European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 2, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Vietnam legacy i Iii i Flag draped coffins contain the remains of . Airmen who were missing in Vietnam 1977photo. An interim Senate report says that in at least two cases investigators found that caskets said to contain remains were in fact empty. Clearly stated a live sighting Quot intelligence reports on her son and a lengthy correspondence with government officials. The Cressman explored every Avenue in an attempt to get their government to take action to bring Back its own men. The Best answer they Ever got was an evasive admission that information indicating some of the Crew might have survived had been received and withheld by the government. The information was not however enough to warrant a reconsideration of the determination of death. A. Melvin Holland was an american air Force sergeant with a special Talent for electronic intelligence and High tech warfare who Felt trapped in a Covert operation in Laos. Quot they lied to us about this operation a he had written to his wife Ann. Quot Well talk about it on my next but there was no next leave. He was lost soon after in a communist command strike everyone said was impossible. Quot they lied to us Quot he wrote Quot real what did he mean the question had a viewed at annl. Assurances last july he and his colleagues were still being denied full Access to classified files. Grassley noted that Ann Mills Griffith the salaried head of the government approved National league of families has full Security clearance and that she had written the defense department in August arguing that members of Congress be denied similar Access. What asked Grassley compelled such an unreasonable attitude toward a legitimate Senate investigation of documents that were not deep National secrets affecting Security today Griffith s Security clearance Grassley noted Quot has enabled her to review the very documents she has lobbied strenuously to deny members of this he added had Given her authority to state to league members and to Congress that the secret intelligence showed no evidence that american citizens were left behind in Indochina. After this latest Public protest permission was granted Tor Senate staff investigators to examine the relevant intelligence files a but Only with Grassley present. The n6r tw0 wee its he has somehow searched through the files for Long stretches of time despite his senatorial duties. The fruits of those and earlier efforts revealed in he interim report suggest a secret War against those. Good americans who served in Indochina and against those who refused to abandon them. Holland during her Long years of struggle to raise five children alone. She was warned by . Officials to drop the Issue. Melvin Holland had disappeared in 1968. He had been assigned As a technician to a Remote Mountaintop in Laos site 85, one of a Chain of bases in the Ciao a War in Laos where supposedly no War was going on. Officially he was based in Thailand. Each time he was flown from Thailand into Laos he was Quot sanitized Quot and turned into a civilian in a secret War. If he was captured or if his unit threatened to become a political embarrassment the . Government would deny All knowledge of them. In March 1969, Ann was told he was missing. She must say nothing not even to her five Small children. Two years later president Richard Nixon denied the loss of any americans in ground combat in Laos. Ann had then asked her Case officer Quot if my husband Wasny to lost in Laos where was he lost Quot Holland contacted us after hearing about the pos Story Monika had produced for lbs news 60 minutes. The segment entitled Quot dead or alive Quot aired during the Christmas season of 1985. We knew who she was because site 85 had cropped up in Monika a research. Monika had even come across a report that at one time the . Government had put $6 million in a Hong Kong Bank As a Ransom payment for six site 85 technicians. But we could never get a handle on what really happened because every bit of documentation was classified and most family members of men who had disappeared there were afraid to talk because they had signed secrecy oaths. Ann understood the frustration because she had struggled for years to learn the truth about what happened to Melvin. We Felt Ann had a right to find out what happened a the truth might Hurt National Pride nothing More. We were also intrigued by site 85. Monika told her shed look into her husbands Case and our education in irregular warfare took a new turn. We heard for instance about Quot sheep dipping Quot a a process for building the secret Cia army. An american Serviceman like Melvin Holland would go through the motions of formal resignation his records would be transferred to a top secret file and some convincing Story would be invented to explain his sudden return to civilian life. In Mel s Case the Story was that he was working for Hughes aircraft. However he would continue to pursue his military career though officially Quot off the he was then ready for Clandestine activities. Pensions and insurance had to be somehow covered and the Cia ran its own proprietary companies to Deal with such problems. In some cases the families of mias who Friday november 2,1990 were sheep dipped still receive two pensions a one from the military and one from the civilian Quot cover Quot company. It was thought by some that this was considered a Good Way to keep the families quiet since they could be. Threatened with losing one pension. In the summer of 1986, Ann came to Washington from her Home on the Pacific coast to ask a former helicopter Pilot who had flown her husband and other men on and off the Peak for rest Breaks in Thailand Quot were they captured a Quot that s something i cannot absolutely cannot talk about Quot he said. She demanded a better answer and he said Quot Ann those men did not technically exist then. They do not technically exist now. But you re on the right track. Done to give up Ann got a copy of a top secret intelligence analysis of the seizure of site 85 during a Brief period when it was declassified. What she saw made it Clear that her husband and other . Airmen were prize by the enemy As Quot special in 1968, at site 85, they ran highly secret equipment to guide american bombers onto targets around Hanoi 160 Miles to the East. The Cia said the enemy could not possibly Pierce the heavily fortified narrow path to the top or scale the Steep 5,600-foot Cliffs. Despite such assurances the enemy took the Garrison in a Surprise assault using tactics developed by the soviet Union s Quot Spet Snaz Quot special operations regiment. Ann sent us her own painfully acquired documents. They revealed an extraordinary Effort by friends in the armed forces to help her dig out facts. A senior . Army officer who had served with distinction in combat and military intelligence in three wars said Quot remember lots of areas in Laos like site 85, Are Remote. Communists come Seldom and then to collect taxes and Rice. Even in that one Cave where american captives have been reported the communists done to have much communication equipment one Cia Rescue Effort was abruptly cancelled. There were to be six prisoners rescued. One died of a bleeding ulcer. They were site 85 personnel. They were separated from another three prisoners in another Cave. Alex code name for a ground observer has a Friend there captured in 1978, three years after Saigon fell and was set up to be captured but that s real Low profile. The six air Force Guys captured Are on the Mountain at Phou Pha Hugh Taylor a retired . Navy Pilot who later became a newspaper editor and spent Many years seeking answers to the site 85 mystery claimed a the . Government lied threatened and purposely withheld information from the wives and families of the men left behind at site 85. A families were prevented from finding out each other s identities to foil any attempt to correlate what Little they knew and were warned to Stop trying to find out what happened. There Are reports the americans at the site were denied defensive support because their presence posed a threat to local Cia supported drug Taylor had a personal interest. During the Vietnam War he had been approached to Fly unspecified missions. Those who advised him against the seductive offer of intrigue and adventure a he was very Young then and admired the secret services a later told him he was Lucky. Had he volunteered to be sheep dipped he would Likely be counted among the missing his Fate concealed from friends and family. Just like Melvin Holland. Monika Jensen Stevenson and William Stevenson Are authors of Quot kiss the boys goodbye Quot published by Dutton from which this article is adapted. The stars and stripes a a a Page 17
