News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: DPMO Update for 16 APR 99

Date: April 19, 1999

Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update
April 16, 1999

AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IDENTIFIED

The remains of six American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States.

They are identified as Capt. Dean A. Wadsworth, USAF, Clarendon, Tex.; SSgt Harold E. Reid, USMC, Salt Lake City, Utah; Lt. David L. Hodges, USN, Chevy Chase, Md.; Lt. Col. Lewis M. Robinson, USAF, Saginaw, Mich.; Capt. Douglas K. Martin, USAF, Tyler, Tex.; and Capt. Samuel L. James, USAF, Chattanooga, Tenn.

On October 8, 1963, Wadsworth and his South Vietnamese crewman were flying their T-28B Trojan on a combat support mission approximately 50 miles southwest of Da Nang, South Vietnam. As he completed his bombing run over the target, his aircraft broke apart in mid air, crashed and exploded, as reported by another pilot on the mission. A massive search and rescue operation was initiated that day by two U. S. Marine helicopters but they disappeared during the mission. At dawn on the following day, Marine helicopters airlifted two companies of South Vietnamese infantrymen to the area of the downed aircraft. As the helicopters landed, enemy troops fired on them, wounding three Marine crewmen and killing a Vietnamese soldier.

Two T-28s, B-26s and a South Vietnamese A-1 aircraft responded by strafing enemy positions. An American L-19 light observation aircraft directing the strike was hit, the Vietnamese observer was wounded, and the aircraft made a forced landing. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese ground troops found both Marine helicopters which had disappeared on the first day. Ten bodies were recovered, but two remain missing in action to this day. In the days during the search and rescue operations, 207 missions were flown, three aircraft were lost and four others damaged. Fifteen South Vietnamese soldiers were killed and seven were wounded.

In late 1993, a Vietnamese local turned over remains he said were recovered near the crash site. In May of the following year, a joint U.S./Vietnamese team, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, visited the area of the crash, interviewed villagers and obtained some aircraft debris and pilot-related equipment. Later, in September, another joint team examined the crash site and found more debris, but no remains. Then in May 1995, another team excavated the site where they found remains, as well as two identification tags of Capt. Wadsworth.

On Sept. 13, 1967, SSgt Reid completed his tour guarding an observation post near a river in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam. Before dawn, he crossed the bridge to visit a friend on the south side of the river. He was never seen again.

A joint U.S./Vietnamese team in August 1993 interviewed local informants who claimed to have buried an American Marine who had been shot by the Vietcong near the river. The informants stated that the body had been moved and reburied at another location, but the team could not locate it. In September 1995, another team interviewed other informants, but obtained little information.

Then in April 1996, a third team excavated the reported burial site about 1,000 meters from the southern end of the bridge where they found remains as well as material evidence and personal equipment.

On October 7, 1967, Hodges was leading a strike mission near Hanoi, North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was struck by an enemy surface-to-air missile. His wingman reported receiving a radio transmission from the lieutenant that his engine had flamed out. As the wingman watched, Hodges' burning aircraft rolled to the right, entered a steep dive, and crashed. No parachute was sighted and no emergency beeper signals were heard. Because of enemy control of the area, there was no search and rescue mission mounted.

Acting on information obtained from Vietnamese wartime documents, a joint U.S./Vietnamese team interviewed villagers in July 1995 who claimed to have visited the site shortly after the crash and buried the pilot. But the crash crater had been filled with dirt to allow farming, so the team found no evidence of a crash. But the following April, another team mounted an excavation at the site where they did recover remains, a wristwatch fragment, pilot-related items and aircraft wreckage. Later, in September 1996, a third team continued the excavation and found additional remains among the wreckage.

Lt. Col. Robinson was flying his A-1E Skyraider on a close air support mission over Saravane Province, Laos, on June 4, 1967, when he was struck by enemy ground fire. His aircraft pitched up abruptly, struck the wing of another aircraft, went into an inverted spin and crashed amid an explosion. None of the other pilots in the flight reported seeing a parachute nor hearing emergency beeper signals. Hostile threats in the area prevented air or ground searches of the crash site.

In early 1988, representatives of the Laotian government turned over remains to the U. S. Joint Casualty Resolution Center, the unit leading joint recovery operations in Southeast Asia at the time. A joint U.S./Lao team traveled to the area of the crash site in November 1993, interviewed villagers, surveyed the area and recovered skeletal fragments, aircraft wreckage and pilot-related equipment. Then in January 1998, a second joint team excavated the site and recovered more remains and personal equipment.

