THOMPSON, FLOYD JAMES Longest-held American POW - RIP 07/16/2002
Name: Floyd James Thompson Rank/Branch: O3/US Army Special Forces Unit: Date of Birth: 08 July 1933 Home City of Record: Date of Loss: 26 March 1964 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 163912N 1064621E (XD890419) Status (in 1973): Released POW Category: Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: L19
Other Personnel in Incident: Richard L. Whitesides (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2008.
REMARKS: 730316 RELSD BY PRG
SYNOPSIS: In the early years of American involvement in Southeast Asia, most Americans were not aware of the situation there. When Floyd J. Thompson told his mother he was being shipped out to Vietnam for a six-month tour in early 1964, she asked, "Where the hell is that?" He replied, "I don't know."
On March 26, 1964, the Air Force L19 observation plane flown by CAPT Richard L. Whitesides and U.S. Army Special Forces co-pilot CAPT Floyd J. Thompson was downed by small arms fire about 20 kilometers from Thompson's Special Forces Camp near Quang Tri, South Vietnam.
Thompson survived the crash, suffering burns, a bullet wound across the cheek and a broken back, and was quickly captured by the Viet Cong. The pilot of the aircraft was not found. Aerial search and ground patrols failed to find a trace of the aircraft. This was before the excellent search and rescue programs which would recover so many downed pilots had been implemented in Southeast Asia.
The following day, an Army officer visited Thompson's home and informed his wife that he was missing. The trauma sent Alyce into labor and their son, and fourth child was born that evening.
Thompson spent the next nine years as a prisoner of war, first in the hands of the Viet Cong and he later was moved to the Hanoi prison system. During his captivity, he was tortured and starved, and suffered the mental anguish of being nearly totally alone for years. He was released in mid-March, 1973 in Operation Homecoming. He is the longest held American POW from the Vietnam war.
The Thompson/Whitesides loss cameos the heartache and problems faced by the men who returned from captivity and by the families of those still missing. Thompson faced a failed marriage and alcoholism, and later a heart attack and debilitating stroke. The years of deprivation and mental and physical torture took their toll. To add insult to injury, few understand that he, not Ed Alvarez, was the longest-held POW, and his name is virtually unknown to Americans who honor the brave men who were captives in our name.
Richard Whitesides was definitely known to the enemy, according to U.S. intelligence. His name, however, did not appear on the so-called "discrepancy" list given the Vietnamese by Henry Kissinger. To this day, the Vietnamese deny any knowledge of Whitesides. Although Thompson was told by the North Vietnamese that Whitesides had been killed, he had learned the hard way that his captors were not to be believed, and is uncertain of Whitesides' fate.
Over 10,000 reports of Americans missing in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. since the war ended. Many authorities who have examined this information have concluded that hundreds are still alive, and this puts a new perspective on the loss of Americans in Southeast Asia. Their families must wait to see if the country he proudly served will ever bring them home.
Floyd J. Thompson remained in the Army and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Richard L. Whitesides, who was declared killed, remained at the rank of Captain. =======================
Floyd Thompson retired from the United States Army as a Colonel. He lived in Florida.
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Longest Held POW Remains Obscure Figure of Vietnam War August/September 1996 Issue By Ted Sampley U.S. Veteran Dispatch
Army Special Forces Capt. Floyd "Jim" Thompson was held prisoner of war longer than any other POW in American history, suffering nine years of brutal torture and deprivation in jungle cages and cold prison cells. Yet, he still remains a relatively obscure figure of the Vietnam War. On March 26, 1964, an L-19 observation plane co-piloted by Thompson was shot down by small arms fire 20 kilometers west of his Special Forces camp at Khe Sanh in the Republic of South Vietnam. Thompson, who suffered a broken back, a bullet wound across the cheek and burns, was captured shortly thereafter by the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong strapped Thompson to a bamboo stretcher and quickly moved him away from the crash site through a maze of jungle trails which led to a series of camps, from which they conducted their attacks on the South Vietnamese.
The Viet Cong provided Thompson with very little medical care, telling him there was nothing wrong with his back. For more than a month, Thompson was unable to care for himself, depending on his captors to keep him alive by feeding him rice gruel, the only food he could keep down. When Thompson inquired about what happened to his pilot, Air Force Capt. Richard L. Whitesides, the Viet Cong told him that Whitesides had been killed. Whitesides is still listed missing in action. U.S. search planes and ground patrols failed to find any sign of Thompson's downed L-19. No one knew if Thompson or Whitesides were alive or dead.
