Use of Life Support Equipment by Aircrews Captured in Southeast Asia

摘要

This paper and those of Dr. Lewis and Mr. Shannon provide the first real insight into the life support problems encountered by a third group--our returned prisoners of war (POWs). The returnees were queried by mail as part of a joint HQ USAF and Air War College sponsored study of the POW experience in Southeast Asia (SEA). Col. Hoe Kittinger developed the form used in that study to query USAF returnees concerning their experience with aircraft egress, life support equipment, and mission data. At the time this paper was being prepared, 209 of the 218 questionnaires completed by returnees documenting their pre-capture experiences had been received, and it is on these 209 questionnaires that our statistics are based. This paper will analyze the experiences of the POWs who returned, and compare parts of them with the experiences of successful evaders and noncombat survivors.