National Alliance Of Families
For the Return of America's Missing Servicemen
+ World War II + Korea + Cold War + Vietnam +

Dolores Apodaca-Alfond, National Chairperson, voice/fax 1-425-881-1499
Lynn O'Shea, NYS Director, voice/fax 1-718-846-4350



GRU.- There has been a traditional rivalry and animosity between the GRU and KGB that may have influenced the uniform finger pointing by the GRU officers interviewed by the U.S. side. Unfortunately, the Russian side has provided no former officers of the MGB/KGB as sources of information. The only former officers of the MGB/KGB that have provided information have been those discovered through the research efforts of TFR-M. One was Lieutenant Colonel Klimovich who led TFR-M team members to the design bureaus. The other was KGB Lieutenant Colonel Valerii Lavrentsov whom TFR-M team members met in their early December visit to the Khabarovsk Krai. He confirmed much of the information provided by the GRU officers.

Lavrentsov stated that during his research on Japanese and Korean POWs he ran across some interesting information that suggests that some Americans may have been held in Khabarovsk in "special houses" until they were able to recover from their wounds and were then sent on to Moscow and other places; however, there is no evidence in Khabarovsk who these people were.

Lavrentsov agreed with the TFR-M assertion that the MGB would have been the only organization with enough resources to accomplish that mission, even if only a few Americans were involved. Although he did not exclude GRU participation, he speculated that the Americans could have been moved by either train, ship or air to the USSR, and that when they were in Soviet custody, their names would most certainly have been changed to Slavic ones. Lavrentsov suggested that an entire false background would have been concocted for each prisoner.

Lavrentsov said that the Americans would have been mainly pilots, taken for their technical expertise . . . According to Lavrentsov the GRU would have been interested in the technical information, however, the security and movement of the POWs would have been handled by special MGB troops sent from Moscow . . . The reason he knows this occurred was because he was able to find records of "unknown" people ordering food, drinks for "special houses."F43


From the American side of the war, Lieutenant Colonel J. Philip Corso (Chief, Special Projects Branch of the Intelligence Division, Far East Command) was able to put together a picture of the personalities who ran the POW operations for the Communist side. This picture is reflected in the following statement:

43 Amembassy Moscow Message, 311004Z Dec 92, Subject: POW/MIA: TFR-M Members Visit to Irkutsk and Khabarovsk.

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The control system for POW camps in North Korea shows the extent of involvement of Soviet "Advisors." The Secretary General of the top secretariat was a Soviet officer named Takayaransky, Director General of the POW control bureau was a Colonel Andreyev, USSR; its Deputy Director, Lt. Col. Baksov, USSR; for the North Roreans, General Kim Ill, North Korean Army (alias Pak Dok San, USSR) and General Tu Fing, Chinese. The Chief of the Investigation Section (one of the three components of the bureau) was Colonel Faryayev, USSR).F44

Three Case Studies:
Inadvertent Glimpses
into the Soviet Handling of POWs


The following three cases of Capt Albert G. Tenney, lLt Roland Parks, and Corporal Nick Flores are examples of special handling of U.S. POWs by the Soviets. Capt Tenney was never identified by the Communists during the Korean War as having been captured. lLt Parks and Cpl Flores were captured directly by the Soviets, interrogated, and, for unique reasons, turned over to the Chinese. We believe that save for these special circumstances, discussed below, both would have been likely candidates for transportation to the Soviet Union.

The Case of Captain Albert G. Tenney, USAF. Information on one of the pilots mentioned on Table 1, Capt Albert G. Tenney has recently come to light. This information indicates that he and his aircraft may well have been transferred to the Soviet Union.

Several months ago, a Task Force Russia-Moscow interview revealed that in the early 1950's, an F-86 was captured intact in North Korea. This plane was shipped intact to the Soviet Union for technical exploitation by the MiG and Sukhoi design bureaus in Moscow. The interviewee also stated that, at the time of delivery, the fuselage of the F-86 was filled with sand, indicating that the plane had made a forced landing on a beach. He also stated that the pilot of this aircraft accompanied the F- 86 to Moscow, where he underwent debriefing.

