Eugene Debruin had escaped but was recaptured near Seno, 30 kilometers from Savannakhet, in an area that had only recently been taken over by the communists. He was taken to a prison complex located in caves near Mahaxay. This camp contained a large number of Royal Lao POWs, but no Americans or other Thais. In early January 1967, information about this prison complex was received by CIA personnel responsible for operations in Laos. They devised a rescue plan which was successfully implemented on 7 January 1967. They rescued 53 prisoners - 52 Lao and 1 Thai.

US intelligence confirmed Gene DeBruin was recaptured and returned to the Muong Phine prison in late June 1966. According to intelligence reports obtained by his family, Gene DeBruin was moved to a POW camp at Muong Nong which contained 8 other American POWs and which was under the joint control of the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese. While in this camp, he was strictly guarded by the NVA, given intense indoctrination lectures, yet allowed to talk with the other Americans. According to these reports, in January 1968 the Americans were moved out of this complex by the NVA. Their destination was never known. Since the end of the war, live reports continue to surface indicating Gene DeBruin remained alive well into the early 1990's.

Further reading…..

A BROTHER NOT FORGOTTEN

Dar DeBruin-Hein was only 4 years old when her brother Gene's C-46 airplane was shot down during the Vietnam War. Her memories of the nightmarish phone call her family received remain clear today, 40 years later. "It was a fall day, Sept. 5. It was a real nice sunny day, and we got the call," said DeBruin-Hein, of Combined Locks. "I remember my dad answering the phone, and I remember my dad making everyone be very quiet." Next the family draped a map across the table to find out where Laos was. "I remember it vividly," DeBruin-Hein said. "I remember writing letters to the president and senators, and getting boxes of letters and sending them." In 1963, Buchanan native Gene DeBruin was a 30-year-old civilian "kicker" when he was forced to parachute out of his fired-upon plane. He survived the crash and became a Pathet Lao prisoner of war in southern Laos. A kicker's duty is to kick pallets of food, in this case buffalo meat and dry rice, out the airplane door to aid the refugees below. Before the Vietnam strife, DeBruin was a staff sergeant with U.S. Air Force from 1952 through 1956. He then worked as a smokejumper and received a degree in forestry at Montana State University. Then he volunteered as a kicker with Air America. He had plans of joining the Peace Corps after his short stint as a kicker, according to DeBruin-Hein. DeBruin's plane had veered slightly off-course when he and six others were forced to the ground by their enemy. Gene's brother, Jerome "Jerry" DeBruin, of Toledo, Ohio, said there were seven crew members, including three Americans, three from Thailand and one from Hong Kong. Jerry said the pilot and co-pilot died on impact, but the five passengers survived to be taken prisoners. As prisoners the men were kept together. In his personal account published in Vietnam Magazine and later online, Jerry said there was hope within months after the crash that Gene would be released, but months turned into years as Gene was shuffled from one prison camp to another. The five men then planned an escape, in May 1964, that was successful for three days, but they were caught when they went to a watering hole, Jerry said. They had limited food due to the dry season and drought. "Gene overheard the guards saying they were going to kill the prisoners because they had no food for them," Jerry said. Two other Americans joined the prisoners in December 1965 and January 1966. "The seven climbed a karst, divided into four groups to avoid detection, shook hands and said goodbye," Jerry wrote. That was July 1966. The second escape attempt for DeBruin was unsuccessful. Some of his comrades escaped and made it out, but DeBruin never returned home. "He is still a POW who needs to be accounted for," Jerry said. DeBruin-Hein said the prisoners decided to attempt escape in pairs during the rainy season, and they packed dry rice. One American and one Thai were rescued. Another American was killed, according to Jerry's findings. Gene decided to stay with a Chinese prisoner who was having difficulty walking due to an infection. There was some discussion of leaving him behind, according to DeBruin-Hein, but Gene was not willing to leave him to die. "Gene was always the peacemaker of the group," DeBruin-Hein said. "He said that he would go with the Chinese man, determining that it's all or none." Gene never made it home, but he could not be confirmed dead, either. Bob Tennison of Little Chute, a friend of Gene's since elementary school, attended St. Mary's Elementary and Kaukauna High School with him. "He was a kind of quiet guy, wasn't real boisterous at all, a real nice fellow," Tennison said. "He was never a troublemaker or anything like that." Tennison said he was surprised about all the things Gene did, including becoming a smokejumper, getting his own small plane pilot license, working as a ski instructor, and being in the military. He said Gene seemed too easygoing to be involved in such things. "I felt pretty sad that he was shot down. I knew his dad really well; he was down about the thing," Tennison said. "They were really after the government to try to find him." The search continues through Gene's brother Jerry. "We're still actively involved in trying to get my brother, if living seek his release or if dead bring his remains back to the United States for proper burial,"

Jerry said. "We're going to be starting our 40th year. We're optimistic; the search goes on. The goal remains in crystal clear focus and is attainable." Jerry said he continues to track various prisoners and people who stayed behind after the war. He is covering all possibilities in finding out if Gene is alive. The government is still excavating graves, he said.

