Intelligence reports surfacing over the years during the war and following build a strong case for a well-organized second prison system, and a well orchestrated plan to keep prisoners within systems from intermingling. As it is widely believed that the Vietnamese withheld the release of many prisoners until peace agreement terms were met (specifically reconstruction aid), it is logical to assume that one prison system's inmates were released while another were held back for possible release at a later date. It is also logical to assume that the scenario might be played to its fullest, including convincing each man in a two man crew that had been separated, that the other was dead.

No one really knows what happened to Donald S. Newton and Francis D. Wills on February 26, 1966. Although the U.S. has administratively declared both men dead based on no specific information that they are still alive, the USG has also declared those dead on whom live sighting reports continue to be received by the intelligence community and private sector. It is impossible to know, from USG
information, who is alive and who is not.

Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports comprising "several million documents" and over "250,000 interviews" have poured in to the U.S. related to Americans prisoner, missing, or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. The lengthy report of the POW camp near Hue is only one of them. Many authorities who have reviewed this information are convinced that hundreds of Americans remain alive in
captivity today.

Whether Newton and Wills survived and were captured and are perhaps still alive is certainly not known. However, what is clear is that there can be no "Peace with honor" or end to the war in Vietnam until our men are brought home.