American POWs In Europe During The Second World War

(Gallery by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

Museum Exhibit Shows How World War II POWs Relied On Creativity In Captivity -- NOLA

When Allied soldiers and airmen were thrown into German prison camps during World War II, they entered a grim world. Armed guards in towers kept watch over the camps, which were encircled by electrified barbed-wire fences. The captives slept on hard, wooden bunks in drafty barracks, and often dropped substantial amounts of weight – some to the point of emaciation – because of the meager and unpalatable food options. About 1,120 soldiers died.

Life there was tough, as “Guests of the Third Reich,” the current exhibit at the National World War II Museum, shows. But the desperate conditions forced the inmates to improvise to make life bearable and to ward off a form of claustrophobia that Chester “Chet” Strunk of Houston called barbed-wire fever.

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My Comment: Life was definitely not easy .... but somehow many survived.

U.S. Wants To Swap Taliban Prisoners With Captured U.S. Soldier

This 2010 image shows the release by Taliban-associated video-production group Manba al-Jihad of someone who appears to be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has been held prisoner. Seattle Times

Parents of P.O.W. Reveal U.S. Talks on Taliban Swap -- New York Times

HAILEY, Idaho — The parents of the only American soldier held captive by Afghan insurgents have broken a yearlong silence about the status of their son, abruptly making public that he is a focus of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Taliban over a proposed prisoner exchange.

The negotiations, currently stalled, involved a trade of five Taliban prisoners held at the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of the Army, who is believed to be held by the militant Haqqani network in the tribal area of Pakistan’s northwest frontier, on the Afghan border. Sergeant Bergdahl was captured in Paktika Province in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. His family has not heard from him in a year, since they saw him in a Taliban video, although they and the Pentagon believe that he is alive and well.

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Update: Parents: US Officials Tried To Swap Taliban Prisoners For Captured Soldier -- CBS

My Comment: Soviet POWs during their war against the mujaheddin .... at least those who were not killed .... were not released until after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan. I expect that this is going to be the same fate for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Are U.S. Efforts Failing POW/MIA Groups?

POW/MIA Groups Criticize U.S. Efforts -- Washington Post

A coalition of groups representing veterans and the families of missing U.S. service members has accused the Defense Department of undercutting a joint U.S.-Russian program that seeks answers to the fate of Americans who disappeared behind the Iron Curtain.

The U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs, established in 1992, has given investigators from the United States access to Russia’s central military archives and opportunities to interview potential eyewitnesses about U.S. service members who may have perished in the former Soviet Union or the territory of its allies during World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War.

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My Comment: The sentence from this report that struck me was the following .....

.... The number of service members or civilians missing and unaccounted for include 78,000 from World War II, 8,000 from Korea, 1,680 from Vietnam, 120 from the Cold War, and one each from Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's a lot of MIAs.

Japan Apologizes To Former Australian POWs

Japan Apologises To Australian Prisoners Of War -- News.com.au

* Five former POWs met Japanese minister
* "We've waited a long time but it was sincere"
* Japan will also return POW historical records

THE federal government has welcomed an apology by Japan to five Australian diggers held prisoner during World War II.

The former prisoners of war (POWs) have met with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara in Tokyo.

"Foreign Minister Maehara's apology was made in a spirit of reconciliation," Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said today.

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More News On Japan Formally Apologizing To World War II Australian POWs

Japan says sorry to former Australian POWs -- ABC News (Australia)
Japan says sorry to former POWs -- ABC News (Australia)
Japan foreign minister apology to Aussie POWs -- The Australian
Japan to Return Historical Australian POW Records Held Since World War II in Spirit of Reconciliation -- News-4-Us

My Comment: What can I say .... better late than never.

The Search Continues For Idaho National Guard, Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl,

In this video frame grab taken from a Taliban propaganda video released Saturday, July 18, 2009, Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho is shown. U.S. military officials in Afghanistan say they are still searching for 23-year-old Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, who disappeared June 30. (AP Photo/Militant Video)

From AP:

KABUL — The troops hunting for the young private have little to go on: He disappeared near the border with Pakistan, his Taliban captors released a propaganda video of him two weeks later, downcast and frightened. Then, at least publicly, nothing about the only U.S. soldier missing in the Afghan war.

U.S. military officials in Afghanistan say they are still searching for 23-year-old Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, who disappeared June 30 — three months ago on Wednesday — but they reveal little else for fear of jeopardizing the search or his safety.

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My Comment: Afghanistan is a big country, and Pakistan is just as forbidden. He is probably alive, but that is probably all that we know about him at this moment.