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.

MIAs in Incident: O'Meara, James Josep, Jr.; Schwab, Edward A.; Turner, Harold Peter; Stevenson, Frank James; Pope, James Dean; Henry, Dewey Rosenwall; Ashley, Gilbert Lamour, Jr.; Ishida, Hidemaro Saito; Olsen, Arthur Robert; Shaddick, John Philip, III

______________________________________                                               

https://apnews.com/article/bb23537fa0f5234488f66dc8f0d72f64

Dec. 28, 1997

Korea Rescue Mission Still Haunts
By ROBERT BURNS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Flying deep into enemy territory in the dim light of
daybreak, Air Force Maj. David M. Taylor was about to execute an
airborne "snatch" of five escaped American POWs waiting to be rescued.
All had gone without a hitch, but Taylor sensed trouble as he flew his
propeller-driven C-47 up a North Korean mountainside at treetop level.

"It just didn't look right to me,"  ...

 _______________________________________                                     

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)

Gilbert Ashley is listed on the "HONOR ROLL OF FORGOTTEN AMERICANS" yet is noted as having died "while missing" by the National Archive.

03/11/2021

On the evening on January 28, 1953, a B-29 Superfortress (tail number 42-65357A) with a crew of fourteen departed Kadena Air Base in a flight of four. The briefed mission was a night bombing operation targeting the Kompo-Dong supply yard south of Pyongyang, North Korea. Shortly after releasing its payload, the B-29 was attacked by enemy MiG-15 fighters. Just after midnight, the aircraft commander made a distress call and ordered the crew to bail out. A few minutes later, witnesses reported the Superfortress caught fire and exploded in midair near Hungsu-ri. It is believed that five airmen were still aboard the aircraft when it exploded. The nine surviving crew members were captured by the North Koreans; three of them were returned to U.S. custody following the war, and one is known to have died at the Pike’s Peak prisoner interrogation center. While being moved in a convoy to a holding site, the remaining five prisoners were "liberated" by a group of Korean irregulars, believed to be North Koreans masquerading as South Korean guerrillas. Later that day, the B-29’s Aircraft Commander (Captain Gilbert Ashley) was allowed to contact United Nations Forces. On April 24, U.S. forces attempted to rescue the five men, but the rescue aircraft was fired upon during the attempt and the efforts were abandoned. Later reporting revealed the loyalty of the guerrilla unit and the probability that it had used the prisoners as bait. The five prisoners became known as the “Ashley 5,” after the Aircraft Commander, and all five of them remain unaccounted-for, along with the five who were believed to be aboard the plane when it exploded and the one who died at the Pike's Peak center. Captain Gilbert Lamour Ashley, who joined the U.S. Air Force from Maryland, was a member of the 28th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group. He was the Aircraft Commander aboard the B-29, and the namesake of the Ashley 5. Further attempts to locate him were unsuccessful, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Captain Ashley 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 GILBERT LAMOUR ASHLEY Jr. Unit 28th Bombardment Squadron Country of Loss North Korea Home of Record MD