FREED AMERICANS ENTER PA. HOSPITAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00764R000300070003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 15, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

16 Approved For Releas 1999/09/27 : CIA-RDP83-00764WO300070003-0
A9 .o
'WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1971
reed Americans
CPYRGHT` B
y Lee Linder niLUCL a s,
,
*sitpi4tedpre' icans. checked into the Val- tuned while, sailing in Chinese
P" LA ELP El A, . Dec. 1 ley Forge Military Hospital, waters north of Hong Kong
out 20 miles northwest of
n erge is oung woman on April; 21, 1968.
,;. ere, then fell exhausted into The Chinese announced in
showing little signs of he heir first sleep in freedom.
ordeal, and an Army civiia releasing Miss Harbert that
y
~._ "l .feel great," said Miss Har- her yachting companion, Gor-
expressed wonder ert, 25, of Menlo Park, Calif., ald Ross McLaughlin, commit-
ment? today at U.S. techno'log ho came home in time for ted suicide on March 7, 1969.
icaf advazxces daring their in I Christmas time birthday Johnson said during the
prisonment by the Chdnes eleoration. ,ne naa been nela stopover at Honolulu that MISS
Go niun0sts., , d , . early four years followinjg Harbert learned through a
lave you put any, mPen. 6y er capture on a yacht off the newspaper story of McLaugh-
the moon yet?" Mary An ainland in 1968. "It was a Tin's death. He said she made
Harbert asked during the `2 ne trip and I'm glad to be no comment.
hour, 10,000-mile flight tha ome," she said. Miss Harbert and Fecteau
brought her and Richard C Fecteau, of Lynn, Mass., said arrived at the hospital at 5:40
Fecteau to the , ttae e was "very happy" after a,m. after a short helicopter
following. their release Mon lighting from a helicopter on flight from McGuire Air Force
day in Hong Kong by th re grounds of the hospital. Base, N.J., their first mai.n-
Chinese Reds. Doctors, delaying a physical land U.S. stop after boarding
"I, told her yyes,' said Co . xamination until Wednesday, a U.S. Air Force C-141: at
Leonard W. Johnson Jr., corn aid the two were tired but Hong Kong.
maltder of thee, 9th eromed 'er`e "in very good physical
Newsmen
rou in Bon on pion."`
cal E
ted to talk
Kong at k Alrase i Johnson said it was not
the Pl p nee 'He describe nown how ldng the two would
the American space piogra emain at the hospital but that
that has put eight men on tl' Miss Harbert probably would
moon. e released first."
Johnson, . who accompanie "Fecteau will stay some
them 11alfway around th lime-" Johnson said of the 43-
.._ _
win "I really aon't Know, loyee who along with dune
hadn't heard about it. Man Downey, 41, of New Britain,
people in China don't kno onn., was aboard a plane
that. The last thing we kne hot down on 'a flight from
about space was that Russi apan to Korea in 1952 during
1 ad some thl circn he, Korean War.
m== 7 ffss arberT who will cele.
m
were npt permit-
to them, although
one reporter managed to get
close enough to exchange a
few words.
Johnson and Alan Romberg,
a State Department official,
said the pair had requested
that newsmen not be permit-
ted to question them.
They said there were no
plans to debrief them and
that they could speak to the
press anytime they liked.
"But," Johnson said, "it
will be a long time, if ever,
for-`ecteau to speak to the
to talk to his family right
now. He has developed a mech-
anism to handle his surround-
ings after being shut away for
19 years, coming out into a
different culture.
"I think he'll be here a while
getting adjusted," Johnson
said, adding, "Fecteau has
spent a 'lot of time in solitary
confinement.
"I think it is going to take
time for him to accept people
as friends. Someone mentioned
to him that his brother wants
to see him and he questioned
whether that might be some
sort of trick."
He described Fecteau as
withdrawn and cautious.
Johnson said Miss Harbert
was lively and outgoing. He
said the young woman, who
spoke by phone with her par-
ents upon her arrival at the
hospital and then later posed
for pictures, "will be much
more willing to talk and mu' h
sooner" than Fecteau. Johnson
said Fecteau spoke little of
his imprisonment.
"He told me he spent a lot
of time alone. He mentioned
small walls and very small
windows. He told me, `Where
I was I didn't get a chance
to see much sky at all"'
STATINTL
CPYRGHT
elease 1999/09/27 : CIA-RDP83-00764R000300070003-0