Thompson began to lose weight rapidly in captivity and then suffered his first attack of malaria. He realized that unless he learned to take care of himself, he would certainly die. He disciplined himself to ignore the pain and began to wiggle his toes and to stretch his arms and legs. By June, 1964, Thompson had recovered to the point that he could sit and walk. Soon after, Viet Cong interrogators made him the target of three months of torture that almost killed him. Finally in August, Thompson gave in and signed a propaganda statement saying he was being treated well and praising the strength of communist forces.
It was that same month a young Navy pilot, Lt. (jg) Everett Alvarez was shot down over North Vietnam during a retaliatory raid that later became known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Alvarez's capture was highly publicized by the international press. As the war continued to escalate and the public became more interested in the plight of U.S. servicemen held captive in Vietnam, Alvarez was presented over and over again as the longest held U.S. prisoner of war. He and a handful of other prominent POWs, mostly aviators, became the symbols of a national campaign to free captured U.S. servicemen. The American servicemen held captive in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were virtually ignored. They were mostly enlisted men captured on the ground who were being held in primitive bamboo cages and as a result, had no organized command structure within their peers as was developed by American prisoners in North Vietnamese prisons. Although Alvarez topped every Pentagon list of POWs by 1969, there was no mention of Thompson, whose name the Pentagon refused to make public.
In the late 60's, when POW/MIA organizations began engraving the names of America's missing servicemen on bracelets as part of their campaigns to force communist Vietnam to release American prisoners, Thompson's name was never engraved on a bracelet. The POW/MIA organizations had been refused permission from Thompson's wife to put his name on POW/MIA bracelets. Thompson had left for Vietnam the day after Christmas, 1963, leaving behind Alyce, his wife of nine years, and three daughters -- Pam, 6; Laura, 4; Ruth, 3. He had been in Vietnam less than three months on a six-month temporary assignment from Ft. Bragg, N.C., when he was shot down. The day after he was shot down, an Army officer visited the Thompson home to notify Alyce that her husband was missing in action. The news sent Alyce into labor and she gave birth that evening to the couple's only son. Alyce, now with a newborn and three more small children to care for and not knowing if her husband was alive or dead, felt overwhelmed.
In the beginning, relatives, friends and sympathetic neighbors gave her much needed support. But that slowly dissipated until she was again alone. In the spring of 1965, Alyce sent word to the Army to forward Thompson's allotment checks to an address in Massachusetts belonging to an Army sergeant she had met a year before at the post bowling alley. She gathered her kids and moved in with the sergeant who had just retired to Massachusetts.
Alyce, insisting she needed privacy for the sake of her children, warned the Army never to release Thompson's name to the public. "He went through hell, but I went through hell too," she later claimed. "There are certain things I did I'm not too proud of. But I felt I had to do them for my children and to keep my sanity." In the meantime, the Viet Cong continued to brutalize Thompson with constant beatings and deprivation.
In July 1967, the Viet Cong started Thompson walking, blindfolded, on a long journey up the Ho Chi Minh trail toward North Vietnam. He was kept isolated from other U.S. prisoners. Upon reaching the eighth POW camp on the trail, his Viet Cong interrogators escalated their torture. They wanted him to sign statements proving that the United State's involvement in Vietnam was criminal and when he refused, his guards beat him with bamboo sticks. They choked him and hung him by his thumbs. They tied his elbows behind his back and hung him from a rafter until he passed out. At night he was tossed into a tiny wooden cage in which he was handcuffed and shackled in leg irons. When he refused to bow to his captors, they denied him food for three days and nights and followed with a "lesson" in bowing. The guards grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head onto the hard earth until he was unconscious.
It wasn't until Thompson was nearly halfway through his captivity that he was confined with other American prisoners. He later made an escape attempt with Lew Meyer, a Navy civilian employee. The Viet Cong captured them within two days. Both men were severely punished for the attempt. Thompson was finally moved to the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi on January 28, 1973. Two weeks later, Alvarez was released from there in the first group of prisoners to go home. Headlines all over the United States declared that Alvarez, the longest held POW, had finally been released. A month later, the "mystical" Thompson was returned to the United States.
Tom Philpott, writing for the Air Force Times described Thompson's family reunion:
"On the morning of March 20, 1973, one wing of Valley Forge Army Hospital, Pa., began to crackle with excitement. A small crowd gathered expectantly in the hallways as word spread. In his two-room suite, Jim Thompson donned his green beret at the proper rakish angle and walked with Alyce and their escort officers down the corridor through double glass doors and outside into the crisp morning air. Though terribly thin and pale, and sporting deep circles under his eyes, Thompson wore a broad smile as he waite d at the top of a cement ramp.
