"I appreciate the response from a defender of what others have dubbed the "Sergeants' Club. " I was particularly pleased that Wick Tourison, finally had the courage to sign his name, which was not always the case for his past responses . Actually, I was fishing for a particular piece information that I did not have, and the bait was taken. Like another one of his former cohorts, he fell for it. Thanks, Wick. It's nice to see that someone can write a book and still not be as smart as his publisher makes him out to be.
I realize that people who served where Wick indicates he spent most of his time, in the embassies, military bases, and other bastions of field bureaucracy, have not met in recent years, as he says, in large groups. Some of the more infamous hangers-on from the myoptic Indochina element Wick belonged to have been observed in smaller nestings deep in the Crystal City underground where they are known as the "Out-To-Lunch-Bunch."
Besides, these clubby types were probably pretty well satiated with gatherings, and each other, after their stints in Bangkok, Vientiane, and Saigon. It must have been hell on Pat Pong Road, The White Rose, and Tu Do Street. The men I referred to, at this one of a kind reunion, lived in more out of the way places, often for years at a time. They partied too, but they came into town to wipe the dust off their jackets, not the ink off their fingers.
I did not specifically identify who they were, for they were an elite group of warriors who did not file papers. They were the doers, not the briefers. They were the collectors, not the clerks. They were the ones who would have tamed the lions, not toed the policy line. They were therefore not invited to the halls of Congress to pontificate on paper, files, and records.
I did not say that a good deal of the field records were not duplicated in Washington. In fact, all are supposed to be duplicated, but this is NEVER the case. The man who provided me with insights in the balance sheet, and what happened to the files (he protested the action in his own channels) is someone I knew then and believe now. Having only met Wick one time, I know him only by reputation and agenda. My vote goes to the man in the field.
Much of what Wick said in his response is historical knowledge. Some of it was shaded, and the majority of it was irrelevant to the primary points that are of concern to the families.
The first point is that the Pathet Lao lied about Dean and Sharman, and apparently about every other POW they held, except for a very small handful that were handed over to the Vietnamese.
The second point is that they continue to lie about the exploitation and fate of those POWs today.
The third point, which Wick made so effusively, was that in spite of all the paper that did make it back to Washington to be filed, lost, misfiled, archived, hidden in personal safes (Wick's old pals), mishandled, released, or wrongly analyzed, THE TRUTH ABOUT THE UNREPATRIATED POWS HAS STILL NOT BEEN TOLD.
The reorganization of DPMO last week was yet another attempt to make sure that it never is.
But what the hey, Wick, lets have another round of statistics."