Frank Schwable

Who is Frank Schwable?

Brigadier General Frank H. Schwable was a decorated U.S. Marine pilot whose prosecution for collaborating with his Korean captors while a prisoner of war was dismissed in 1954.

Schwable, the son of a marine colonel who served thirty years, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929. He was awarded the Cross of Valor by the Nicaraguan government in 1932. In September 1933, he was among 19 aviators representing the Marine Corps at the International Air Races in Chicago. He received the Legion of Merit for his service in World War II.

While Chief of Staff of the First Marine Air Wing, Col. Schwable and his co-pilot were reported missing on a combat mission in Korea in July 1952. On February 23, 1953, the Chinese broadcast charges that 2 officers, including Schwable and his co-pilot, had said that the U.S. was conducting germ warfare. Schwable was quoted saying the purpose was "to test under field conditions various elements of bacteriological warfare and possibly to expand field tests at a later date into an element of regular combat operations". When Schwable was quoted confessing to germ warfare, his wife said: "That's the same old Communist malarkey. Nobody believes it."