During the Korean War, China was an ally of North Korea against the U.S.-backed South Koreans. Fecteau, Downey and fellow aircraft crew were trying to pick up an anti-communist Chinese agent when they came under fire in the sky over Manchuria on November 29, 1952. Initially, all of those on the aircraft were presumed by the U.S. Government to be lost. Downey was 22 years old and Fecteau was 25 at the time of their capture. The pilots, Robert Snoddy and Norman Schwartz, were killed. Two years later, the men saw each other for the first time, and their survival was first confirmed to the world outside of China, when they were put on secret trial and convicted of spying. These developments drew strong protests from the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As their status as CIA officers was a secret, the U.S. Government did not acknowledge their true affiliation for much of the period of their incarceration, saying they were civilian United States Army employees, which necessarily complicated the efforts of U.S. officials, family members and others to press for their release, or even to make their plight widely known. The CIA's Studies in Intelligence, vol. 50, no. 4, 2006 included an article describing the mission, the capture, and, ultimately, the release of agents Downey and Fecteau. A related video documentary was placed on the CIA website.
Release
Thanks to efforts by Downey's mother, Mary Downey, and President Richard Nixon, Downey was released 21 years into his life sentence, on March 12, 1973, the year after Nixon's visit to China. The backdrop was President Nixon's early 1970s' historic diplomatic opening to China. Three years later, at age 46, Downey graduated from Harvard Law School, ultimately becoming a judge.
Post-release
Downey and his Chinese-born wife were married in 1975; they had a son. Fecteau returned to his alma mater as assistant athletic director at Boston University, retiring in 1989. In late June 1998, CIA DirectorGeorge Tenet awarded Downey and Fecteau the CIA Director's Medal for their service to their country in a private ceremony. Downey's later judicial career was honored when the New Haven, Connecticut, Juvenile Matters Courthouse and Detention Center was named for him following his retirement after reaching the position of Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters. The courthouse ceremony occurred on September 25, 2002. On June 18, 2007, the Connecticut Bar Association honored Downey with its highest honor for a judge, the Henry J. Naruk Judiciary Award, for his outstanding contributions to the judicial field in Connecticut. In 2011, the CIA released publicly its agency-made documentary featuring Downey and Fecteau. In 2013, the CIA awarded Downey the Distinguished Intelligence Cross.
