In 1963, First Lieutenant Rowe was sent to the Republic of Vietnam and assigned as Executive Officer of Detachment A-23, 5th Special Forces Group, a 12-man "A-team".

Located at Tan Phu in An Xuyen Province, A-23 organized and advised a Civilian Irregular Defense Group camp in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.

Rowe had left his West Point ring at home in the United States, and he told his captors that he was a draftee engineer charged with building schools and other civil affairs projects.

SERE is taught at the Colonel James "Nick" Rowe Training compound at Camp Mackall, North Carolina.

Navy, Air Force and Marine Special Operations personnel all attend variations of this course taught by their respective services.

[6] By 1987, Colonel Rowe was assigned as the chief of the Army division of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG), providing counter-insurgency training for the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

At around 7:00 in the morning of April 21, 1989, as he was being driven to work at the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group headquarters in an armoured limousine, Rowe's vehicle was hit by gunfire from a .45 caliber pistol and an M16 rifle near a corner of Tomas Morato Street and Timog Avenue in Quezon City.

In 2000, the Supreme Court of the Philippines affirmed the convictions but reduced Continente's sentence to 14 years, concluding that he was acting as an accomplice, not as a principal.

On January 8, 2022, Itaas was released from prison as he was found to have completed the service of his sentence through the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law under Republic Act 10592.

[1] Citation: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 8, 1918 (amended by act of July 25, 1963), takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Major (Field Artillery) James Nicholas "Nick" Rowe (ASN: 0-91033), United States Army, for gallantry in action on 31 December 1968, while a prisoner of the Viet Cong in the U Minh Forest of South Vietnam.

During the period 22 to 31 December 1968, after more than five years in Viet Cong prison camps, Major Rowe was forced by his captors to move at least twice daily to avoid friendly airstrikes.

Becoming frightened, the guards moved Major Rowe into a large field of reeds, hoping to evade the infantry force.

Major Rowe realized that if he were to escape, he must first get away from some of his guards, so he tricked them into splitting into smaller groups in order to exfiltrate the area.