RSSI joined the Air Force in the late 1970s and became a C-141 Crew Chief. One of our pilots was a former POW. He had been shot down while while flying an F-4, spent several years as a POW, and was repatriated in 1973. When he got back he wanted to stay in the Air Force and keep flying fighters, but was physically unable due to injuries suffered during captivity, so he transitioned to the C-141. He didn’t talk much about his captivity, but sometimes, after several drinks, he would open up. He said that he and the other returnees were aware that some of the POWs were left behind, but they had been instructed by higher-ups not to talk about it. He wanted to tell somebody, maybe Congress or the media, but he didn’t want to risk losing his career and pension. He had a wife and kids. I understand that now, because many years later I cross-trained to Intelligence as an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist in a Middle Eastern language, and spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan, and became aware of a lot of nasty stuff that our government and our military does over there, but I won’t talk about it because I don’t want to violate my Non-Disclosure Agreement and risk my pension and health care.
During my 30-year career in the Air Force I was an aircrew member on the C-130, C-141 and C-5, and I’ve been to just about every U.S. military base in the world. (The ones with an airfield, at least). I’m trying to think of just one base where the black troops did not commit far more than their share of crime both on and off base, and as a result were hated by the locals…Got it! McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
P.S. You don’t want to mess with the locals in Antarctica.
https://exemplore.com/news/antarctic-cryptid-spider