John Thomas Downey or Jack Downey (April 19, 1930 – November 17, 2014) was an American judge and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As a CIA operative, he was shot down over China during the Korean War and was held prisoner for over twenty years. While Downey was never part of the US military, the CIA described him as the longest-held prisoner of war in United States history.
Downey later served on the Connecticut Superior Court and became Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters.
Downey was born in Wallingford, Connecticut. His parents were John E. Downey, a probate judge, and Mary V. His grandfather served in the Connecticut General Assembly. His father died in a car accident when Downey was eight years old. Downey, his two siblings, and his mother moved to New Britain, Connecticut where his mother was a middle school teacher.
Downey went to Saint Joseph's School through 1943. He attended The Choate School where he earned academic scholarships and was class president, captain of the wrestling team, and vice president of The Choate Athletic Association. He was also a member of the choral club, glee club, honor committee, and the student council. He served on the board of Choate's Literary Magazine and was on the staff of The Choate News. In January 1947, he received an award from Yale's Aurelian Honor Society for outstanding character, leadership, and scholarship. He graduated from Choate in 1947.
He also received academic scholarships for Yale University, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1951. At Yale, he was a member of the social and literary fraternity St. Anthony Hall and played on the football, rugby, and wrestling teams. After college, he planned to attend law school and, then, enter politics. However, Downey was recruited by the CIA in the spring of his senior year.
While still a senior in college, Downey began his CIA training at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, learning to parachute out of planes. He also trained at a CIA facility near Washington, D.C., learning "clandestine skills like weapons training and dead drops, a method of secretly passing information between spies." He did not tell his family or friends that he had joined the CIA. Rather, he said he had taken a job in Asia that was connected to the Korean War. Downey later said, "There was a sense of urgency because of the Korean War. It felt like the future of mankind was at stake."
After a year of training, Downey traveled to a secret compound in Japan that was part of the United States Korean War effort called Third Force or Operation Tropic. The goal of Third Force was to recruit and train a network of Chinese ex-pats as operatives who could infiltrate China, create a guerrilla force, and identify disaffected Chinese generals who could destabilize China. By no fault of Downey, the Third Force program ultimately failed; CIA historian Nicholas Dujmovic stated, "The whole program smacked of amateurism."
Downey was assigned to select, train, and oversee a team of Chinese operatives. In April 1952, his first team of four operatives were air-dropped into southern China and were never heard from again. In July 1952, his second four-man team parachuted into Manchuria and successfully established radio contact with Downey. The CIA assigned a Chinese courier to Downey's team as a radio operator and who would communicate between the team of operatives and Downey at the CIA base. The courier was air-dropped to Manchuria in September 1952. The mission was completed in November and the courier radioed for extraction.
On November 29, 1952, two pilots, Downey, and a newly arrived CIA paramilitary officer Richard Fecteau took an unarmed C-47 Skytrain airplane into China to extract the courier via a snatch pickup. This was the first time the CIA had tried the snatch pickup maneuver—something declared too risky to do by the United States Air Force and no Chinese operatives were trained in operating the pulley system used to raise the man on the ground. As a result, Downey and Fecteau were called on for the extraction operation over enemy territory—the first operational mission for both men.
As they flew to the pickup spot in Manchuria by night, they dropped supplies and food to the operative team, along with the harness for the snatch pickup. The plane made a second pass 45 minutes later; Downey's view through the cargo doors showed the courier ready on the ground. As the pilots began a descent, they were ambushed: "Snow-colored sheets snapped back to reveal two anti-aircraft guns on either side of the plane, which started to fire simultaneously." The C-47's engine was disabled by bullets, and it began to crash through a nearby forest. When the plane finally hit the ground, it broke into two parts. Except for a bullet that had grazed Downey's cheek, he and Fecteau emerged from the crash with just bruises and scrapes; however, the pilots were killed because the leaking fuel had ignited in the cockpit.
Downey and Fecteau were immediately captured. A Chinese officer told them in English, "Your future is very dark." Then, the officer asked, "Who is Jack Downey?" One of the operatives who was recruited and trained by Downey quickly identified his handler. Afterwards, the CIA concluded that its Third Force operatives "had been turned immediately after being dropped into China" and Downey's mission was a trap. However, Downey said, "I found out later at our trial that our Chinese radio operator had been forced to cooperate." Because of a CIA blunder, all of Third Force's Chinese operatives had trained together with Downey, so the entire program was at risk by the capture or turning of just one agent.
A few hours after the airplane was shot down, a radio message was sent to the CIA field base indicating that the operation had gone according to plans and that the airplane was on its way back to base. However, on the morning of November 30, the C-47 did not return. The CIA came up with a cover story for the missing men, saying that a commercial flight with two pilots and two U.S. Defense Department civilian employees had disappeared somewhere over the Sea of Japan while flying from South Korea to Japan—changing the date to four days after the actual covert operation. The United States military searched the area but failed to come up with any leads.
Downey's mother received a telegram from CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith on December 7, 1952, stating that her son was a passenger on a routine commercial flight that was overdue. Smith wrote, "There is grave fear that he may have been lost." When the Chinese failed to notify the United States of Downey and Fecteau's capture, CIA analysts incorrectly concluded that the men were dead rather than captured. Smith notified their families that their sons were officially "presumed dead" on December 4, 1953.
Meanwhile, Downey was transported by truck and train to Mukden (now Shenyang) some 400 miles (640 km) away. He was imprisoned, shackled with leg irons, interrogated, and isolated by solitary confinement. He was interrogated in four-hour sessions—sometimes for up to 24 hours a day—often days at a time. Sleep deprivation was part of the torture. For weeks, he was allowed to sleep for only 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes, he was made to stand for hours on end. Downey attempted to provide a false background story—made up on the spot as neither Downey nor Fecteau were prepared for capture—but struggled to keep his lies straight under the stresses of torture. After this psychological torture, Downey and Fecteau both gave the Chinese U.S. intelligence to varying degrees. Downey realized, "There was no end to what I was facing." Furthermore, the Chinese had already interrogated all eight of the operatives he had trained. Downey cried as he admitted being a CIA operative after sixteen days; he was "convinced that he'd betrayed his country." Downey's training was inadequate for this situation. Fecteau said, "We had none [training], and it really hurt me. I had to play it by ear as I went along, and I was never sure whether I was right or wrong."