Chuck Scharf went down over Vietnam
By HERBERT ATIENZA
The Press-Enterprise
Barbara Scharf Lowerison, 71, was 32 when she heard that her brother, Col. Charles "Chuck" Scharf, had been shot down over North Vietnam. He's been missing since.
More than 40 years after Air Force Col. Charles "Chuck" Scharf was shot down over North Vietnam, Lowerison holds out hope that her brother is still alive and may be in the former Soviet Union.
"I firmly believe that my brother is alive and well," said Lowerison, 71, adding that she has received information as late as six months ago from her network of sources about her brother. He would now be 73.
"I can't turn my back on him," the Hemet resident said.
U.S. government officials say Scharf is missing and all evidence points to him being dead.
Officials from the Russian and Vietnamese embassies say they have no knowledge of the case but doubt that any living American MIAs are in their countries.
As Memorial Day is observed this year, many Americans -- like Lowerison -- are marking another year of uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones. There are more than 88,000 Americans still listed as missing in action, including 1,805 from the Vietnam War, according to the Department of Defense.
'Families Don't Forget'
"Families just don't forget," said Dolores Apodaca Alfond, national chairwoman of the Bellevue, Wash.-based National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Servicemen.
"We would like to have our loved ones alive, and we're concerned about finding the answers to whatever happened to them," she said.
Lowerison was a 32-year-old housewife in San Diego when she received a call from her mother that her brother's plane had been shot down over North Vietnam.
Charles Scharf was with 1st Lt. Martin J. "Marty" Massucci aboard an F4C Phantom jet on a road reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 1, 1965, when their plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, according to government accounts. Both men are listed as missing.
Told to Keep Quiet
Lowerison said she and other family members were told by military officials not to talk to anyone about the case, and they complied for years out of fear for his safety. She said she was convinced then, as she is now, that her brother survived the crash.
Over the years, and with no word from the government about her brother, Lowerison began searching for answers. She sent out letters and filed Freedom of Information requests with offices and agencies seeking information.
She said her belief was bolstered in the 1970s after watching several hours of footage at the Central Intelligence Agency office in Los Angeles of a propaganda film made by East German filmmakers called "Pilots in Pajamas," which supposedly showed dozens of Caucasian prisoners at the Hin Ton Prison Camp near Hanoi.
Familiar Face
She said she recognized her brother as one of the prisoners, who were all wearing lightweight clothing that looked like pajamas. She said her brother was depicted in at least two scenes, and she recognized him from his features and his unusual way of walking.
"I'm 100 percent sure it was him," said Lowerison, who said her brother was banished to the former Soviet Union after an ill-fated escape attempt. The information came from sources that Lowerison declined to identify.
Others are not so sure about what happened.
Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon's POW/MIA office, said the defense department has conducted six investigations into the case -- as late as 2005 -- and no proof was found that Scharf was still alive.
He said archaeological excavations of the crash site have recovered an ID, a metal dog tag and a dental bridge for Scharf. He said "personal gear," which he would not identify, has been found indicating that the men perished. He said human remains were also found in the area, but a conclusive identification has not been made.
"It's very, very convincing that the men went down with their plane," said Greer. He said all the 150 American POWs depicted in the film have been accounted for, but Scharf was not one of them.
No Captives, Nations Say
Representatives of the foreign governments, meanwhile, say they are cooperating with the U.S. government to find the missing troops.
Yevgeniy Khorisko, spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, said his country is participating in a joint commission, formed in 1992 with the U.S. government, to locate any missing servicemen, but none have been found. He said it was "pure speculation" that any servicemen ended up in Russia.
Cuong Nguyen, spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, said his country is not keeping American MIAs.
"It is widely acknowledged that there are no American servicemen who are being kept in captivity in Vietnam," he said.
Lowerison is not convinced.
"Vietnam and Russia will not admit that they kept anybody, and our government would not admit that they left anyone behind," she said.
She said she remembers trying to dissuade her brother from going to Vietnam but was told he wanted to fight there so that America would not have to fight the conflict on its own shores.
"He always wanted to be a pilot. He said that by flying, he felt closer to Daddy," she said, referring to their father, Charles Scharf Sr., who died in 1953.
A 1954 graduate of San Diego State College, Scharf was a career military man, she said.
Lowerison said Americans should not give up on the MIAs.
"These are men who fought for our country," she said. "They were prepared to give their lives to go to war, but they weren't prepared to be abandoned by their country."
Reach Herbert Atienza at 951-763-3464
© 2006, The Press-Enterprise Company