Captains Martin and James were flying a forward air control mission over Cambodia on April 18, 1973, when they descended below a 6,000-foot layer of haze in their F-4E Phantom. They radioed they had the target in sight, but their wingman was unable to maintain visual contact. He asked Martin and James to give him an automatic direction-finder signal but there was no response. On several passes over the target, the wingman noted fires and explosions near the target area. There were no parachutes sighted, nor emergency beeper signals. Enemy activity in the area prevented a ground search, but aerial reconnaissance the following day noted aircraft debris at the site.

In 1993, 1995 and 1997, three joint U. S./Cambodian teams developed leads through interviews with local villagers and surveys of the crash site. The informants noted that the crash site had been heavily scavenged and that remains had been present at one time. Then in January 1998, a joint team excavated the site where they found remains amid numerous pieces of aircraft wreckage.

Anthropological analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U. S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii confirmed the identification of all six of these servicemen. With the accounting of these six, there are now 2,063 Americans unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. Since the release of American POWs in 1973, 520 MIAs from Southeast Asia have been accounted-for and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

The U. S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the governments of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Lao PeopleÍs Democratic Republic, and the Kingdom of Cambodia which resulted in the accounting of these servicemen. We hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future. Achieving the fullest possible accounting for these Americans is of the highest national priority.

VIETNAM RESPONDS TO U. S. DOCUMENT REVIEW REQUEST

The Vietnamese government has responded to a request by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Bob Jones to review several categories of cases, by name, of servicemen still unaccounted-for. During his January meetings with key officials in Hanoi, Mr. Jones asked for a report from the Vietnamese on their views concerning investigations on "no further pursuit" cases and "deferred" cases.

In their report, the Vietnamese recommended that two specific "no further pursuit" cases be further investigated. DPMO and JTF-FA case analysts will review their recommendation for further leads in these cases. The Vietnamese also commented on other cases, offering their analytic insight on the prospects for success.

ACCESS TO CHINESE ARCHIVES ON THE KOREAN WAR

The U. S. continues to engage the Chinese government on cooperation in providing information from its Korean War archives that will aid in the location, recovery and identification of US personnel missing from the Korean War.

Last month DASD Jones met with a senior official from the Chinese Embassy in Washington to discuss access to the Chinese archives on the Korean War. While not agreeing to direct access, the Chinese government is increasingly willing to look at ways to answer US concerns on this issue. More recently President Clinton raised the issue in his meeting with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji. Premier Zhu agreed to respond to specific queries.

Mr. Jones also met with Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials in Peking in January seeking common ground to help resolve questions from the U. S. side.

The US continues to reassure the Chinese that cooperation on this issue is in their long-term interest and will do much to build a positive bilateral relationship. The Chinese have been very cooperative in providing information and assisting recovery operations growing out of World War II and the Vietnam War.

DPMO SPECIALIST ALERTED FOR POW RETURN

The Special Assistant for Family Advocacy, Dr. Kaye Whitley, has been invited by The Joint Services SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) Agency to be a member of the debriefing team for the POWs in Serbia upon their release. Dr. Whitley will work with the JSSA military psychologists and the Army casualty office as they ensure the returnees and their families have the best care possible.

EASTERN EUROPE VISITS CONTINUE

Although scheduled dates for trips to Eastern Europe have had to be juggled due to events in Yugoslavia, teams are moving ahead to visit Sofia, Bulgaria and Prague, Czech Republic. While in Bulgaria, the team plans to interview representatives of the Association of Those Oppressed under Communism after 1947 (Bulgarian survivors of Bulgarian labor camps), other Bulgarian labor camp survivors, academicians who specialize in Bulgarian labor camps, and medical doctors who served in North Korea during the Korean War. The team also plans to visit the site of a former labor camp some four hours outside of Sofia. Another team is scheduled to be in the Czech Republic in mid-May, and has a full schedule consisting of interviews and archival reviews, while, in the near term, we hope to begin efforts in Bratislava, Slovakia.

US-RUSSIA JOINT COMMISSION„MOSCOW UPDATE

On 25 March 1999, Moscow suspended all cooperation by the Russian Side of the Commission until further notice due to the events in Yugoslavia. The US side of the Commission, US Embassy, Moscow, was told to stop all work at the Ministry of Defense archives at Podolsk, and that US representatives should not contact or interview any witnesses in the name of the Commission in the Russian Federation. In the past, dialogue between the American and Russian sides of the Commission have continued in the face of political differences and cooperative efforts proceeded.

Although "pounding-the-pavement" for information within the Russia Federation has been suspended, teams continue to search for information in the States of the former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the US side of the Commission and staff will continue efforts to emphasize the strictly humanitarian nature of the Joint CommissionÍs work with the Russian side and that the work continue in spite of any differences between the US and Russia over events in Kosovo.

