Prisoner of War Metal Comb
name: label: recipient
content: Wilson, William
notes: label: Description
content: Physical Description
label: Description
content: Metal comb with etching.
label: Description
content: Specific History
label: Description
content: Metal comb produced by the North Vietnamese in commemoration of 4,070 U.S. aircraft shot down. This comb was presented to Prisoner of War Captain William "Bill" Wilson, U.S. Air Force, as a parting gift upon his release. He was a POW from December 22, 1972 until March 29, 1973. The North Vietnamese did not present gifts to POWs shot down prior to 1972. It is supposed to be made from the skin of B-52s and F-4s, and the number etched into it is the number of US planes shot down as claimed by the North Vietnamese. Side one: "XAC MAY BAY MY THU 4,070." Side two: Etching picture of a bird on a branch on handle; "KHONG CO GI QUY HAN DOC LAP TU DO".
label: Description
content: General History
label: Description
content: Americans were held as prisoners of war in North Vietnam, but also in Cambodia, China, Laos, and South Vietnam. From 1961 to 1973, the North Vietnamese and Vietcong held hundreds of Americans captive. In North Vietnam alone, more than a dozen prisons were scattered in and around the capital city of Hanoi. American POWs gave them nicknames: Alcatraz, Briarpatch, Dirty Bird, the Hanoi Hilton, the Zoo. Conditions were appalling; food was watery soup and bread. Prisoners were variously isolated, starved, beaten, tortured—for countless hours—and paraded in anti-American propaganda. "It's easy to die but hard to live," a prison guard told one new arrival, "and we'll show you just how hard it is to live." A Prisoner of War (POW) is someone who is captured and imprisoned by an enemy power during a time of conflict or war. The Geneva Convention in 1949 defined who was to be considered a POW and determined how they were to be treated. The policies brought forth by the Geneva Convention were based on the international humanitarian law, or laws of war.
place: label: made at
content: Vietnam
topic: label: Subject
content: POWs
label: related event
content: Vietnam War
label: related event
content: Postwar United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: Exhibition
content: Price of Freedom
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2004.0083.14
label: accession number
content: 2004.0083
label: catalog number
content: 2004.0083.14
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Comb
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 1 3/16 in; 17.78 cm x 3.048 cm