How did us soldiers become prisoner in Vietnam war?

Answer 1

downed airmen were captured as early as 1965 including the cia air america pilots operating in Laos. ground troops were rarely taken alive when captured. mainly because nlf and nva didn't have adequeate resources to keep them alive. in difficult jungle conditions it was easy to get cut off and lost from organized units.

Answer 2

When US jets bombed North Vietnam, many of those jets were shot down (shot down by MiGs, SAMs, AAA, etc.). When crashing, the airmen often bailed out; becoming prisoners when they landed. Those men became Prisoners of War (POWs).

Answer 3

Nearly all of the US POWS were downed airmen. Their jets had been shot down while conducting bombing missions over North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder, Linebacker, or Linebacker II.

US airmen went out of their way to avoid parachuting into North Vietnam (and becoming guests of the "Hanoi Hilton"). They would often attempt to fly their burning aircraft out to sea and parachute into the ocean where they could be picked up by warships of the US Navy...or, primarily for the US Air Force, they would try to fly their crippled jets to Thailand and then bail out, where USAF Rescue Helicopters could extract them (pick them up from the jungles down below).

If they absolutely had to bail out over North Vietnam, then a special air sea rescue helicopter team would try to extract the downed airmen before they were captured (and becoming POWs). The helicopter team would be escorted by US fighter planes to protect them. Often times the downed men could be rescued, for those that couldn't...they became POWs.

Answer 4

what important events happened to the prisoners of war during teh Vietnam Era?