Page 149 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Summer 2015

POW and Detainee Operations:
Lessons Unlearned

Jennifer B. Caci, MS

Editor’s Note: Detained personnel are a reality of the York City and no funds available to build, the British
Special Operations mission set, but knowledge of the decided to convert a dozen or so nonseaworthy Royal
requirements surrounding the holding of detained per- Navy ships harbored in the area into POW facilities.
sonnel and understanding of how individual behavior The most famous of these was the HMS Jersey, which
relates to those requirements was not prevalent within was initially a British prison ship of the Royal Navy, but
the operator population of the community before the fate ultimately had another plan for her. In March 1771,
Global War on Terrorism. It is likely that with the end of the Jersey was converted to a hospital ship in Wallabout
the war, the level of acumen for detainee operations will Bay, New York, although the conversion amounted to
decrease, although the challenge of managing detained little more than dismantling of her masts and nailing up
personnel will remain a component of Special Opera- the gun ports. When the revolution began, she became
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tions. The following historical article highlights exam- a POW facility for Continental Army soldiers and priva-
ples of the challenges related to maintaining the health teers (an ad hoc navy established to disrupt commerce).
and welfare of detained personnel as well as how human A couple of years into the war, it was quite clear that the
nature has played the greatest role in prisoner-related British had not planned to handle thousands of prison-
atrocities from the Revolutionary War to the present. ers on foreign soil and conditions on the Jersey were the
most obvious evidence. While the British had standards
for POW treatment, the majority of prisoners on the Jer-
ABSTRACT
sey were privateers and not considered military. Under
Throughout the history of modern warfare, tales of British law, they should have been tried and executed as
atrocities have repeatedly surfaced that depict active and traitors, and under Colonist law they would be executed
passive aggression toward prisoners of war (POWs). Yet, if they joined the Loyalist navy in return for their free-
with each conflict, new tales are born and an undeni- dom. Either way, mass executions would have resulted,
able reality of warfare inflicts fresh scars for aggressors so the British maintained the POW ships in an effort to
to bear. It is understandable, based on human nature and avoid a potential blood bath. 1
the goals of war, that a government (or its representa-
tives) will feel malice toward enemy prisoners captured The figures for the number of prisoners who died
during a conflict. It is unquestionably a challenge to aboard the Jersey were reported in a New York news-
overcome that human nature, despite the statutes that paper as 11,644, with a total of 20,000 total prisoners
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outline lawful treatment of POWs. While most aspects of dying in British captivity. An estimated four of every
warfare have been revolutionized throughout history, the five prisoners on the Jersey died and as many as eight
means by which a military deals with its POWs remains corpses a day were “buried in Wallabout Bay.” Condi-
2
somewhat mired in the reticence of leaders to acknowl- tions on the Jersey worsened as the privateer population
edge that it will factor into every conflict—that it will, increased, because the British considered the privateers
in fact, become a source of controversy as long as it is a great nuisance and treated them accordingly. The atro-
handled as an afterthought. As shown in accounts dating cious sanitary conditions were ultimately responsible
back to the Revolutionary War, the law can only influ- for a great majority of the deaths: communal buckets for
ence human nature to a point, especially when resources defecating resulted in widespread dysentery and chol-
are limited, ignorance is a reality, and no one is watching. era; thousands of men crammed below decks without
light or fresh air aided transmission of diseases such as
Keywords: prisoners of war; history of warfare; POW camps tuberculosis; and lack of fruit and vegetables guaranteed
scurvy in more prisoners than not. The food the prison-
ers did receive was normally maggot infested, moldy, or
simply rotten beyond consumption. The political situ-
Early American Wars
ation only worsened the prisoners’ fate, as British ten-
During the American Revolutionary War, it was obvi- sions led to increased mistreatment. George Washington
ous the British failed to plan for handling thousands of could not afford a prisoner exchange because it would
POWs on foreign soil. With limited facilities in New send veteran British soldiers back into the fight for the

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