Korean War · Ashley crew navigator · Reported seen in captivity · Never returned
A repatriated prisoner said another returning man had met “Lt Henry, the navigator,” and that he was doing fine. PIP has not been able to confirm the man described was Dewey Henry.
The navigator
One returning member of the crew reported: “(The) only member of my crew I ever heard anything about…was Lt HENRY, the navigator. One of the fellows I was repatriated with told me about meeting Lt HENRY and that he was doing fine.”
PIP publishes this without resolving it. More than one missing American was named Henry, and we cannot confirm that the man described is Dewey Henry of this crew. Given how the communist governments handled prisoners, the report cannot be dismissed either.
Dewey Henry was born June 13, 1921, and entered the service from Atlanta, according to the National Archives casualty list for Georgia.
What is known
1st Lt. Dewey Rosenwell Henry, who joined the Air Force from Georgia, was the navigator aboard B-29 42-65357A of the 28th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, lost near Hungsu-ri, North Korea, on Jan. 29, 1953. DPAA assesses him as not among the known survivors of the crash and says no returning prisoner mentioned contact with him. He is carried as unaccounted for. The story of the crew — the capture, the radio contact and the message sent after the Armistice — is told on the main case page, Capt. Gilbert Ashley and the Ashley Five.
The men on the mountain
In 1953 five men from the same B-29 were held together in a mountain village in North Korea, where guerrillas who claimed to be friendly were secretly working for the North. The U.S. tried to rescue them by air and was ambushed. Three more men from the crew are also unaccounted for.
- 1st Lt. Gilbert Ashley, the aircraft commander
- 1st Lt. Arthur Olsen
- Capt. Harold Turner
- 2nd Lt. John Shaddick
- Airman Hidemaro Ishida
- 1st Lt. Dewey Henry
- 1st Lt. Dewey Stopa
- A2C James O’Meara
Evidence and sources
- Military records of the 22 April 1953 guerrilla report and the radio contact producing “positive identification” of all five men.
- The 28 July 1953 message to Ashley and the captors’ early-August response.
- The assessment by US officials with “intimate knowledge” of the operation that the five were alive as of August 1953.
- Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency records of the loss of B-29 42-65357A and of the men aboard.
- Primary account: PIP research files.
Request for information
Please contact us if you can help with any of the following.
- Accounts from anyone who saw Lt. Dewey Henry, the Ashley crew’s navigator, in captivity.
- Accounts from anyone who saw or knew of the Ashley crew after August 1953, including North Korean or Chinese guards, drivers or interrogators, or residents of the Paek-san region.
- Reports of any of the crew moved to China or the Soviet Union, including the source of the account given to John Shaddick’s mother in China in 1955.
DPAA says Henry was aboard when the bomber exploded. A returning prisoner said another man had met “Lt Henry, the navigator,” and that he was doing fine. Was that Dewey Henry, alive with a crew whose five other men were confirmed alive after the Armistice? Or another man named Henry? If it was him, where did he go?
Write to contact@powinvestigativeproject.org. We treat every approach in confidence.
Related cases
- Capt. Gilbert Ashley and the Ashley Five — the main case page, with the full account.
- 1st Lt. Dewey Stopa — same crew; captured, died at Pike’s Peak, remains never returned, ID card in the Pyongyang museum.
- James O’Meara — same crew; seen to jump, uninjured, never seen again.