Re: Team Heads to China in Search of Cold War Pilots

Date: June 07, 2004

"Team headed to China to look for lost CIA pilots
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A team of American investigators is traveling to China this week to search for the remains of two CIA pilots killed 50 years ago when their plane was shot down on a secret mission to pick up an anti-communist Chinese agent.

Two years ago, the U.S. military announced that investigators had found aircraft wreckage at a site where a villager said he'd seen the C-47 go down after being struck by Chinese gunfire.

No human remains were found then, so investigators are returning to look for evidence of Robert C. Snoddy of Eugene, Ore., and Norman A. Schwartz of Louisville, Ky.

The Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, based in Hawaii, is sending the eight-member excavation team to the site near the town of Antu, in China's Jilin province. Work should begin this week and take about 30 days, said Ginger Couden, a spokeswoman for the group.

"If there are remains to be found, they'll be found," said Erik Kirzinger, 52, a nephew of Schwartz who lives in Madison, N.C.

Schwartz was flying for Civil Air Transport, an organization that used surplus military aircraft on secret anti-communist missions in Asia.

He flew passenger and cargo missions by day and clandestine CIA missions by night, Kirzinger said. In November 1952, Schwartz was flying near the North Korean border in the region formerly known as Manchuria in an attempt to pick up a Chinese agent.

The plane was shot down near the North Korean border in the region formerly known as Manchuria. Snoddy and Schwartz were killed and two CIA officers were captured.

Agents John T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau were held for two decades in Chinese prisons until President Nixon publicly acknowledged they were CIA officers.

Schwartz's family initially was told the plane crashed in the Sea of Japan, but relatives doubted that after hearing foreign news reports.

Two years ago, after finally getting Chinese permission, a villager led U.S. investigators to a spot where he said he'd helped bury two men from a downed plane in shallow graves. The group found only airplane parts.

China's agreement to let the U.S. Defense Department search the site was the first time the Beijing government had cooperated on a search for the remains of Americans who died in China during the Cold War."

For more on this case, please use our archives:

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in07110250.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter23/in042303coldwarrior.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in071402china.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in070902china.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter21/in010901ch.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in071002cw.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in071402cil.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in072402china.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter/in040899.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in072902acchina.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in072902china.html

http://aiipowmia.com/inter22/in071102kw.html