Frank Schwable

Frank Schwable (July 18, 1908 – October 28, 1988) was a decorated Marine pilot whose prosecution for collaborating with his Korean captors while a prisoner of war was dismissed in 1954.

Frank H. Schwable, the son of a marine colonel who served thirty years, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929.[1] He was awarded the Cross of Valor by the Nicaraguan government in 1932.[2] In September 1933, he was among 19 aviators representing the Marine Corps at the International Air Races in Chicago.[3] He received the Legion of Merit for his service in World War II.[4]

While Chief of Staff of the First Marine Air Wing, he and his co-pilot were reported missing on a combat mission in Korea in July 1952.[5] On Feb 23, 1953, the Chinese broadcast charges that 2 officers, including Schwable and his co-pilot, had said that the U.S. was conducting germ warfare. Schwable was quoted saying the purpose was to "to test under field conditions various elements of bacteriological warfare and possibly to expand field tests at a later date into an element of regular combat operations".[6] When Schwable was quoted confessing to germ warfare, his wife said: "That's the same old Communist malarkey. Nobody believes it."[7]

United Nations commander Gen. Mark W. Clark denounced China's germ warfare charges. Clark said: "Whether these statements ever passed the lips of these unfortunate men is doubtful. If they did, however, too familiar are the mind-annihilating methods of these Communists in extorting whatever words they want .... The men themselves are not to blame, and they have my deepest sympathy for having been used in this abominable way."[8]

Schwable was released from captivity in September 1953.[9] On April 27, 1954, Marine Corps commandant Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr. said he was "an instrument, however unwilling, of causing damage to his country" by the false confession that he later repudiated.[10] At the board of inquiry that considered whether he merited court-martial, a recently released POW testified. He described how he was tortured during six months and said that in prosecuting Schwable they would "persecute a man who has already been persecuted would merely be playing into Communist hands".[11] Dr. Winfred Overholser, former president of the American Psychiatric Association and longtime superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital, a federal mental facility, testified on his behalf.[12]

The court of inquiry ultimately recommended no action against Schwable,[10] but he was shifted, according to Shepherd, to "duties of a type making minimum demands upon the elements of unblemished personal example and leadership"[10] On May 11 he was assigned to serve as the Marine Corps representative on the Navy's Flight Safety Board, based in the Pentagon.[13] The Marine Corps awarded him its Legion of Merit for a third time on June 22, 1954, for his service as Chief of Staff to General Clayton Jerome in Korea for three months before his capture.[10]

The U.S. military had no uniform policy for addressing the approximately 200 cases of collaboration on the part of prisoners of war in the Korean Conflict. The Air Force decided against trials for any of its 83 cases, having determined, according to one report, that the prisoner's survival was more important than "vain heroics in trying to keep from an interrogator information that the enemy already has secured".[4] It cleared 69 and gave honorable discharges to fourteen, making no names public.[14] The few cases that came to public attention also varied in many respects. One Army corporal, Edward S. Dickenson, was a 23-year-old draftee from Cracker's Neck, Virginia. Fellow enlisted men accused him of collaborating for favored treatment and telling his captors about on a fellow prisoner's escape plans. By contrast, Schwable was a 45-year-old career officer, the son of a colonel. He was a graduate of the Naval Academy with 23 years as a pilot and had the support of fellow officers.[4] Dickson got ten years at hard labor.[14] Others charged with collaborating were all in the Army: Cpl. Claude J. Batchelor (sentenced to life imprisonment, reduced to twenty years), Lieut. Col. Harry Fleming (dishonorably discharged), and Major Ambrose H. Nugent (cleared).[15]

In August, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson set up a task force to study the response of U.S. prisoners of war to brainwashing.[16]

Notes

  1. ^ Raymond B. Lech, Tortured Into Fake Confession: The Dishonoring of Korean War Prisoner Col. Frank H. Schwable, USMC (McFarland & Company, 2011), 1
  2. ^ New York Times: "23 Americans Get Nicaraguan Medals," November 6, 1932, accessed February 16, 2012
  3. ^ New York Times: "Marines Fliers to Race," August 27, 1933, accessed February 16, 2012
  4. ^ a b c New York Times: Elie Abel, "Policy on P.W.'s Now Shaping Up," May 2, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012.
  5. ^ New York Times: "Marine Air Wing Leader Reported Missing in Korea," July 13, 1952, accessed February 16, 2012
  6. ^ New York Times: "Red Germ Charges Cite 2 U.S. Marines," February 23, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012
  7. ^ New York Times: "'Malarkey,' Says Mrs. Schwable," February 23, 1953, accessed February 16, 2012
  8. ^ New York Times: "Clark Denounces Germ War Charges," February 24, 1953, accessed February 16, 2012
  9. ^ Lech, Tortured, 4
  10. ^ a b c d New York Times: "Marines Award Schwable Medal," July 8, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012
  11. ^ New York State: "Marine Ex-P.O.W. Backs Schwable," March 3, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012
  12. ^ New York Times: "Dr. Winfred Overholser Dies; Developed Psychiatric Centers," October 7, 1964, accessed February 16, 2012
  13. ^ New York Times: "Schwable Assigned to Air Safety Post," May 12, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012
  14. ^ a b New York Times: Elie Abel, "Army Convicts Dickenson of Collaborating with Reds," May 5, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012
  15. ^ New York Times: "Ex-P.O.W. Major Accused by Army," November 13, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012
  16. ^ New York Times: "Officers to Study 'Brainwash' Issue," August 23, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012

Additional sources