PFC Garwood USMC, Traitor or Victim

[Zofo]

Just recently, I have been looking into the Vietnam conflict in slightly greater detail than before. I have tracked down many veteran's websites and am suprised at the polarity of opinion over this soldier. My current interest is in the return of US PWs from Hanoi in 1973 - and those that did not come back. Those who are missing and in some cases presumed alive, even after all this time.
As our vets are getting bombarded with questions, I thought I'd add my questions too.
Is there a balance of vet opinion (even on this site) that would agree on Garwood's status - was it political or a military affair? After all, it appears that there were US officers broadcasting propaganda from Hanoi who, when they returned, received only a slap on the wrist!
The US government says (as does the SRV) that there are no more US personnel in Vietnam. What do our vets think on this question? If not in Vietnam how about Laos or Cambodia? I would be interested to receive any pointers on the questions above. Thank you for reading this and I look forward to more give and take!

[Zofo]

Any takers?

[DMZ-LT]

Iconsider Garwood a traitor and it was political. I do not believe there are any POW's in VietNam , Cambodia or Laos. They would only be an embarassment to those countries today - plus we are getting pretty old ! :roll:

[Zofo]

Thank you my friend for getting the ball rolling!
Reading some of the sites people are saying or have said that there have been indicator numbers seen on the ground which correspond to pilots who were issued them before a mission. Could this be misidentification or is it a real thing.
I understand the age thing - that kept me wondering - as well as the embarassment issue.
It is an explosive issue tho' and there seem to be more than the gentleman Garwood involved in the traitor issue. From 1970 onwards the officer pilots say some of the enlisted men (they would say that anyway) succumbed to the NVA offers and did the dirty. A not unnatural state of affairs in any war. Any comments on the above more than welcome!

[rotorwash]

Zofo, I found a couple of mentions of Garwood by other POW's and the ones I read are of the same mind, a low opinion of Garwood. I seriously doubt there are any more POW's. In addition to the age issue, the idea that just because somebody was alive when he was last seen on the battlefield, he might have made it to POW status can sometimes be a stretch. The Vietnamese and Montgnards on our side had no qualms about killing prisoners and they were generally more humane than the NVA. Normally, the NVA didn't keep prisoners unless there was a political advantage to it.

There was one story I read written by a former POW that mentions Garwood rather critically, but he also mentioned that, while a captive, he saw an American medevac chopper painted white. Nobody in his right mind would fly a white aircraft. Ours were painted with red and white teeth and that was bad enough. I mention this because, in my mind it throws doubt on the rest of his story.

There is one charachter I am mildly curious about, he was an SF sergeant
named Jerry "Mad Dog" Schriver. The "Mad Dog" was well earned, he was the sterotype for every bad boy SF ever portrayed on fiim. His second weapon of choice was a hogleg pistol. He specialized in taunting the NVA. He would set up an ambush and have his Mike force troops pretend to be NVA to draw in unsuspecting victems. He was successful and was feared and respected by the NVA, but he had a deathwish and didn't ever intend to leave Vietnam alive. It would be bery difficult for me to believe that he survived long in captivity.

Interesting topic.

Rotor

[Zofo]

This sort of thing was never really top of my list for things to chase up but I did get innundated with pages saying that this bloke or that pilot was still alive and it made me wonder just how this could be. Did the USA not care about its people? However, reading further there are some sites, one by a chap called Joe Schlatter who blows a lot of the stories and rumours out of the water.
Thank you for filling in a bit more of the query regarding anyone left. I was pretty sure there could be noone left out there apart from the dead.