BREAKING: U.S. Exchanges Gitmo Prisoners for U.S. Soldier Held by Taliban Since 2009

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33. Prisoner swaps have always been risky at the end of military conflicts

At the end of the Korean War, for instance, prisoners of war were a big part of the peace negotiations, and a condition for signing the Armistice . . . this is in conjunction with the President's announcement that combat operations will cease this year in Afghanistan and certainly this prisoner swap was done in negotiations to that effect.


Korean War: Operation Big Switch, Prisoner of War Exchange
(77,000 Communists for 12,700 UN men, of whom 3,597 were Americans_)



Munsan, August-September 1953. This photo, taken by August "Gus" Firgau of the 712th Transportation Railway Operation Battalion (TROB), shows Communist prisoners of war detraining from a 765th Transportation Railway Shop Battalion (TRSB) hospital train that had transported them to the site of prisoner of war exchanges during Operation Big Switch from 5 August to 6 September 1953..

The 3rd Transportation Military Railway Service, which oversaw all rail movements during the Korean War, provided rail equipment and monitoring of transportation of Chinese and North Korean POWs to the exchange sites.