“To Ashley: Request your captors to turn you into the nearest POW camp for exchange…Communists cannot plausibly deny you are alive and must arrange your exchange or be charged with violation of armistice.”
Message from US Military to 1st Lt. Gilbert Ashley and Four Crewmen Held by North Korea
The lumbering B-29 bomber and its crew of fourteen were on a mission to bomb a North Korean supply yard when enemy fighters attacked. “May Day” rang out at 00:26 on January 29, 1953. Three minutes later, plenty of time for bail out, the plane smashed into the ground south of Pyongyang, far behind enemy lines. Its flames illuminated four parachutes descending through the frigid North Korean darkness, according to another plane on the mission. American aircraft saw flares and what appeared to be codes sent by flashlights on the ground before the friendlies were driven off by enemy MIGs.
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