Sergeant searches for MIA pilot
By Schuyler Kropf
The (Charleston) Post and Courier
Deep in the jungles of Laos, Summerville resident Wesley Housel marveled at what was still left - and what had disappeared - from the wreckage of a American attack plane that crashed in 1969.
Most of the twisted metal had been picked over, hauled away by the locals who would bend it into tools and other useful items.
But 40 years later, the smell of fuel "was still in the ground," Housel recalled. The stink remained "pretty thick."
Decades after the Vietnam War ended, Housel, a master sergeant at the Charleston Air Force Base, got the assignment of a lifetime this summer when he volunteered to help sift through the crash site of an American plane that was lost over Houaphan Province.
He'd never been involved in a fallen recovery mission, but jumped at the chance, spending weeks on the ground trying to bring an American family a sense of closure.
"They have the most rewarding job in the world," Housel said of the men and women who work these searches full time. "Their job eases hearts and minds."
The trip was part of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a Hawaii-based group tasked with identifying American war dead from sites all over the globe. In addition to Southeast Asia, teams have worked recently in the Pacific, Germany and Hungary.
Housel's contribution was special. As an Air Force veteran with more than two decades of service, he is well-acquainted with the type of garb and equipment that an American flier would have worn or carried at the time, some of which is still around the Charleston base today.
His eyes and fingers would be useful sifting through the dirt for something man-made or American-issue.
In the Air Force "we love to keep old stuff," Housel said, adding that it "shows where we've been and where we are headed to."
Housel was part of one of four recovery teams that worked throughout the Lao People's Democratic Republic from June 25 through July 28. The remains of at least six missing U.S. servicemen from the Vietnam War were the subject of the 34-day mission.
His assignment was to help search for a lieutenant who had taken off from a base in Thailand in a propeller-driven "Skyraider" that could fly heavily laden with wing and belly weapons.
On March 1, 1969, the aircraft - one of two on the mission - had gone in on a target in close ground support. All went well until witnesses reported seeing ground-fire.
"It dropped its bombs and then followed them right into the ground," one report said. No parachute was seen exiting the plane.
After the war, officials visited the site in 1994 and 1998, finding a knife blade, a .38 revolver, part of a boot and bits of the aircraft. The pilot's identity is known to the military but it won't be publicized unless a positive ID is ever made.
During the mission this summer, Housel said one of the worst problems to overcome was the terrain. He described the crash site as steep, while monsoon rains and heat often made conditions unbearable.
The province, in northeast Laos, is famous for its limestone mountains and caverns, with over 100 caves in the area, according to the country's tourism board Web site.
The food also wasn't so great, Housel said, and he stuck mostly with steak and fries. "Charleston felt like an air conditioner compared to the humidity there," he added.
In addition to members of the local populations who were hired to help with the work, the crash site took on every feature of an archaeological dig, with dirt and other items run through a screening and sifting process.