"Medical staff and fellow patients pressed against every available window to glimpse a scene that would burn in their memory for a lifetime. America's longest held POW was about to meet his daughters for the first time in nine years and to hold a son he had never seen. Suddenly the children rounded the corner and turned into the sunshine. The girls had grown from golden haired toddlers to teen-age brunettes. The only towhead now among them suddenly bolted from his sisters and ran up the ramp. "Jimmy!"
"The boy leapt into his father's arms and knocked the skinny soldier to the pavement. There they sat hugging each other as Pamela, Laura and Ruth piled on. The escorts remembered they had lumps in their throats the size of golf balls and tears blurred their camera angles. At that moment, Alyce says, she decided to return to Jim, if he would have her, so the children would know their father."
After the homecoming, Alyce did return to Thompson, but their marriage fell apart in the summer of 1974 and they divorced soon after. Thompson said he could not forget how Alyce lived while he was in captivity. He began to drink heavily.
Alyce remarried and Thompson's second marriage failed in 1977. He went into depression and finally ended up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. After several years of therapy and regular sessions with Alcoholics Anonymous, Thompson's life had begun a turn for the better. In January 1981, Thompson, who was still on active duty, suffered a mild heart attack. Then a few weeks later, a severe stroke left him unable to read, write or speak effectively.
Thompson retired from the Army in December 1981 and moved to Key West, Florida, where he lives alone. He has successfully recovered some of his communications skills lost after his stroke.
After retiring from the Navy in 1980 with the rank of Commander, Alvarez was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the position of Deputy Director of the Peace Corps. A year and a half later he was appointed Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration where he remained until 1986. Alvarez says that he wants the record set straight that it was Thompson, not he, who was the longest held POW. He says he corrects the error every time the issue comes up.
Editors' note: Information for this article was based on wire copy and a January 26, 1987 Air Force Times article written by Tom Philpott.
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Southern California Living; View Desk
Book Review A Soldier's Life, and Faith Lost, in an Unpopular War GLORY DENIED
The Saga of Jim Thompson, America's Longest-Held Prisoner of War By Tom Philpott ; W.W. Norton: $26.95, 460 pages ANTHONY DAY
"Glory Denied" is a sad, moving book about the havoc the Vietnam War wrought with one American soldier and his family. That soldier is Jim Thompson, a Green Beret who was captured by the Viet Cong in 1964 and held until 1973, longer than any prisoner of war in American history.
Told with skill and sensitivity by Tom Philpott, a military affairs columnist, Thompson's story is written as an oral history, drawing on interviews with Thompson, his family and fellow soldiers. It is a strikingly successful technique that adds to the poignancy of the story, allowing people to speak directly to the reader, and Philpott enters the narrative only occasionally for clarity's sake.
A year out of high school, Thompson married and entered the Army in 1956, becoming devoted to the military and rising from the ranks to become an officer. But, as one finds in this book, he put career ahead of family; he was away when his wife, Alyce, gave birth to all four of their children. And when he was home, he drank a lot.
Thompson's career was taking shape during the American expansion of forces in Vietnam; President Kennedy enlarged the Army's Special Forces as a key to fighting Communist guerrillas and gave them their distinctive green berets. They were supposed to be an all-volunteer force, but in the early 1960s there were not enough volunteers, so Capt. Thompson was pushed into the outfit.
Not terribly competent as an officer--he was green and impulsive--Thompson was given inadequate training on Okinawa before being plunked down, in charge of 11 men, in one of the most remote and forbidding parts of South Vietnam, Khe Sanh. He was sent there to help the South Vietnamese fend off North Vietnamese infiltrators from neighboring Laos. In March 1964, scouting the jungle for the unseen enemy, Thompson set out in a single-engine spotter plane and was shot down.
The pilot was killed; badly wounded, Thompson survived. Viet Cong captured him. For the next five years they held him in solitary confinement in the jungles of South Vietnam, torturing him and denying him food. He was viciously beaten into making a radio broadcast in which he said he was well treated. Near death, he was taken in 1967 to North Vietnam, where, two years later, for the first time he was held with other American prisoners. With many others, he was released to the Americans after the 1973 peace agreement.
After he was captured, his wife, hearing nothing beyond news of the plane crash, came to believe he was dead. She moved to Massachusetts with another man and took her children with her. They were all evidently happy and stable--until Thompson returned nine years later. Alyce, thinking that it was appropriate to go back to him, took her children and moved to be with him. At that the family fell apart, breaking off piece by piece. Until Thompson went to Vietnam he was the boss of the family; his wife, the cook and mother who deferred to his every whim. But after Alyce's nine years of freedom from that kind of life, the old ways didn't work any more.
