Data Sources - Air Force Manual No. 200-25A, Department of the Air Force, Washington, October 16, 1961 page 1. Sanitized copy. National Archives KOREAN Conflict Casualty File (KCCF) 1950-1954.
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Complete copy avail through the P.O.W. NETWORK
info@pownetwork.org
The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs
To the Soviet Union
Joint Commission Support Branch
Research and Analysis Division
DPMO
26 August 1993
WORKING PAPER
This study was prepared by
Mr. Peter G. Tsouras, DAC
Major Werner Saemler Hindrichs, USAF
Master Sergeant Danz Blasser, USAF
with the assistance of
Second Lieutenant Timothy R. Lewis, USAF
Mr. Paul H. Vivian, DAC
Staff Sergeant Linda R. H. Pierce, USA
Sergeant Gregory N. Vukin, USA
This Study is for internal use only. It contains subjective evaluations,
opinions, and recommendations concerning on-going analysis that may impact
future U.S. foreign policy decisions. This document has not yet been
finalized for public release.
WORKING PAPER
This study was prepared by
Mr. Peter G. Tsouras, DAC
Major Werner Saemler Hindrichs, USAF
Master Sergeant Danz Blasser, USAF
with the assistance of
Second Lieutenant Timothy R. Lewis, USAF
Mr. Paul H. Vivian, DAC
Staff Sergeant Linda R. H. Pierce, USA
Sergeant Gregory N. Vukin, USA
Executive Summary
U.S. Korean War POWs were transferred to the Soviet Union and never
repatriated.
This transfer was a highly-secret MGB program approved by the inner circle
of the Stalinist dictatorship.
The rationale for taking selected prisoners to the USSR was:
o To exploit and counter U.S. aircraft technologies;
o to use them for general intelligence purposes;
o It is possible that Stalin, given his positive experience with Axis POWs,
viewed U.S. POWs as potentially lucrative hostages.
The range of eyewitness testimony as to the presence of U.S. Korean War POWs
in the GULAG is so broad and convincing that we cannot dismiss it.
The Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps which supported the North Korean and
Chinese forces in the Korean War had an important intelligence collection
mission that included the collection, selection, and interrogation of POWs.
A General Staff-based analytical group was assigned to the Far East Military
District and conducted extensive interrogations of U.S. and other U.N. POWs
in Khabarovsk. This was confirmed by a distinguished retired Soviet
officer, Colonel Gavriil Rorotkov, who participated in this operation. No
prisoners were repatriated who related such an experience.
o Prisoners were moved by various modes of transportation. Large shipments
moved through Manchouli and Pos'yet.
o Khabarovsk was the hub of a major interrogation operation directed
against U.N. POWs from Korea. Khabarovsk was also a temporary holding and
transshipment point for U.S. POWs. The MGB controlled these prisoners, but
the GRU was allowed to interrogate them.
o Irkutsk and Novosirbirsk were transshipment points, but the Komi ASSR and
Perm Oblast were the final destinations of many POWs. Other camps where
Americans were held were in the Bashkir ASSR, the Kemerovo and Archangelsk
Oblasts, and the Komi-Permyatskiy and Taymyskiy Natinal Okrugs.
POW transfers also included thousands of South Koreans, a fact confirmed by
the Soviet general officer, Kan San Kho, who served as the Deputy Chief of
the North Korean MVD.
The most highly-sought-after POWs for exploitation were F-86 pilots and
others knowledgeable of new technologies.
Living U.S. witnesses have testified that captured U.S. pilots were, upon
occasion, taken directly to Soviet-staffed interrogation centers. A former
Chinese officer stated he turned U.S. pilot POWs directly over to the
Soviets as a matter of policy.
Missing F-86 pilots, whose captivity was never acknowledged by the
Communists in Korea, were identified in recent interviews with former Soviet
intelligence officers who served in Korea. Captured F-86 aircraft were taken
to at least three Moscow aircraft design bureaus for exploitaiton. Pilots
accompanied the aircraft to enrich and accelerate the exploitation process.
