Paratrooper over Normandy
get shot down, lose your squad, single-handedly defeat 7 ss infantry, blow up a power station
Become a POW, get tortured, escape, sent to Stalag III-C POW camp in the east
Escape again, run all the way to the front, joined GUARDS CAPTAIN ALEKSANDRA MOTHERFUCKIN’ SAMUSENKO’S BATALLION IN THE 1ST GUARDS TANK ARMY
Fight in advance to Berlin, get wounded
In a Soviet hospital, get a personal visit by Marshall of the Soviet Union Zhukov
Return to US, reunite with your family a couple days after they held your funeral
Get married in the same church by the same priest that held your funeral
There were also a handful that defected to the DPRK, and some POWs who were treated so well by the Chinese PVA that they decided to stay. I think that’s where the Americans invented the term brainwashing from because they couldn’t conceive of someone wanting to leave for China/North Korea.
There were also a handful that defected to the DPRK
Dresnok. Was still alive in Pyongyang up until a few years ago. The man who runs Koryo Tours finally found him and did a documentary with him. Fascinating. He was a real piece of work, he used to beat the crap out of the other American defectors in DPRK. Jenkins was another one, married a Japanese lady and escaped in a big drama that captured the hearts of Japan at the time. The other two, Abshier and Parrish, died in the 1980s.
Another documentary, They Chose China , deals with the US POWs who defected to China after the Korean conflict. Fascinating. They made some propaganda films and their words about how horrid America is and how racist are still current today.