News-Info-Alerts

Re: Lima Site 85

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: December 20, 2003

"Change for native

After harrowing experience in Laos

By KEN BECKER, News Editor

Cresco native Major David Combs will be facing new challenges in a couple of months as he expects to travel to Afghanistan, part of a large contingent of U.S. forces.

"David said he expected about 4500 troops would be going to Iraq and about the same number would be going to Afghanistan, probably in March," related his dad, Bud Combs of rural Cresco. "He thought he would be going to Afghanistan, but that could change."

David made a quick trip home to see his parents early last week, arriving Monday morning before heading back to Minneapolis Tuesday morning. It was an early Christmas trip that was cut short.

"He was planning to stay until Wednesday but was concerned about the weather, so he and his wife went back early," said Bud. He made the trip primarily to see his mother, who has health problems.

Wherever Major Combs is stationed, it will be a different duty assignment than the one he completed earlier this year. He headed up an investigation to find what happened to fellow military personnel killed in the Vietnam war.

He was team leader of 17 military and Department of Defense and Central Identification Laboratory civilians as well as three mountaineers who conducted an extensive search of a mountain in northern Laos. They were looking for remains of 11 U.S. air force personnel who staffed a radar station on the summit of Pha Thi Mountain. The 11 were part of a contingent of 19 at a radar site who were attacked by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, the largest ground loss of air force personnel from the war.

The task was monumental. The radar site (officially called Lima Site 85) was more than 5,000 feet above sea level atop the white-faced cliffs of the mountain. The sheer face is littered with scattered ledges and caves with unexploded shells commonplace, according to Major Combs.

Previous attempts to find answers to the case were unsuccessful. However, it was learned from former enemies that American bodies had been thrown over the 1,000 foot cliff and that's where Major Combs and his team searched.

It was not easy. First, they pushed three dummies off the summit at a likely location to see where they would land. Two of the dummies ended up on a 20-meter-wide ledge 600 feet below the summit.

"We lowered a 200 meter rope and rappelled 580 feet to the ledge and immediately hit pay dirt," related David.

Discovered were multiple pieces of life support equipment, foot wear and possible remains.

"An extensive search of this area over the next two weeks resulted in physical evidence which suggested a number of U.S. servicemen were located on this ledge and another ledge 200 feet further down the mountain," continued Major Combs.

A 1980 graduate of Crestwood High School, Major Combs has served 18-1/2 years. He enlisted in the army shortly after he graduated from college, joining the Rangers. He later was recommended for Officer Candidate School and upon successful completion, was commissioned an officer.

Following his tour in Southeast Asia, which included investigations and the recovery of remains at other sites, he returned home to brief the American League of Families, a POW/MIA family lobbying group. He informed them that evidence from the mountain site accounted for at least five of the 11 missing servicemen. He called the mission with its extensive safety hazards as a very successful investigation...35 years after the war."