European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 07, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Relatives of three american servicemen who Are purported to be prisoners in Southeast Asia and pictured in a recently released photo below left hold photos of the men. The relatives Are from left Gladys a Fleckenstein Mother of Navy it. Cmdr. Larry James Stevens Barbara Robertson wife of air Force col. John l Robertson and Johanna Lundy wife of air Force a. Albro Lundy. In the photo below Robertson is believed to be on the left _ Lundy in the Center and Stevens on the right. Caskets below containing the remains of four american fliers killed in Laos were shipped Back to the United states in 1978. E had routine a had is and be planes Lowed nation was results by never anything Jar As head a for pow police an gathering pm. Quot some people worked 13 hours a Day just keeping up with the mail Quot Peck told a House foreign affairs subcommittee in May. Quot live sighting Quot reports often were not investigated until months after they reached his office s attention Peck said. In a scathing memorandum last february Peck wrote Quot the mind set to debunk is alive and Well practically All analysis is directed to finding fault with the and in what was his most devastating claim Peck added Quot any Soldier left in Vietnam even inadvertently was in fact abandoned years the Pentagon investigated pecks allegations and declared that they were groundless. Officials also said they had planned to fire the highly decorated Vietnam Veteran. It. Gen. Harry e. Soyster the head of Dia said Peck Quot was simply poorly suited for this position a a Case of a Good officer in the wrong but Mccain and others do not buy that Mccain said he believes Peck s inflammatory accusations Are Quot right on the Money Quot and adds Quot when a Man like colonel Peck with his distinguished record resigns in disgust then there s clearly a Days after Peck s resignation letter was leaked to the Media the Republican staff of the Senate foreign relations committee issued a 117-Page report charging that the government has rejected or covered up information on american prisoners who were left in Southeast Asia after the War. A after examining hundreds of documents relating to the raw intelligence and interviewing Many families and friends of pow mias Quot the report said Quot the minority staff concluded that despite Public pronouncements to the contrary the real internal policy of the . Government was to act upon the presumption that All mias were dead Quot the Pentagon contends that Vietnam holds the key to resolving the fates of the missing and that Public anger should be directed there. The . Government has beefed up its efforts in Southeast Asia and recently opened an office in the Vietnam capital of Hanoi to handle the Issue. Vietnam in its efforts to smooth the Way to ultimate normalization of relations Between the two countries has been turning Over what it says Are the remains of . Servicemen. But on that Issue too the Pentagon a own credibility is under attack. Last october the department of defense buried with full military honors what it claimed were the remains of four . Servicemen missing in Laos since 1971. The Pentagon later acknowledged that two of the coffins were i Jepty and one contained Only tiny unidentifiable fragments of Bone and a tooth. The army s Central identification Laboratory in Hawaii which analyses remains and to identify the missing also came under harsh criticism in the mid-1980s after some of the nation s top forensic experts disputed some of the remains identifications it made. As of 1990, the Center had identified More than 250 sets of repatriated remains As those of missing military personnel. During a House armed services committee hearing in 1986, a group of nationally known physical and forensic anthropologists testified that the lab was plagued by incompetence Lack of equipment poor training a unscientific techniques and fabricated conclusions. Among the cases criticized were its identification of an air Force sergeant based on chips from two Teeth the reconstruction of a missing Navy flier s face although there were no facial Bones or Eye sockets to work with and the identification of 13 airmen using Bone fragments no bigger than a Quarter. A Kathryn fanning of Oklahoma City had accepted the military s assurances that her husband Marine Pilot Hugh Michael fanning died in the 1967 crash of his a-6 intruder. In 1984, she and their three children buried what the government said were his remains. Quot All available evidence both biological. And circumstantial support the reasonable conclusion that the remains Are those of major fanning Quot the government identification Laboratory wrote. But 11 months later she had an Opportunity to see the official file on his disappearance and discovered to her astonishment that there were several reports that he had been seen alive. She exhumed the remains Only to learn that what she thought was an entire Skeleton was actually Only one fifth of one lacking a Skull and other parts the military had allowed her to believe were there fanning said. Two forensic specialists told her it was impossible to know whether the remains were those of Hugh fanning. Fanning refused to claim them As her husband and now the government has gone to Hugh fanning a parents As Well As the fannings children in an Effort to get permission to Bury the remains and identify them As his a funeral was scheduled for july 15, until Kathryn fanning got a court order to Stop it. Maj. Nancy Laluntas a Marine corps spokeswoman said that the live sighting reports in Hugh fanning s record Are based on Quot some pretty tenuous information Quot Quot All the Marine corps is trying to do is ensure a decent burial for what we believe Are identified remains Quot Laluntas added but fanning vows in a statement that echoes the sentiments of Many other families Quot i am not going to walk away from this i can certainly accept it it my husband s dead what i can t accept and what is railed about is the government lying to me Quot wednesday August 7, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 15
