Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History - Peace is at Hand [9/11]' (Feb. 12, 1973, at 51:53)

(Monday, February 12, 1973, 12:36 p.m. Indochina Time; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — Operation Homecoming, the release of prisoners of war (POWs) in the Vietnam War, began today as three U.S. Air Force C-141 medical transports landed at the Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi in North Vietnam to pick up American POWs.

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The three aircraft brought 116 POWs to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines on the first day of the operation.

Video: 'First POWs Released February 12, 1973 #1'

U.S. Navy Captain Jeremiah Denton was appointed by his fellow prisoners to be the first of 41 prisoners to step off of the first C-141 to land, followed by U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Everett Alvarez Jr., who had been the first American POW captured in North Vietnam, and who had been incarcerated since Aug. 5, 1964.

Video: 'First POWs Released February 12, 1973 #2'

The Viet Cong released another 27 American military and civilian prisoners who had been held captive in “jungle prisons” in VC-controlled areas of South Vietnam.

Video: 'First POWs Released February 12, 1973 #3'

At the same time, a North Vietnamese Air Force C-9A transport was allowed to land in Saigon in South Vietnam, to pick up North Vietnamese and Viet Cong prisoners.

From Feb. 12 to Apr. 4, 1973, there were 54 C-141 missions flying out of Hanoi, bringing 591 released prisoners of war back to the U.S.