Frank Schwable Brigadier General Frank H . Schwable ( July 18 , 1908 – October 28 , 1988 ) was a decorated U . S . Marine pilot whose prosecution for collaborating with his Korean captors while a prisoner of war was dismissed in 1954 . Schwable , the son of a marine colonel who served thirty years , graduated from the U . S . Naval Academy in 1929 . He was awarded the Cross of Valor by the Nicaraguan government in 1932 . In September 1933 , he was among 19 aviators representing the Marine Corps at the International Air Races in Chicago . He received the Legion of Merit for his service in World War II . While Chief of Staff of the First Marine Air Wing , Col . Schwable and his co - pilot were reported missing on a combat mission in Korea in July 1952 . On February 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 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 " . When Schwable was quoted confessing to germ warfare , his wife said : " That ' s the same old Communist malarkey . Nobody believes it . " 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 . " Schwable was released from captivity in September 1953 . 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 . 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 ' captivity and said that in prosecuting Schwable they would " persecute a man who has already been persecuted would merely be playing into Communist hands " . 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 . The court of inquiry ultimately recommended no action against Schwable , but he was shifted , according to Shepherd , to " duties of a type making minimum demands upon the elements of unblemished personal example and leadership " . On May 11 he was assigned to serve as the Marine Corps representative on the Navy ' s Flight Safety Board , based in the Pentagon . The Marine Corps awarded Col . Schwable 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 . Schwable retired on June 30 , 1959 , as a brigadier general . He died on October 28 , 1988 , and is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery , Loudon County , Virginia .