FIRST there were years of anxiety and uncertainty for the families of American war prisoners. Then, for the lucky ones whose men had survived, the final long days of anticipation. In gathering material for this week's cover story on the returning P.O.W.s, TIME correspondents waited out the difficult hours with a number of the families, while staffers on the other side of the world watched the preparations to care for the first freed servicemen.

In some cases, we had become acquainted with the wives and children months ago. Boston Correspondent Philip Taubman began visiting Carol North and her four daughters in November. He has returned to their Cape Cod home four times since then and sometimes found himself joining hands with the girls while Amy, 1 1, said grace at dinner, or helping Jody, 15, with her homework.

New York Correspondent Christopher Byron visited Joan Abbott and her seven children in Alloway, N.J. She is studying nursing, and he accompanied her through a hectic day of classes, preparing dinner, chauffeuring children to St. Valentine's Day parties and studying for her courses. We chose the Abbotts to represent the many families who at long last knew that the husband and father was coming home soon. The cover story on the mood and meaning of the long-delayed, long-hoped-for event is the work of Associate Editor Lance Morrow, who has written much about the travail of America during the war.

Correspondents in Asia who sought to cover the actual release and reception of the first group of freed prisoners found themselves grappling with secretive American and Vietnamese officials for hard information. At Clark Air Base in the Philippines, Correspondent Roy Rowan and 167 other newsmen found a cadre of military information officers standing between them and the facts. Rowan spent some of the long wait as a guest lecturer in politics and journalism at the local high school. Photographer Carl Mydans, on assignment for TIME, conducted a quick course in news photography. Eddie Adams, another TIME photographer on the scene, meanwhile set up SWAPS (Stymied Writers and Photographers), which is really a branch of his Saigon creation TWAPS (Terrified Writers and Photographers). Adams issued membership cards and T shirts to all recruits.

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