The Joint Commission Support Branch recently interviewed former Korean era prisoner of war Brigadier General Michael Dearmond, USAF, ret. General Dearmond was an F-36 pilot who was shot down and subsequently interrogated by the Russians. He stated that he

44 Atrocities Speech - Preliminary synopsis, 12 November 1953, attached to this document is a cover letter to the Central Intelligence Agency, signed by Charles R. Norberg, Chairman of the POW Working Group, 12 November 1953.

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had never heard of pilots disappearing but recounted that one incident was mystifying to him. Dearmond's interrogator once brought an identification card and a "chitbook" (officer's club purchase coupon book) from an F-86 pilot and asked Dearmond to explain the "chitbook." Dearmond asked about the fate of the pilot and the Korean interrogator stated that the pilot had crashed into the Yalu River and died. Dearborn remembers that the pilot was a Lieutenant (Tenney was promoted to Captain while in MIA status). The mystery came in Dearmond's observation that given the fact that the pilot ostensibly died in the Yalu River, the "chitbook" was not, and appeared never to have been wet. Dearmond stated that he completely disbelieved the North Korean's account of the fate of the unidentified pilot.F45

On 21 December 1992, 72 pages of Korean-era documents (TFR 76) were passed to Task Force Russia-Moscow by the Russian side of the Joint Commission. These documents dealt exclusively with the Korean War period. Among these documents were inventories of personal effects, documents, etc. taken from shot down pilots. Only one of these inventory lists (TFR 76-37) has an identification card and a "chitbook" (listed as: an Officer's club ticket with coupons for mess. Consisting of 7 pages in two booklets). This is the inventory list for the F-86 pilot Captain Albert G. Tenney.

Captain Tenney (see Appendix B for circumstances of 1099) crashed in the water at the mouth of the Yalu River on 3 May 52. The circumstances of his crash lead analysts to believe that he could have survived the crash. If the Koreans had tried to salvage his plane, they most likely would have towed it to shore and onto the beach. Since the landing gear was up at the time of Captain Tenney's crash, the plane would have been dragged onto the beach nose first, accounting for the mass of sand in the fuselage.

One final piece of evidence is provided through material provided by the Russian side of the Joint Commission. Captain Tenney's name appears on the "List of 59" entitled "A List of United States Air Force Personnel Shot Down in Aerial Combat and by Anti-Aircraft Artillery During Military Operations in Korea, Who Transited Through an Interrogation Point."

The Case of First Lieutenant Roland Parks, USAF. The case of lLt Roland Parks, one of the repatriated F-86 pilots, is particularly interesting. In this instance, the Soviets directly interrogated an F-86 pilot, but because he had inadvertently violated Chinese airspace, eventually turned him over to the Chinese.

45 Joint Commission Support Branch Interview with Brigadier General (ret) Michael Dearmond, USAF, 18 August 1993.

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In an operation over North Korea his aircraft compass gyros became inoperative and he became separated from his flight. He finally ejected over the Liaotung Peninsula when he ran out of fuel somewhere between the Soviet military zone around Port Arthur and the Chinese city of Dairen. He was captured by 'Chinese peasants and picked up by Soviet personnel. He was taken to a Soviet airfield and briefly interrogated. Then he was taken to Port Arthur and rigorously interrogated by:

relatively high-ranking Soviet military personnel. They went over the same questions, got the same answers but then extended the interrogation to a regular military intelligence interrogation. No question was raised as to the wrongfulness of his landing in Port Arthur. He recalled that the interpreter, whom he described as a wizened hunchback, had at one point said to him that 'we may tell the United States Government that you were killed in a crash.' No reason was given him for turning him over to the Chinese Communists. F46


1Lt Parks' experience was recounted in his own words in U.S. News and World Report:

17 Sep 52. The Russians told me they were taking me to Moscow. I had told them I did not want to be turned over to the Chinese, and that's probably why they told me they were taking me to Russia. I thought they were taking me to the Siberian salt mines. I had made up my mind that if we kept going north toward Siberia I was going to go over the hill [escape] at all costs.

