February 10, 1994
I am the sister of Major Robert Franklin Coady, USAF who is missing in Laos since January 18, 1969. I would like to tell you how proud my brother was to be in the Air Force. He volunteered to go to Vietnam three times before the Air Force sent him to Southeast Asia. He was proud to be serving his country and he felt that if he could make a difference by helping his country fight communism. He was willing to do his part. My brother arrived at his base in Thailand and he started sending tapes home so he could talk to the family together and we could in turn record over the tapes and send them back. My mother kept the tapes and just recently turned them over to me. I had a friend put them on cassette tapes for me. A few months ago I listen to the tapes for the first time in 25 years. He told of his trip over there and what the base was like. He talked of his first mission. It was on a Sunday and he told us what he could without breaking security. At the end of his short talk about his first battle he said "I killed people and I could see them." Then he added, well, maybe God can forgive me. My brother was 29 year old. He was an outstanding pilot and an instructor pilot at the Air Force Academy. His hobby was skydiving and he started skydiving clubs all over the country. He flew most missions as a Sandy Pilot. Sandy Pilots were the gutsy guys that took the fire so that the jolly greens could go in and pick up downed pilots.
My family is not a family that cannot accept what happened to a loved one. We are only a family that wanted to know what happened to him if we could. We, like him, believed in this country and what the government told us. The family knew the kind of person my brother was and expected that the same kind of persons made up the Air Force and our government. We always expected that the Air Force would tell us, as they promised, to give us any information they received. I have found out that our trust was misplaced. After asking for his files 4 years ago, I found out that DIA, CIA, JPRC and OSD all had information. All this information is now being descrived as nothing significant, yet it was important enough to classify and go into his files and never told to Maj. Coady's family for 23 years. In my quest to find answers, I have been lied to and had information withheld. I am sorry to say that even now little has changed. Each family knows their own case and when we question (which we have every right to do) then we should get correct answers and you should see that we do. That is part of your job. You are elected to represent us, and if we say something is not working then it should be investigated and fixed.
The one thing I am tired of hearing is that this government does not rule out the possibility that there may be POWs held against their will, but that there is no credible evidence. Well, to establish credible evidence one must first be willing to check out the evidence. I wonder how many of you have read the documents or really done any studying on what might be evidence. I know that Senator Smith is one Senator who has taken the time to follow up on DIA's investigation of the evidence. I am sure you have heard his report. Satellite imagery, would be a good start to get answers. Satellite imagery has shown authenticator codes, names and walking Ks. This is what these men were taught to do and yet it is being debunked. These images in the grass are not natural in a country that doesn't use an alphabet or numbers like ours. If the evidence doesn't have any validity , what other countries have satellite imagery that shows the names, authenticator codes, or walking K's? We have been told that our government is checking live sightings reports. These live sighting checks have to be ok'd by Vietnam with notice. If you give someong notice, do you think they are going to leave something for you to find?
This is an extremely critical time for us. The present administration has given up our leverage through lifting the Trade Embargo and now government officials are closing cases with just ONE TOOTH. The loss of a tooth, does not prove anyone has died. This is not credible accounting.
Because we did not want to lift the trade embargo or refuse to accept that the existance of a tooth is credible accounting, we are accused of being activists. That is the same term given to leaders in the civil rights movement. Like the civil rights movement, we are here until you listen. I hope that what we have said today are not forgotten thoughts tomorrow.