PODOLSK ARCHIVAL WORK

Work is continuing on the translating and correlating Russian archival material already acquired to US loss records. Three additional cases have been correlated and forwarded to family members through the service in the past week. However, in many cases, US records do not show a loss on the date the Soviets claimed a shootdown. If the Soviets reported the aircraft crashing into the sea, JCSD researchers have little chance of identifying it or even determining if the loss actually took place. In other cases, the Soviet search groups reported finding crash sites. All that is known at first glance is that the aircraft found at that location must have been downed sometime prior to the date the search group found it. Since these sites may contain information that could identify whose aircraft it was and possibly the fate of the aircrew, we investigate and analyze each report of a crash site.

JCSD researchers have been unable to work in the Podolsk archives since the beginning of the air campaign in Kosovo. We maintain high hopes that the situation at Podolsk will return to normal as soon as possible.

Analysts have already found instances where they were able to identify the aircraft at a crash site as being a different aircraft from the one reported in the shootdown claim. Such an identification, when possible, is based on details such as the battle description, the possibility of locating the site given in the Soviet report, the precise location of the crash, and the presence of any traceable numbers or identifying features from the aircraft crash site. Thus, the more information the Soviets recorded, the better chance analysts have of identifying and correlating the loss.

KOREAN POW ESCAPEE REPORTED

International newspapers reported this week that Sohn Jae Sool escaped from North Korea, through a third country, into South Korea. He was reported by these international media to be a POW held in the DPRK since the end of the war.

The U. S. has in place a mechanism to interview all defectors and escapees from North Korea, whether or not they were reported to be POWs. The purpose of the interviews is to determine if the individual has any knowledge of Americans in North Korea, now or in the past.

NORTH KOREAN ARCHIVAL VISIT

A team from Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office and the Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, visited Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in late March through early April to review archival material on the Korean War to aid in the recovery of US military personnel missing from the Korean War. This was the third archival visit since 1997. A fourth visit is scheduled for August of this year. While many photos and documents are under continuing analysis, the results of the archival exchanges to date have been disappointing. The U. S. archivists have yet to gain access to the archival data that would be of most value in locating, recovering, and identifying missing US personnel. The US side continues to reassure Pyongyang that cooperation in archival exchanges in support of this humanitarian endeavor is to their long-term advantage.

INTERVIEWS WITH KOREAN WAR VETS AID INVESTIGATIONS

DPMO analysts interviewed veterans at two Korean War military association reunions last week, both in Branson, MO. The associations are the 2nd Infantry Division Korean War Veterans Alliance and the 2nd Engineer Association.

The purpose of the interviews is to obtain information they may have on servicemen still unaccounted-for from the Korean War. Information provided is often useful for US search teams which will begin the fourth year of joint recovery operations this month in North Korea.

More than 450 veterans attended the reunions, including former POWs. DPMO analysts conducted 72 detailed interviews with members of these organizations, many of whom provided first hand information on servicemen still unaccounted-for from the Korean War. Information obtained from these interviews on named missing will be forwarded to the US Army casualty office for dispatch to the families of the servicemembers.

ANNUAL REPORT PUBLISHED, AVAILABLE ON INTERNET

The annual report of the DPMO is being distributed this week and is also posted now on the DPMO Internet web site. The report may be read in its entirety on the DPMO home page. The address is http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo The report is contained in a section labeled "Special Reports." It is available for downloading in both the PDF and HTML formats from the Internet.

The 49-page report, titled "Fulfilling the Commitment," summarizes DPMO activities during the past year to obtain the fullest possible accounting of missing Americans from all conflicts.

ARMY SUPPORTS FAMILIES OF POWS

Immediately after the capture of three Army soldiers in the Balkans, the U. S. Army dispatched teams of casualty officers and public affairs officers to assist the family members in dealing with the crisis.

The families were besieged with local, national and international media. Army public affairs officers are dealing daily with the media, while seeking to protect the privacy of the families. The casualty officers are the link to the Army and keep the families updated on the status of their loved ones.

Local communities are providing moral and material support to the families through the display of yellow ribbons; through the donation of computer and cable and satellite linkups; and through communications support.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL AIRS MIA RECOVERY WORK

On Sunday at 9:00 PM the Discovery Channel aired a one hour program detailing the recovery work by CILHI and others in their efforts to identify the remains of a 10-man crew of a WWII B-24 which crashed in China in 1944. The aircraft was returning from a bombing mission against Japanese shipping on the island of Formosa. It never returned to its home base.

In October 1996, two Chinese farmers discovered the crash in a deep ravine in southern China. Chinese officials reported the find to President Clinton in November, and a DPMO and CILHI team visited the crash site in January 1997. CILHI sent a team back to the site in the fall of 1997, then again the following year, and plans to return this year. The forensic anthropological work is making steady progress in accounting for these crewmen. The families of the crew are being briefed periodically as the work progresses.

For those viewers who missed the first Discovery Channel airing, it will appear again on April 25 at 6:00 PM, EDT