9/16/2006:
A North Dakota World War II soldier missing in action for nearly three months was reported by the War Department to be alive and well on this day in 1944. The soldier, Technical Sergeant George Fanning of Galesburg, North Dakota, was discovered in a Bulgarian prisoner of war camp. Fanning was one of twenty army officers and soldiers released only days earlier from the camp. The freed American prisoners were immediately rushed to an American hospital in Turkey. Only after treatment was Fanning able to return home to his family in Galesburg. Fanning was a past recipient of the United States Air Medal. The Air Medal was created in 1942 to recognize military achievements conducted while in aerial flight. While Fanning was not a pilot, he earned the honor while participating in an aerial operation. Fanning was one of 130,000 Americans taken as a prisoner of war during the war.
Written by Jayme Job
The Fargo Forum and Daily Tribune. Sept. 16, 1944 (Morning Ed.); p. 1.
http://www.americal.org/awards/achv-svc
"Prisoner of War". Encyclopedia Britannica (2002).