Twenty-Seven-Year Follow-Up of Vietnam Air War USAF POWs and Matched Controls Not Captured: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Objective: To provide a follow up of a 1976 study of the impact of captivity on U.S. Air Force (USAF) POWs and USAF Controls matched for time in Southeast Asia, military rank and aircraft crew position. Method: Qualitative study of replies to open ended questions of positive and negative changes due to their captivity/combat experiences made by participants (POWs and Controls) who replied in both 1976 and in 2003. Results: Both groups acknowledged positive and negative effects of the experiences in 1976. In 1976 and 2003 the POWs mainly reported negative effects on career and family domains but positive effects of individual development and growth. Controls reported mild negative effects on family in 1976, and benefits to their careers and sense of self in both 1976 and 2003. Conclusion: Captivity during the Vietnam War for USAF included two types of extreme duress which were the incarceration itself; and the repatriation experience which entailed re-assimilation despite loss of occupation and disrupted families. Despite these obstacles, POWs exhibited substantial resilience in achieving self-growth and how they regarded themselves psychologically in comparison to their matched control fellow aviators who while also suffering a lesser separation from family, tended to prosper in their careers and were proud of their accomplishments. Long term separation from work, family and friends and the inability to return to their families and careers with the effectiveness demanded by their ambition were a more devastating ongoing consequence of their captivity than the immediate suffering of their imprisonment.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jeff Sonis, Richard Tedeschi, Rob Pietrzak, and Steven Southwick for their advice, support, editorial input, and other acts of kindness.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William Sledge

William H. Sledge, MD, George D. and Esther S. Gross Professor of Psychiatry, served in the U.S.Air Force at the School of Aerospace Medicine where he initiated this project in 1975. Following his military service, he has been at Yale School of Medicine, most recently managing the psychiatric services of Yale New Haven Hospital. Julia Rozanova, PhD, is an associate research scientist at Yale School of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Alberta with a doctorate in sociology, she has conducted studies and published on issues of “successful aging” and ways in which personal and contextual factors unequally shape aging health. Julianne Dorset, BA, is a research assistant at the Yale School of Medicine. She graduated from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in both Spanish and psychology, and has been assisting Dr. Sledge in his research since. She is currently pursuing a master’s of social work at Quinnipiac University.

Julia Rozanova

William H. Sledge, MD, George D. and Esther S. Gross Professor of Psychiatry, served in the U.S.Air Force at the School of Aerospace Medicine where he initiated this project in 1975. Following his military service, he has been at Yale School of Medicine, most recently managing the psychiatric services of Yale New Haven Hospital. Julia Rozanova, PhD, is an associate research scientist at Yale School of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Alberta with a doctorate in sociology, she has conducted studies and published on issues of “successful aging” and ways in which personal and contextual factors unequally shape aging health. Julianne Dorset, BA, is a research assistant at the Yale School of Medicine. She graduated from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in both Spanish and psychology, and has been assisting Dr. Sledge in his research since. She is currently pursuing a master’s of social work at Quinnipiac University.

Julianne Dorset

William H. Sledge, MD, George D. and Esther S. Gross Professor of Psychiatry, served in the U.S.Air Force at the School of Aerospace Medicine where he initiated this project in 1975. Following his military service, he has been at Yale School of Medicine, most recently managing the psychiatric services of Yale New Haven Hospital. Julia Rozanova, PhD, is an associate research scientist at Yale School of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Alberta with a doctorate in sociology, she has conducted studies and published on issues of “successful aging” and ways in which personal and contextual factors unequally shape aging health. Julianne Dorset, BA, is a research assistant at the Yale School of Medicine. She graduated from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in both Spanish and psychology, and has been assisting Dr. Sledge in his research since. She is currently pursuing a master’s of social work at Quinnipiac University.