WIELAND, CARL THOMSEN
Carl Wieland was murdered in an Atlanta hotel 12 Jun 1987.

Name: Carl Thomsen Wieland
Rank/Branch: United States Navy O3
Unit:
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Orlando FL
Date of Loss: 20 December 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates:  203700 North  1063700 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A7C
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno:

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 730329 RELEASED BY DRV

SOURCE: WE CAME HOME  copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).

CARL T. WIELAND
Lieutenant - United States Navy
Shot Down: December 20, 1972
Released: March 29, 1973

I was a prisoner for one hundred days. I was flying an A7 Corsair II of
Attack Squadron 82 off the Carrier America and had fired at a SAM (surface
to air missile) site and he fired at me. Tactics were taken to avoid one
missile, but he cheated, he fired two missiles while I fired one. Five
seconds later I was hit and became a big ball of fire. I punched out at
about 20,000 feet over a cloud cover. I thought I was over the beach, but
when I came down, I saw I was about a half a mile inland. Going through the
overcast I almost hit another plane-an A6 which passed at about 500 feet.

Once on the ground, I tried to avoid capture by crawling into a ditch. I was
soon aware that capture was imminent and went out with my hands high. I was
first taken to Haiphong and then to the Hanoi Hilton where I was put in
solitary for two days. The interrogators wanted to know when the B-52's were
going to bomb Haiphong, but the port city was not hit.

The first night after solitary confinement I spent telling my fellow
prisoners of events in the United States. The bombing raids in Hanoi
continued amidst the cheering of the prisoners. The North Vietnamese
commander finally told us to stop cheering because he felt it attracted the
attention of the high flying bombers. We were told if we didn't stop
shouting we would be shot. Orders were also given that should there be a
direct hit on the camp, anyone trying to escape would be shot.

Normally when I was first captured we were given three meals a day, with hot
water and pig fat for breakfast. Lunch was something more, consisting of
cabbage or turnips in hot water and half a loaf of bread. Sometimes there
would be a little meat with the fat which ordinarily was skin and bristle.
After the peace treaty, the rations improved as the captors wanted us to
look better when repatriated. We began to get a daily issue of canned meat
packed in Russia. They gave us plenty of starch so we would look nourished
but many had bloated stomachs because of the diet. They even set up stands
and tried to sell us souvenirs of North Vietnam when we left.

We give our full thanks to President Nixon for getting us released. If you
wonder why we don't also thank Congress, it is because they did nothing to
set us free. The only reason we are free at all is because the President
told the North Vietnamese that the United States would continue bombing. And
he did so in spite of Congressmen who wanted to end the bombing. We consider
it the decisive action that ended the war.

After only one month at home, I was again airborne, flying an A-7 from my
old squadron VA-82. I was the first POW to fly an operational aircraft after
returning home.