Though my world had been churned considerably by the “trial” and the sentencing, it expanded for only a short time and was again reduced to cell 37. But even that brief and disturbing view of the “outside” was limited. There was absolutely no hint of any events on the other side of Mother Earth as they might pertain to us. The feeling created was that my situation went beyond me only as high as a few minor officials. Little did I know that our capture and imprisonment had caused considerable activity on much higher levels than I had imagined.

After the “mayday” call from Stardust Four Zero and she disappeared from friendly radar scopes on January 12, 1953, no further word was received back home, and the crew was declared missing in action.

The first indication that any of us were alive came nine days later. Peking radio announced on January 21 that Colonel Arnold, Major Baumer, and Captain Vaadi had been captured when a B-29 had been shot down. Nothing more was released by the Chinese government for some time.

During the period of silence after the first announcement from Peking, the families of the B-29 crews became more and more concerned. They assumed we would be treated as prisoners of war but were disturbed by a lack of any more news.

Then on July 27, 1953, the armistice was concluded and repatriation of prisoners began. However, better than three thousand prisoners who were believed to have been in Communist hands at one time or another did not appear. The concern of the “B-29 families” escalated to alarm when the B-29 crewmen were not released.

However their spirits were lifted to a degree when some of the returning POW's were able to confirm that we did exist. One POW was Captain Harris, the aircraft commander of the 91st plane which had been shot down in 1952. He had been shown the photos of me which had been taken in the hospital. Though Number One had shaved me for these snaps, it was not a close shave, and my hair stuck out in all directions. Because the pictures had been taken shortly after my capture, I was not a model of good health. I guess I resembled Wolf Man more than I resembled me. Though the American authorities considerately did not pass this information on to my relatives, Captain Harris told his debriefers that he was afraid I'd been driven up the wall by my captors. He was relating to his own experiences which had been very bad.

Through the rest of 1953 and into 1954 attempts were made to obtain an accounting of the missing men. A list of these names (our names among them) was presented to the Communists at meetings of the Military Armistice Commission. The Communist spokesman would not accept the list.

Subsequent revised lists were submitted and refused. The Communists insisted that all prisoners of war who wished to be repatriated had been freed. They simply ignored our names, even though at Geneva in June of 1954, they admitted that they were holding the eleven surviving crew members of the B-29. (They said three crewmen had been killed while parachuting.) They didn't say so, but their game was that we had “violated Chinese territorial airspace” and therefore fell outside the scope of the Military Armistice Commission.

In early November of 1954, the letters we'd written in September began arriving home. These, of course, gave the folks a big boost. But it was to be only a temporary high soon to be blown away.

On November 24, 1954, a Peking radio broadcast a statement that the eleven B-29 crew members had been brought before a military tribunal, and had been tried and sentenced as criminals.

The letters, telegrams, and phone calls to Washington increased and stronger protests were sent to Peking.

Of course, active options available to the United States Government were limited. Another World War could not be risked for a handful of men who were apparently alive and in reasonably good condition.

The United States government immediately concluded that the Military Armistice Commission was of no value in this case, and the United States delegation to The United Nations was instructed to present the matter to the General Assembly. (1)

A resolution sponsored by sixteen member nations of the General Assembly was put to a vote. It condemned the detention and conviction of the B-29 crew and requested the Secretary General of the United Nations to seek release of the crew.

The resolution passed by a vote of 47-5. Naturally the negative votes came from the eastern bloc of nations. There were seven abstentions and one absentee.

During the discussions and meetings at the U.N., maps of the mission were exhibited, radar tracking information was presented, including the point at which the plane had disappeared from the scope, and records of radio transmissions were offered in evidence. Documents were introduced which showed that the crew was acting under United Nations standing orders in the performance of duties connected directly with the war in Korea. The exact purpose of the mission was identified as a leaflet mission over designated targets in North Korea.

It was declared that, doubtful though it was, if the plane had overflown the border, under the terms of the armistice the crew should have been returned. One of the terms of the armistice stated that even those prisoners guilty of crimes during the war, either before or after their capture, were to be repatriated. This term was included at the insistence of the Communists to cover those Communist prisoners who had committed criminal acts while in POW camps in South Korea.