18 Sep 52. We . . . finally arrived in Antung about 3 p.m. Near Antung airfield we stopped. A Russian officer went away and came back in about an hour with some Chinese officers. Then I was blindfolded while we drove about 30 minutes more, stopping at what I learned later was a Chinese military base . . . The Russians took away from me everything Russian that they had given me, destroying any


46 Samuel Klaus, "Interview with Lt. Roland W. Parks, n 15 July 1955. The interview further stated, "When the Chinese got him they told him that they did not know what they were going to do with him. He might, they said, be sent to Korea to a prisoner of war camp, but on the other hand his case was special because he had come down in China." The fact that the Soviets turned Parks over to the Chinese might have been a necessary bow to Chinese sovereignty, since he did bail out, albeit inadvertently, over Chinese territory.

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evidence that I had been in Russian hands.F47


In the absence of 1Lt Parks' official debriefings48, the JCSB reinterviewed him recently. He provided the following information:

About two weeks after Parks arrived at this compound [at the Port Arthur naval base], he was issued a full set of cold weather clothing: boots, overcoat, and shirts. Parks was told to put them on by the senior officer who questioned him. Parks was told, "We are leaving. n Parks asked where he was being taken, and the Naval officer stated, "to Russia." Parks asked again, and the officer stated, "Siberia, where your situation can be properly resolved for you to return to the U.S." Parks stated that he did not want to go to Siberia because he had heard of the salt mines. The Naval officer stated that there were no salt mines in Siberia, and that he the Naval officer)was certain because he was from Siberia. Parks asked why he was going to Siberia and was told, "because diplomats must resolve these cases, but you will go and be with other Americans like you. n Parks was loaded onto a truck and never saw the Naval personnel again . . . . For reasons that were not explained to Parks, he was taken by vehicle along the coastal road to the POW collection point in Antung, and was turned over to Chinese custody. Parks believes that they "changed their minds" about sending him to the Soviet Union because of his youth and lack of significant information.49


In this case, we have first-hand evidence that the Soviets interrogated an F-86 pilot directly with no Chinese or North Korean participation. Not only did they taunt him with hiding his POW status behind the plausible story that he had crashed but

47 "Prison Diary of Lt. Parks," U.S. News and World Report, June 24, 1955, p. 34.


48 One of the serious gaps in our knowledge is the absence of the USAF debriefings of its repatriated pilots. In a letter to Mr. Roger Warren, dated 13 May 1991, Colonel Elliott V. Converse, III, Commander, Headquarters United states Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, wrote that these debriefings were destroyed about fifteen years before. U.S. Navy and Marine Corps debriefings were discovered by the JCSB at the National Archives in Washington in the late Spring of 1993. The JCSB requested the Archives to begin declassification. The Army's debriefings are at Fort Meade, Maryland.

49 Joint Commission Support Branch, Interview of Retired Colonel Roland Parks, 24 August 1993.

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they also frankly stated that he would be transported to the Soviet Union. Only some unknown understanding with the Chinese resulted in his transfer to their custody. One can speculate that the Chinese would naturally be sensitive, as a matter of sovereignty, about the custody of a U.S. pilot who landed on their territory. Since 1Lt Parks figured in the subsequent major propaganda campaign built around the so-called 'Arnold B-29 Crew', the Chinese were probably eager to acquire U.S. pilots who could fill the bill of indictment that the U.S. had criminally violated Chinese sovereignty.

The Case of Corporal Nick Flores, USMC. Our most persuasive argument comes from the debriefing and recent personal account of former POW Corporal Nick A. Flores, USMC.F50 In Corporal Flores' case, we have a foot soldier who was interrogated by the Soviets at Antung because he was mistaken for an F-86 pilot.

Taken prisoner at Koto-ri in November 1950, Corporal Flores spent almost three years in a prisoner of war camp. Corporal Flores resisted his captors at every opportunity and attempted to escape three times. On the last occasion, he stayed at liberty for approximately ten days. His fellow prisoners outfitted him with uniform parts that would give him the best chance at survival: USAF boots, coveralls, and flight jacket, the latter with 'U.S. Air Force' written on the front. Corporal Flores led a dozen men out of Camp One at Chang Song on 22 July 1952. The majority of the men returned to the camp due to sickness, wounds or illness, or fear, but Corporal Flores and one other POW pressed on. On 28 July they agreed to split up in order to increase the chance that one would escape to UN lines. Corporal Flores pushed on westward toward the coast since he had heard the U.S. Navy was operating off shore near Sinuiju.

