty. He just barely missed going to Saudi Arabia. Not all Infantrymen in their 30's have been doing Infantry shit for a dozen years or more, and not all Infantrymen in their 30's who have been doing it that long are physically fucked up (just the majority of them).

Noice!

I've known a few men that considered themselves to be POW's. Actually they just married the wrong woman.

yes..lawsuit

My initial thinking as well but that's a whole lot of downed aircraft with enemy captured pilots.