U.S. OFFICER RELEASED

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28540, 20 March 1958, Page 11

U.S. OFFICER RELEASED

Shot Down Over North Korea

(Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 18.

A United States Air Force officer, Captain Leon Pfeiffer, said today that 50 Communist soldiers swarmed down a mountainside and captured him when he was forced to parachute on to North Korean territory 12 days ago, the United Press reported from Seoul. Captain Pfeiffer was shot down by Communist gunfire when his plane ventured across the demilitarised zone on March 6. He said he heard small arms fire while he was floating down by parachute and landed unharmed in the snow.

Captain Pfeiffer was returned to the United Nations Command at Pammunjon yesterday. He has not spoken to reporters since his return, but issued a statement through the Air Force. Captain Pfeiffer said he had not known he was over North Korean territory, and had not even known he was being shot at until a pilot in another plane radioed he was hit and on fire.

They were on a routine training mission at thedfcime.

Captain Pfeiffer said the Communists questioned him for seven days at a forward hospital, then gave him a bath, shave, and haircut and took him to Kaesong. He remained there until they took him to Panmunjon to turn him over to the United Nations Command.

Captain Pfeiffer denied he had held a press conference with North Korean reporters before his release.

Pyongyang Radio claimed he did, and that he “expressed thanks over and over again for the humanitarian treatment and warm care accorded him by our side.”