On the morning of 1 August, however, he blundered into a camouflaged anti-aircraft position overlooking Sinuiju. There he surprised a group of Caucasians wearing 'clean' uniforms and speaking Russian. Confronted by an apparent officer in English: "You are the American pilot, n Flores was bound and blindfolded. Instead of being returned to his POW camp, he was bundled into a truck and taken across the twin bridges at Sinuiju to Antung in Manchuria. He was taken into a building where. His escort officer turned him over to someone else, saying again in English, "Here is the American F-86 pilot. n He then met a translator and an interrogator who introduced himself as a Soviet colonel whose name he cannot remember. During the interrogation, he heard the

50 The following information was taken from Corporal Flores' debriefings after his repatriation and from extensive interviews with members of Joint Commission Support Branch, 3-10 August 1993.

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noise of several other people who appeared to have been listening.

Over the ensuing four-hour interrogation, Corporal Flores continued to maintain that he was a Marine enlisted man and an escaped POW but realized that his U.S. Air Force uniform clearly identified him as an aviator. What he did not know was that, shortly before he had stumbled upon the anti-aircraft position, another American had been in that vicinity. At 0920 hours, Major Felix Asla, USAF, piloting his F-86 in the vicinity of Sinuiju's twin bridges, was jumped by MIGs and was last seen spinning toward the southeast. Major Asla was never seen again.

During the four hours of interrogation, Corpdral Flores was repeatedly told to confess that he was an F-86 pilot and was asked the identity of his unit and the location of its operating base. The interrogator also pursued another line of questioning by asking repeatedly about his knowledge of germ warfare. Ominously, the interrogator said that "all the other pilots had confessed, so he should as well.

After approximately four hours, in which he was never physically mistreated or abused, another person came into the room and interrupted the interrogation with a message in Russian. The Soviet colonel was audibly distressed and upset with whatever information he had just received and broke off the interrogation. Corporal Flores was taken to another room and asked by someone identified as a nurse if he needed any medical help. She asked several questions posed as if he were a pilot but left when he maintained he was not. After about 18 hours he was loaded aboard a truck, still blindfolded. The blindfold was then removed, and he was able to see the earth-covered bunker where he had been. It was located on a major airfield with rows of MiGs parked nearby. He was then driven back under guard across the Yalu river and turned over to North Korean authorities who returned him to Camp One.

The significance of Corporal Flores' experience in Soviet hands is that it demonstrates that the Soviets had a special handling procedure for pilots, especially F-86 pilots. This special procedure involved taking the captured pilot directly to a Soviet interrogation site, completely bypassing the normal POW camp processing procedures. This procedure confirms statements of Shu Ping Wa who, described the direct transfer of American pilots from capture to Soviet custody. There were three key elements of this special handling procedure illustrated in the experience of Corporal Flores:

1. He was taken directly from capture to Soviet custody for interrogation.

2. He was believed to be the pilot of an F-86.

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3. There was no mistreatment, in expectation of potential cooperation in the fulfillment of intelligence collection requirements.


Conclusions


The Soviets had a program of the highest priority to capture F-86 aircraft and pilots for technical exploitation.

o The Soviet forces in North Korea had 70 teams whose mission was the recovery of U.S. pilots. The Chinese turned pilots over to Soviet officers as a matter of policy.

o Soviet policy was to establish a veil of deniability over the transfer of prisoners by taking them directly after capture to the Soviet Union. Such prisoners were never mixed with the general POW population in North Korean or Chinese hands.

o There is no record of repatriated U.S. POWs who were transported to the Soviet Union for technical exploitation and then repatriated.

o The Soviet forces in Korea devised and executed a plan to force down at least one F-86 intact.

o Intact F-86 aircraft and at least one pilot were delivered to the Sukhoi and Mikoyan Design bureaus for exploitation.

o A number of POWs, notably including F-86 pilots, were transferred by air to the Soviet Union for exploitation of their technical knowledge.

o The evidence suggests that the Soviets had a special interest in the MIAs shown on Table 1 and specifically Capt Albert Tenney and 1Lt Robert Neimann. There is a good chance that Capt Tenney and his aircraft were transferred to the Soviet Union for exploitation.


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Continued