Gene was known as an outdoorsman, as he enjoyed hunting and fishing, and for being involved in his own neighbourhood baseball league located in his family's Buchanan farm field. He was the second oldest of 10 children. "I remember getting gifts, and he wanted to send me a Husky dog, but my dad said no," DeBruin-Hein said. "My sisters liked to clean out Gene's clothes pockets because he always had Juicy Fruit gum." A part of Gene remains in Jerry's blood - the love of baseball. "Gene taught me how to keep score in baseball," Jerry said. "He was my mentor and still is my mentor. You definitely take on characteristics of those who are older than you." Jerry grew up playing on the farm baseball field designed by Gene, where he learned how to play and love the game. Later he was offered a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox, but didn't take it because of his responsibilities on the farm. Jerry played college baseball for four years, and he recently published "Mud Hen Memories" in honor of Gene.

A longtime friend of Gene's, Bob Wenzel of Little Chute, said he also played baseball with Gene in the neighborhood league. Wenzel also spent time with the Air Force around the same time Gene did. They graduated together from Kaukauna High School. "I was a city slicker; he was a farm boy," Wenzel said. "They called him 'Hunk.'" Wenzel said he never understood why Gene, with his college education and quality life potential, decided to serve as a civilian kicker during the Vietnam War. "He was a kid that felt strongly toward helping people, and he got shot down doing mercenary work," Wenzel said. "My feeling is that he died doing what he wanted to do. Sometimes the Lord only wants the good ones."

Story by Angie Gaspar

Bamboo Cage, Nigel Cawthorne Page 69 Chapter 5

The Living Dead

So who were these men who were left behind? Who were the discrepancy cases - the eighty men who the Americans knew to be alive in captivity but who did not appear on the lists handed over by the North Vietnamese? The names of these men are, of course, classified, but they included men like Gene DeBruin. (1) DeBruin was a kicker for the CIA airline Air America. (The kicker's job was to roll the pallets out of the back of the aircraft when it was making a supply drop.) DeBruin was also photographed in captivity, along with four of his crewmen. (2) Air America was used to supply the US-backed secret army in Laos, and in 1963 DeBruin was on a mission dropping sacks of rice and buffalo meat when his C-46 was shot down. A few weeks later the Pathet Lao acknowledged that they had captured DeBruin, three Thai crewmen - Pisidhi Indradat, Prasit Promsuwam and Prasit Thanee - and one Chinese, To Yick Chiu. In 1965 their photograph appeared in a Pathet Lao publication. They were pictured in a village called Tha Pa Chon, near one of the seven prisons known to be in the area. When Jerry DeBruin- Eugene's brother- went to Laos, Pathet Lao spokesman Soth Petrasi confirmed that Eugene was alive and 'being treated adequately'. Not everyone believes this, including a US Navy pilot, Dieter Dengler, who met DeBruin in 1966. Dengler, the only American prisoner to escape from Laos, told of being held in almost primeval conditions and of being subjected to horrible torture. In one of the worst camps he met a red-bearded Caucasian who introduced himself as Gene DeBruin. (3) Dengler and DeBruin escaped, but DeBruin was recaptured. Dengler believes, however, that DeBruin may still be alive. He says that during his period of captivity prisoners were repeatedly told that they were being held because they were very valuable. (4)

Then a June 9th White House memorandum from the situation room informed Henry Kissinger that "The Pathet Lao chief representative in Vientiane . . . told our Embassy officer that further information on two . . . acknowledged POWs (Hrdlicka and Debruin) must await the formation of a new coalition government in Laos." In June 1973, a White House message from Henry Kissinger to the American Embassy Charge d'Affairs Dean stated "Le Duc Tho complained to me last week that you had mentioned US-DRV understanding regarding U.S. prisoners captured in Laos in your talk with Phoumi Vongvichit. We obviously cannot afford to give Hanoi this sort of grounds on which to abort their understanding with us."