American Military Officer, Author. Colonel Rowe is remembered as an American military officer, who was the author of the 1984 book, "Five Years to Freedom." He was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, being captured from 1963 until his escaped in 1968. Ending his military career, he was killed by Communist guerrillas in Manila, Philippines on April 21, 1989. While held as POW for 1,903 days in the Southernmost part of Vietnam, he was kept by the Viet Cong in a bamboo cage in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, yet, during this time, his spirit was not broken even with a constant barrage of the Viet Cong philosophy of revolution and daily death threats. In the fall of 1963, Rowe, a first lieutenant in the Special Forces or Green Berets, who was serving as an adviser to South Vietnamese irregulars, was captured with another officer and an enlisted medic by Viet Cong guerrillas in the Mekong River delta. While being held in jungle prisoner camps, he tried repeatedly to escape. Word reached United States intelligence officers that he was known to his captors as "Mr. Trouble." For much of his captivity, he was held in a bamboo cage and allowed to venture only 40 yards during the day. He busied himself chopping firewood and setting traps to capture small animals to supplement his diet of rice and fish. After being scheduled to be executed in late December of 1968, he finally escaped from his cage on New Year's Eve of 1968. He had sighted a United States Cobra helicopter and ran into a clearing, signaling for help. The first impulse of the soldiers in the helicopter was to shoot him as he was dressed like the Viet Cong. Army Major Dave Thompson ordered the men to hold their fire because he wanted to take him prisoner. Rowe was only one of 34 Americans who escaped captivity during the Vietnam War. The other two soldiers captured with him were Captain "Rocky" Versace, who was reported executed on September 26, 1965, and the medic, Sgt. Daniel L. Pitzer, who was released in Cambodia on November 11, 1967. During his captivity, Rowe kept a secret diary, which stimulated his mind and aided him in authoring his book. He received a Silver Star "for gallantry in action on 31 December 1968, while a prisoner of the Viet Cong in the U Minh Forest of South Vietnam. During the period 22 to 31 December 1968, after more than five years in Viet Cong prison camps..." The citation goes into detail of his escape. The highly decorated soldier received other military medals including the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and Prisoner of War Medal to name a few. In 1976 he left the Army but returned to the Special Forces as a lieutenant colonel in 1981 to become chief of a Green Beret training program at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He is credited with developing Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape or SERE, a survival program for captured military personnel. Later in 1987, he was deployed with his family to the Philippines to represent the United States Army in the Joint Military Advisory Group. Riding in an armored car to the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) headquarters outside Manila, he was shot to death by hooded gunmen of the New People's Army, a militant wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. All except for one of his assassins were captured and sentenced to prison. He was a graduate of West Point, class of 1960 and made the Army his career. He married twice. With his first wife, he had two daughters and with his second, two sons. Among the many memorials to him are several buildings on army bases which bear his name.