Kenneth Rowe, who escaped from North Korea with his jet has died at age 90. Kenneth was born in England and raised in Canada. His family moved to the United States when he was 12 years old. Kenneth served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War.
He flew 33 combat missions during the war. After the war, Kenneth became a test pilot for the North American Aviation Company. In 1966, Kenneth was flying a North American F-100 Super Sabre jet when he crashed into a mountain near Pyongyang, North Korea.
He ejected from the plane and was captured by North Korean soldiers. Kenneth was held as a prisoner of war for nine months before he escaped and made his way back to South Korea.
Kenneth Rowe was born in China to American missionary parents. When he was six, his family moved to Pyongyang, North Korea. In 1948, when Rowe was sixteen, his family was forced to flee the country during the Korean War.
They settled in South Korea, where Rowe attended college and became a pilot. In 1966, Rowe flew a small jet into North Korea on a mission to rescue American prisoners of war. He landed the jet on a dirt runway and taxied it to within fifty feet of the prison camp’s main gate.
The prisoners were too weak to walk, so Rowe loaded them onto the plane and took off. For his actions, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by the U.S. government.
Rowe continued to fly missions into North Korea until 1969, when he was captured and imprisoned by the North Koreans.
He was released in 1982 and returned to the United States. Kenneth Rowe died on March 27, 2018, at the age of ninety. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Rowe was the first American to successfully defect from the Communist country, and his escape was a major embarrassment for the regime.Rowe was born in New York City in 1923. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1941 and served as a fighter pilot during World War II.
After the war, he remained in the military and flew transport planes during the Korean War.In 1953, Rowe was flying a cargo plane from Pyongyang to Tokyo when he decided to defect.
He turned off his radio and changed course for South Korea. North Korean fighters were dispatched to intercept him, but they were unable to stop him from reaching South Korean airspace.
After his escape, Rowe settled in California and worked as an aerospace engineer. He later wrote a book about his experiences, entitled “Escape from North Korea.”Rowe’s death is a reminder of a time when America and North Korea were bitter enemies.
Today, relations between the two countries have improved significantly, but there is still tension and mistrust on both sides.
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