The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: Technological Exploitation 3
The First Modern Air War . . . . 3
The Technology Gap . . . . . . 3
The 64th Fighter Aviation Corps . . . 3
The Soviet Interrogation Effort . . . 4
The Soviet Hunt for F-86 Pilots . . . 5
The 15 F-86 Pilots That Came Home . . . . 8
A Chinese Link in the Chain of Evidence . 11
A Special Air Force Unit . . . . . . . 11
Avraham Shifrin . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Soviet Hunt for the F-86 Sabre Jet 12
Sand in the Fuselage . . . . . . . . 13
MGB and GRU: Who Did What? . . . . . 15
Three Case Studies . . . . . . . . . 19
The Case of Cpt Albert Tenney, USAF . . . . 19
The Case of lLt Roland Parks, USAF . . 20
The Case of Cpl Nick A. Flores, USMC 22
Conclusions . . . . . . . 24
Part II: The Hostage Connection . . 26
POW Exploitation . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Stalin - Chou en-lai Meeting 26
Lieutenant General Kan San Kho . . . 27
Colonel Gavril I. Korotkov . . . . . 27
Lieutenant Colonel Philip J. Corso . . . . 31
Lieutenant Colonel Delk Simpson . . . . . . 34
John Foster Dulles . . . 34
Captain Mel Gile . . . . 35
CCRAX 35
Zygmunt Nagorski . . . . 36
Turkish Traveler . . . . . 38
Conclusions . . . . . . . 39
Part III Evidence From Within the Soviet Union . . . 40
Sightings in the Komi ASSR . . 40
Sightings in Khabarovsk . . . 44
Sighting in Irkutsk . . . . . 45
Sighting in Taishet . . . . 46
Sighting in Mordova . . . . . 46
Sighting in Novosibirsk . . . . . 47
Sighting in the Bashkir ASSR . . . 47
Sighting in Norilsk . . . . . . . 47
Sighting in Kemerovo . . . . . . . 48
Sightings in the Kazakh SSR . . 49
Sighting in Archangelsk . . . . . . . 49
Patterns Among the Sightings . . . . 50
Summary 51
Postscript 51
Appendices 53
Appendix A: How Many Men Are Truly Unaccounted For? . . 57
Appendix B: 31 Missing USAF F-86 Pilots Whose Loss
Indicates Possible Capture 68
Appendix C: Korean War USAF F-86 Pilots Who Were 69
Captured and Repatriated
Appendix D: Outstanding Questions 69
Appendix E: Individual Sources of Information
Cited in this Study 74
Appendix F: Soviet Officers Whose Names Appear On
Interrogations of U.S. Korean War POWs 75
Table 1. USAF Korean War POWs On Whom the Russian
Archives Should Have Information . . . . . 7
Table 2. BNR Cases Where Death Was Witnessed by
Repatriates or Otherwise Documented . . . 55
..............
Appendix B
31 Missing USAF F-86 Pilots whose Loss
Indicates Possible Capture
Name Date of Casualty
1. Cpt William D. Crone 18 Jun 51
2. Cpt Robert H. Laier 19 Jun 51
3. lLT Laurence C. Layton 2 Sep 51
4. lLT Carl G. Barnett, Jr. 26 Sep 51
5. Cpt Charles W. Pratt 8 Nov 51
6. lLT Charles D. Hogue 13 Dec 51
7. lLT Lester F. Page 6 Jan 52
8. lLT Thiel M. Reeves 11 Jan 52
9. lLT Charles W. Rhinehart 29 Jan 52
10. lLT Thomas C. Lafferty 31 Jan 52
11. CPT Charles R. Spath 3 Feb 52
12. CPT Jack C. Langston 10 Mar 52
13. lLT James D. Carey 24 Mar 52
14. Maj George V. Wendling 13 Apr 52
15. CPT Albert G. Tenney 3 May 52
16. CPT John F. Lane 20 May 52
17. Maj Felix Asla, Jr. 1 Aug 52
18. Maj Deltis H. Fincher 22 Aug 52
19. Cpt Troy G. Cope 16 Sep 52
20. 2LT Jack H. Turberville 18 Nov 52
21. lLT Donald R. Reitsma 22 Dec 52
22. 2LT Bill J. Stauffer 26 Jan 53
23. lLT Paul J. Jacobson 12 Feb 53
24. lLT Richard M. Cowden 9 Mar 53
25. lLT Robert R. Neimann 12 Apr 53
26. Cpt Frank E. Miller, Jr. 27 May 53
27. lLT John E. Southerland 6 Jun 53
28. lLT Allan K. Rudolph 19 Jun 53
29. Cpt Charles E. Gunther 19 Jun 53
30. lLT Jimmy L. Escale 19 Jun 53
31. 2LT Gerald W. Knott 20 Jul 53
Source: USAF Casualty Affairs
.....