Thompson traveled the country on Army business speaking about God, country and family as the pillars of faith that kept him going in captivity. At home he just got drunk and beat the children. Alyce left, and they divorced. The children went wild; Thompson tried to kill himself; their son, born when Thompson was in Vietnam, was convicted of second-degree murder. By this time Thompson had had a serious stroke that left him shouting incoherently in the courtroom during his son's trial.
Thompson chucked his faith and his churchgoing after his family dissolved. What he did not get rid of was his unbending sense of his righteousness, the certainty that his will was to prevail at the expense of everything else. "Glory Denied" reveals Thompson as a touchingly obtuse stiff-necked obdurate man over whom neither the Viet Cong nor the U.S. Army nor his family could prevail. The book reveals the Army to have been, in its dealings with Thompson and his family, downright inhumane in its bureaucratic indifference.
Those who appear worst in the book are the politicians, who used this limited suffering soldier for their purposes. President Nixon grandly invited him to the White House. President Reagan gave him a medal and said to him and other former POWS, with self-serving violence to the truth, "On the battlefield you knew only victory, only to have your victory lost by a failure of political will." For a long time, for various reasons, the Pentagon described another man, Navy pilot Everett Alvarez, as the longest-held prisoner. Thompson resented that, hence the title "Glory Denied.".
The story that Philpott has skillfully constructed shows how Thompson staunchly resisted his captors. He tried five times to escape. His stalwartness under barely imaginable conditions of pain and terror one can only look on with awe. Philpott makes that case plainly in "Glory Denied," and plainly, too, the terrible cost for this soldier and his family of the Vietnam War.
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07/17/02 The battle is over for America's longest held POW is dead at age 68
BY TOM WALKER
Florida Keys News
The battle is over for the man recognized as America's longest held prisoner of war and a prominent figure in local celebrations honoring the country's fighting men and women.
Lt. Col. Floyd James Thompson, of Key West, was found dead Tuesday in his Key West By the Sea Condominium. He was 68.
For next nine years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Thompson was subjected to constant mental and physical torture at the hands of his Viet Cong captors.
Largely kept isolated from others, he was first held in crudely constructed jungle cages and later in cold prison cells, ending up in the infamous Hanoi Hilton.
Thompson moved to Key West in 1981, after being medically retired from the U.S. Army, where he remained active in the community, according to the Monroe County Office of Veterans Affairs.
Leaving for Vietnam the day after Christmas in 1963, Thompson had orders for a six-month assignment out of Fort Bragg, N.C. When Thompson told his mother he was being shipped out to Vietnam for a temporary tour of duty, she asked, "Where the hell is that?" He replied, "I don't know."
Leaving his wife of nine years, Alyce, and three daughters, he had been in Vietnam less than three months when he was captured.
On March 26, 1964, the Air Force observation plane flown by Capt. Richard L.Whitesides and co-piloted by Thompson was hit and disabled by small arms fire outside their Special Forces Camp near Quang Tri, South Vietnam.
Suffering burns, a bullet wound across the cheek and with his back broken, Thompson survived the initial crash, but was captured by the Viet Cong.
Whitesides, although said by the Viet Cong to have been killed, has never been found.
The day after Thompson was reported as being shot down, an Army officer paid a visit to the Thompson home to notify Alyce Thompson. Rocked by the news her husband was listed as missing in action, the pregnant Alyce Thompson went into labor, giving birth to the couple's only son.
In the first months of captivity, the injured Thompson rapidly lost weight and suffered his first attack of malaria. His mental toughness made the Special Forces soldier realize he needed to take care of himself in order to survive. He disciplined himself to ignore the agonizing pain he was experiencing, and within three months recovered to the point where he could sit and walk.
However, his recovery was brief, as Viet Cong interrogators relentlessly subjected Thompson to more torture. It was while at the Hanoi Hilton that Thompson and a Naval civilian employee tried to escape. Recaptured two days later, Thompson's captors escalated the torture sessions.
Nearly killed by his ordeal, Thompson reluctantly signed a propaganda statement saying he was being treated well. He was released in March 1973, as a part of Operation Homecoming.
Returning to U.S. soil, Thompson faced many of the countless hurdles confronting others held in captivity, including to two failed marriages, a battle with alcoholism, a heart attack and a debilitating stroke.
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