Word: fecteau
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When Philip Fecteau picked up the phone last week, he was sure it was another hoax. Someone on the other end who said he was Henry Kissinger told him that his son Richard would be released from a Chinese prison the next day. Philip hung up without giving the call much thought. Still, the man had a German accent. Was it possible? It was indeed. The following day the Chinese freed Richard Fecteau after 19 years in prison; they also released a girl from Palo Alto, Calif., named Mary Ann Harbert, who was thought to have drowned off the coast...
Thwarted Mission. Along with another American civilian, John Downey, Fecteau had been shot down over China during the Korean War. The Chinese claimed that the pair had flown eleven Nationalist agents into China and had returned to drop supplies when they were hit. Downey, now 41, the ranking man on the mission, was given a life sentence, while Fecteau, 43, got 20 years. At first, the U.S. contended that the pair had strayed by accident over
Forgotten English. On their return to the U.S., Fecteau and Mary Ann were thin and wan, but doctors pronounced them reasonably fit. While Mary Ann was chipper and talkative, Fecteau was withdrawn. He had a hard time getting used to sunlight. "I've got to learn to talk to people again," he told one of his State Department escorts. After speaking to him on the phone, his daughter Sidnice had the same thought: "He hasn't spoken English for so lone he has forgotten...
China is still holding at least four other non-Communist Americans, all captured from planes shot down over Chinese territory (an undetermined number of Americans who worked for the Peking regime but fell into disfavor are also believed to be in Chinese prisons). Civilians John T. Downey and Richard Fecteau were in a plane destroyed over Manchuria during the Korean War, have been in captivity for more than 17 years. Air Force Captain Philip E. Smith was captured while on a reconnaissance mission along the China coast in 1965, and Navy Lieut. Robert J. Flynn was imprisoned after being shot...