2. Pilot: Captain Robert H. Laier, USAF
Date of Casualty: 19 June 1951
Status: MIA
Captain Laier was participating in a four ship fighter sweep in
the area of Sinuiju when he came under attack from enemy
aircraft. When last seen, his aircraft was seriously damaged,
trailing smoke, and in a steep dive at approximately 10,000 feet,
30 kilometers southeast of Sinuiju. An aerial search for his
aircraft wreckage was unsuccessful. A subsequent, unofficial
Chinese propaganda broadcast supports a belief that he survived
the shootdown and was captured. Additional information: Captain
Laier had some engineering training at the university of
Nebraska....
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03/92 -- Korea, and the men yet to be accounted for -- the "official list" -- is a list of U.S. servicemen known to have been
held as prisoners of war by the red Chinese and North Koreans from the Korean War
but not released or accounted for by the communists, as released on May 27,
1957 at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Far East and Pacific by the Department
of Defense.
The lists, the printed minutes of the May 27, 1957 hearing and the
"sense of congress" resolution were subsequently buried in the
archives. The original list had 450 names compiled from American POWS who were
repatriated by the Reds, as well as from photographs released by the Reds, Chinese
radio propaganda broadcasts, and letters written home by captured men. The "revised" list was narrowed down in august of 1961 to 389 men, and
all were arbitrarily declared dead by the military services, the USG still
lists them as "unaccounted for".
Names and ranks only were released at the time, and printed in "The
Spotlight" on August 27, 1979, along with the above information and background.
Further information has been compiled by the P.O.W. Network from the Hawaii POW/MIA
Korean Memorial records, National Archives documentation, and public United
States Air Force documentation, and changes made to the original published
information. (FEBRUARY 1992)
While Robert Laier is listed on the "HONOR ROLL OF FORGOTTEN AMERICANS"
he is NOT noted as having died "while missing" or died "in captivity" but "hostile killed" by the National Archive.
03/12/2021
- KOREAN WAR
- UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
- Unaccounted For
Captain Robert Holmes Laier entered the U.S. Air Force from Nebraska and served with the 336th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group. On June 19, 1951, he piloted an F-86A Sabre (tail number 49-1298) that took off from Suwon Air Base as the second in a flight of four F-86s on a fighter sweep mission over Sinuiju, North Korea, in an area known as “MiG Alley.” During the mission, Capt Laier's Sabre was attacked by two MiG-15s, causing his plane to go into a steep dive near the village of Sinsi-ri. The final circumstances surrounding Capt Laier’s loss were not observed, and it is unknown whether he ejected. An aerial search that followed this loss observed three fires from undetermined aircraft in the area where Capt Laier’s F-86 was last seen; however, there was no sign of the missing pilot. No returning POWs mentioned having contact with Capt Laier, nor was he seen at any known holding point, interrogation center, hospital, or permanent POW camp. He remains unaccounted-for. Today, Captain Laier is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Deferred.
If you are a family member of this serviceman, DPAA can provide you with additional information and analysis of your case. Please contact your casualty office representative.
 Capt ROBERT HOLMES LAIER
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