Why?? Well, for the friends lost there. For those not returned. For holding info on the missing. For 'salting' crash sites with property & remains. For not returning the remains in their posession... For the parents, wives, & children of the MIAs and POWs held after the war. For the torture and killing of their own........... the list can go on. If you need to ask you should spend a few hours here
and watch this or just read the link at the end for info <<"Tune In - To the History Channel on Tuesday December 10, 2002 at 8:00 PM
(check your local listings for the channel in your area.) A one hour
segment on POW/MIA Capt. John T. McDonnell, lost March 6, 1969, will air
at that time. Regular readers of Bits know that Capt. McDonnell was last
seen alive in mid-to-late February of 1973, and he was not alone. To
refresh you memory of the McDonnell case visit
nationalalliance.org;
Maybe this will give you a little idea also;
Fake or Real, this article got us to thinking about dog tags found at
battle and crash sites. We know the Vietnamese have salted remains and
other artifacts at loss sites. Anyone who doubts that should
visit nationalalliance.org
Would it be so hard for the Vietnamese to fake a dog tag and plant it at a
site? They have the necessary information, required to fake a dog
tag. The U.S. has provided the Vietnamese with all records pertaining to
our POW/MIAs and their loss incident.
Specifically, this article brought to mind the dog tag found at the crash
site of the Baron 52, downed February 5, 1973. That tag bore the name of
Sgt. Joseph A. Matejov. The tag was not discovered during the excavation
and recovery operation. It was found during the site survey, several
months earlier, laying in plain view. Someone looked down and there it was.
Mary Matejov, Joe's mother, wonders about the tag. She once stated that
Joe told her he flew "sanitized," meaning the crew carried no
identification media. However, that has never been confirmed. She also
wonders about the condition of the tag. It seemed to be in far better
condition than a tag that supposedly laid on the jungle floor for over 20
years.
Intelligence reports indicated that four "air pirates" were captured short
after Baron 52 when down. The Baron 52 was the only plane downed in all
of Southeast Asia on February 5th of 1973. Yet, for years DPMO personnel
insisted the intelligence reports related to a South Vietnamese air crew.
Also ignored were the statements of those in the best position to know who
got out of that aircraft and who didn't. Those statements came from
members of the search and rescue team who examined the site and wreckage on
February 9th of 1973, five days after the incident.
In August 1989, members of that team shared their recollections as part of
the an Air Force Oral History Program. The full text of that interview
may be found at nationalalliance.org
During that interview the following exchange took place between Chief
M/Sgt. Ronald Schofield, a member of the SAR team and Mr. Willard
Ellison. Unfortunately, a small portion of the exchange was redacted.
Schofield: We found the aircraft was on its back. We knew it had a full
fuel load which accounts for the intensity of fire. All I was there for
was to make sure there was no classified still available. When we got
there, one of the PJs set up a parameter, and the other one and myself were
looking for bodies. We only found three bodies and that was the pilot, the
copilot and the third pilot. The backend, even the equipment was burned,
and the Colonel (Blau) and I have talked about it. These aircraft flew
with the doors on. If that aircraft had crashed with the door on, there
would have been a little bit of it left at the top. There was absolutely
nothing. It was gone. It looked like it had been kicked off.
Ellerson: Kicked off; You mean ejected? The door had been ejected?
Schofield: Pulled the handle and got rid of it and people bailed
out. Because there was about 12 to 14 inches of the aircraft left and
where the door was, the top of the door was open. The top of it was not
there. But everything else had burned. And also the frontend -- nomex
flight suits are good, I learned that -- you could recognize the pilot,
copilot and third pilot, and there should have been some remains of the
backenders in the fire, but there wasn't anything.
Ellerson: Wasn't the aircraft totally flattened.
Schofield: No sir, it was upside down. But, we found the pilot and copilot
right where they should have been, and the third pilot in front of the
firewall. There was an area in there where the radios were on one side,
and the distribution panel on the other side, and there was a little table
in there.
Ellerson: Now, wasn't the backend flat down to the ground when you walked
in there?
Schofield: The whole bottom was burned off. The aircraft was inverted and
the whole bottom was off. The three bodies were right where they should
have been. There should have 'been some remains in the backend, but there
was absolutely nothing.
Ellerson: It was upside down. Wasn't the floor on top of those things?
Schofield: It was gone.
Ellerson: It was gone. So it was all burned out.
Schofield: The top of the aircraft was all there was left.
Ellerson: The bottom of the aircraft, which was upside down, was all gone
and everything was burned down. There's no possibility in your mind that
they could have been cremated?
Schofield: I thought so originally. I've had this on my mind for a long
time because, whatever I said, had a direct impact on the decisions
made. No, I've given it a lot of thought and I've talked to the Colonel
(Blau) about that, and the absence of the top of the door,: the intel
report about the four fliers, shock, which indicates that they'd been
suffering from burns, which they probably would have. We had another
interesting phenomenon. DATA
I brought this up and they said, "No, that's happened before."; But I had
five years in Southeast Asia, 4 1/2 on flying status, and never have I seen
them just DATA
They were very cautious because they could screw up pretty bad. And they
were very amateurish out there. They had very little training and whenever
they DATA
DATA
DATA And I felt in my own mind that they had, in fact,
been captured and had been interrogated."
The list is long------------ maybe you had to be there to understand,,, but old dogs have a long memory.. |
