Colonel James "Nick" Rowe
February 8, 1938 - April 21, 1989
 Colonel
James "Nick" Rowe was a West Point Graduate, a Special
Forces Officer, a former POW, a teacher and a true American hero.
Born in McAllen, Texas on February 8, 1938, James "Nick"
Rowe graduated from West Point in 1960 and was assigned to Viet
Nam as a Special Forces Officer in 1963. On October 29, 1963, after
only 3 months in country, then 1LT Rowe was captured by the Viet
Cong with CAPT
Rocky Versace and Sgt. Daniel Pitzer. Rowe spent 62 months in
captivity, survived dysentery, beriberi, fungal disease and physical
torture at the hands of his captors. After a number of unsuccessful
attempts, Lt Rowe was finally able to overpower his captors and
make his escape in December of 1968.
In 1971 Major Rowe, promoted during his time as a prisoner of war,
published "Five Years to Freedom" recounting his ordeal
as a Viet Cong prisoner, his eventual escape and return home and
which was the culmination of his diary written while a prisoner
of war. Also published in 1971, was "Southeast Asia Survival
Journal" which he wrote for the United States Department of
the Air Force. Upon his return home to McAllen he was presented
with lifetime memberships in the American Legion and the Veterans
of Foreign Wars. In 1974, Major Rowe made the decision to leave
the service. He continue to write, co-authoring "The Washington
Connection" with Robin Moore, which was published by Condor
Press in 1977, and in the same year Little, Brown and Company published
his first novel, The Judas Squad.
In 1981, Major Rowe was recalled to active duty to design and implement
a Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training course
at the United States Army Special forces School at Fort Bragg, North
Carolina. Today, this course is considered by many as the most important
advanced training in the special operations field. Taught at the
John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, SERE trains soldiers
to avoid capture, but if caught, to survive and return home with
honor. Much of the SERE course is conducted at the Rowe compound.
In early 1985, now Lieutenant Colonel Rowe left the SERE committee to become Commander of the 1st Special Forces Warfare Training Battalion, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (USAJFKSWCS) at Fort Bragg.
In 1987, Lieutenant Colonel Rowe was assigned as the chief of the
Army division of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG),
Philippines, providing counter-insurgency training for the Philippine
military. In this capacity, he worked closely with the CIA, and
was involved in its nearly decade-old program to penetrate the communist
New Peoples' Army (NPA) and its parent communist party in conjunction
with Philippine's own intelligence organizations
By February, 1989, Colonel Rowe had developed his own intelligence
information which indicated that the communist were planning a major
terrorist act. Rowe wrote Washington warning that a high-profile
figure was about to be hit and that he, himself, was No.2 or No.3
on the terrorist list. On April 21, 1989, while returning to the
US Embassy in an armored limousine, Colonel Rowe was assassinated by
members of the communist New Peoples' Army (NPA) using automatic
weapons. It is not known if his assassination was a random terrorist
act or if Colonel Rowe was a specifically identified target. There
is evidence that suggests that he was targeted because he was a
Viet Nam veteran or that the North Vietnamese were directly involved
as retaliation for his resistance and unwillingness to bend while
a POW.
Rowe spent more than half his life as a Special Forces officer.
In his own words from an interview conducted before he left the
Special Warfare Center and School for his assignment in the Philippines,
he recounted: "I took a different route from most and came
into Special Forces... I had made a decision then that, as far as
I was concerned, I had found what I wanted in the military, and
I simply had to find a way to stay with it."
His awards include the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, two Bronze
Stars, two Purple Hearts, the Meritorious Service Medal, the National
Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Army Service
Ribbon, and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation.
Nonmilitary awards included the American Patriot Award of Freedom's
Foundation of Valley Forge (1969), the Outstanding Young Man of
America award, the George Washington Honor Medal of Freedom's Foundation
of Valley Forge (1974), and the Legion of Honor, International Supreme
Council of the Order of DeMolay.
 Hundreds of mourners crowded in and outside Fort Bragg's JFK Chapel
for a memorial service a week after Rowe was killed. Brig. Gen.
David J. Baratto, then the Special Warfare Center and School commander,
said in a eulogy that Rowe "died in service to his country
and gave all that mortality could give - his strength, his loyalty,
his wisdom and his love. He died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with
faith in his heart, and hope in the last words he wrote: the hope
that right would prevail and that the oppressed would be liberated." A high school and street in his home town of McAllen,Texas and a training facility , Rowe Hall, at the U.S.Army Intelligence Center and School, Fort Huachuca, Arizona are named after him.
Colonel Rowe was buried May 2, 1989 in Section 48 at Arlington National Cemetery. His grave
is on the hill next to the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. Inscribed
on his gravestone are the words from a poem he wrote in 1964 while
a POW:
"So
look up ahead at times to come,
despair is not for us.
We have a world and more to see,
while this remains behind."
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