European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 21, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse By George Esper associated presso n that Day in 1967 when the skies filled with us warplanes raining bombs a Lormer North vietnamese militiaman remembers burying an american who was shot Down in a Rice Paddy at a son Binh. On a recent Spring Day Bui Van Lai. Now 52, along with 10 other vietnamese men and a group of americans were digging Lor the remains of the missing tier on the land that is now a Cornfield grazed by water Buffalo. In Vietnam s paddies and peaceful Fields sprinkled with violets in the foreboding triple canopy Jungles in the chilling Waters of the South China sea. From Vietnam Westward to Laos and Cambodia lie the remains of More than 2.300 other americans also listed As missing in action. For 431 of the missing their final resting place is apparently at sea off the coast of Vietnam More than half of them from Navy carriers. An 82-Day undersea recovery operation using divers and special barges 16 years ago was unsuccessful although some wreckage was found. Now after More than a decade of basking in a bittersweet Victory in self imposed isolation communist Vietnam is welcoming americans Back in increasing numbers to search for their fallen comrades and even joining them in their Effort. What Vietnam wants in return is badly needed american Aid for a country that won the War but could t manage the peace. Even Vietnam s top official for mias. Nguyen can accompanies the joint u excavation team As Bui Van Lai leads them through the mud of a son Binh. A wilderness 45 Miles West of Hanoi. Farmers who once were victims of . Air attacks gather in curiosity around the searchers As they map the plot of land where the american Pilot is believed buried. Quach Thuc 68, her Teeth Rotten from vietnamese chewing tobacco Points to the sky. I saw the crash she says i did t want to look. I ran the second crewman in the plane was captured spent six years in a prison Camp and was freed by North Vietnam along with 590 other americans during operation Homecoming in 1973. Today the americans come armed not with laser bombs but with compasses tape measures trowels dental picks and whisk brooms the tools of the archaeologist their Mission is to preserve the skeletal remains Lor their journey Home. Each Bone is measured its position sketched and photographed and then reassembled in a lab just the Way it was found Lor identification. I want the whole Bone because i can make the Best most scientific says Peter Miller a Lorensic anthropologist and archaeologist with the us Central identification Laboratory in Hawaii. If there Are Teeth in that jaw that jaw is going to be fragile. Therefore i d better be careful How i dig it out because i want the dentist Back in the lab to have a whole set of the Laboratory has a computerized data base on every tooth of every missing american who fought in Vietnam so if the Teeth Are recovered they can be matched with the a rays. The joint casually Resolution Center in Hawaii which searches for mias has All of the information on the crash including the site and names of the missing airmen based on eyewitness reports of other pilots and on informants such As Bui Van Lai. From Bone fragments alone Miller can determine the race sex and age of the victim. But on this Day and the next the searchers Are unable to find the american remains even though they uncovered some pieces of wreckage. Time has altered the terrain and played tricks with Bui Van Lai s memory. The searchers must move on but Miller Hopes to try again another Lime. While other . And vietnamese search teams crisscross the Countryside in vans the families Back Home keep alive their last link to the lost. Some 3,600 of them belong to the National league of families which was founded in 1970 to push for the return of any americans still alive the fullest possible accounting of those still missing and the repatriation of remains. The league s position is that americans Are still h eld. A policy based on history of the Issue known discrepancy cases and the intelligence information which supports our View says Ann Mills Griffiths executive director of the league who has a brother among the mias. The vast majority of family members believes americans Are alive Griffiths says. They Don t necessarily personalize it for themselves saying i believe my husband s alive they say i believe americans Are alive. I m not sure about my own relatives " for Many families the mental torture never ends until the fallen Are buried. It is a human trait to Hope that individual is alive unless you have some indication that Man is dead Grill ills says. Even though it s sad to lose someone you love if he s buried with military honors it s done with for you. It s All of the mias except one air Force col. Charles e. Shelton a native of Owensboro ky., have been legally declared dead so the family can collect benefits. Just under half the mias were declared killed at the Lime of the Battle based on eyewitness reports but heavy fire or other circumstances prevented recovery of their remains. Shelton was shot Down in the mountains of Laos on his 33rd birthday 24 years ago. . Rescuers contacted him by radio on the ground and he indicated he was in Good condition. Villagers and defectors told authorities he was taken prisoner by communist laotian forces. Shellon is among the so called discrepancy cases in Vietnam and Laos in which some americans were alive when last seen and the United states has reason to believe they were taken into Captivity or turned Over to communist authorities. Over the years Shelton has been promoted from Captain to colonel his wife Marian has turned 55. And his five children have grown up. Including one son who was ordained a Catholic priest. While authorities say his official status As America s Only pow in Vietnam is symbolic of . Determination to make sure every Mia is accounted for his wife believes he is still alive and Waits for his return cherishing the memory of their first meeting on the Tennis courts in Owensboro when she was 13 and he was 14. I think god gives All of us a Cross to Bear says mrs. Shelton who lives in san Diego. Vietnam has repeatedly denied it is holding live american prisoners or is storing in morgues the remains of mias returning them when it suits its political purposes. We have not been Able to prove anyone is still alive but Given the information we continue to receive we cannot Rule out or ignore that possibility so we Are going to continue to pursue the Issue says it. Col. Keith Schneider a spokesman for the Pentagon. The United states has received More than 1.100 firsthand reports of sightings of live americans. In 63 percent of the cases. Schneider says the americans had been in Indochina but had returned Home and Are not missing in action. Twenty one percent were fabrications. The other 16 percent Are under continuing investigation. 1 can says some vietnamese people have been giving out false information on pos and trafficking in Mia remains by digging up vietnamese Graves and trying to pass them off As the remains of americans in the mistaken belief that they will be rewarded with entry into the United states. What Good is it for us to keep one or two american Mia prisoners asks can. What Good is it Tor us to the search goes on for remains of 4- Page 14 the stars and stripes sunday a
