Remembering COL James N. "Nick" Rowe

Nick Rowe, a Special Forces legend, was captured 55 years ago today. Rowe graduated from West Point in 1960 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. In 1963, First Lieutenant Rowe was sent to the Republic of Vietnam and assigned as Executive Officer of Detachment A-23, 5th Special Forces Group, a 12-man "A-team". Located at Tan Phu in An Xuyen Province, A-23 organized and advised a Civilian Irregular Defense Group camp in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.

On October 29, 1963, after only three months in country, Rowe was captured by Viet Cong elements along with Captain Humberto "Rocky" R. Versace and Sergeant Daniel L. Pitzer while on an operation to drive a Viet Cong unit out of the village of Le Coeur.

Rowe was separated from the other Green Berets and ending up spending 62 months in captivity only having short encounters with fellow American POWs. Rowe was held in the U Minh Forest, better known as the "Forest of Darkness," in extreme southern Vietnam. And, during most of his five years in captivity Rowe was held in a small bamboo cage.

Rowe, like the other Green Berets were targets of intense interrogation having intelligence that the VC wanted concerning CIDG camps, identities of friendly Vietnamese, and unit designations, locations and strength. Smartly, Rowe had left his West Point ring at home, and he stood by his cover story that he was a draftee engineer charged with building schools and other civil affairs projects. The Viet Cong interrogated him unsuccessfully. They gave him some engineering problems to solve and Rowe, relying on the basic instruction in engineering he'd received at West Point, successfully maintained his deception.

Eventually, his cover story was blown when the Viet Cong found out through news reports that Rowe was a high-value prisoners-of-war (POWs). This enraged the VC, prompting them to order his execution.

Rowe was then led into the jungle to be shot. When his would-be executioners were distracted by a flight of American helicopters, he overpowered his guard, escaped and signaled a UH-1 "Huey" helicopter. He was rescued on December 31, 1968.

Rowe had been promoted to Major during captivity. And in 1971, he authored the book, Five Years to Freedom, an account of his years as a prisoner of war.

Rowe retired but was recalled to active duty in 1981 as a lieutenant colonel to design and build a course based upon his experience as a POW. Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) is now a requirement for graduation from the U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course. SERE is taught at the Colonel James "Nick" Rowe Training compound at Camp Mackall, North Carolina. It is considered by many to be the most important advanced training in the special operations field. Navy, Air Force and Marine Special Operations personnel all attend variations of this course taught by their respective services.

In 1987, Colonel Rowe was assigned as the Chief of the Army division of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG), providing counter-insurgency training for the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Working closely with the Central Intelligence Agency and intelligence organizations of the Republic of the Philippines, he was involved in its nearly decade-long program to penetrate the New People's Army (NPA), the communist insurgency that threatened to overthrow the Philippines' government.

In February 1989, Colonel Rowe's intelligence operations on the Communist's planned major terrorist attacks, he became a high-profile target for assassination and on April 21, 1989, as he was being driven to work at the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group headquarters in an armored limousine, Colonel Rowe's vehicle was hit by gunfire. Twenty-one shots hit the vehicle but one round entered through an unarmored portion of the vehicle striking Colonel Rowe in the head, killing him instantly.

COL James N. "Nick" Rowe is buried at Arlington Cemetary amongst thousands of heros.