Background Information
During their war with the French, the North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong (then called Viet Minh) discovered that the ideal way to keep supplies
and troops moving between the two parts of the country was to move through the
neutral countries of Laos and Cambodia. During U.S. involvement in Indochina,
the United States was forbidden to conduct war there because of the 1962 Geneva
accords which protected the two countries' neutrality.
It became apparent, however, that clandestine operations had to be
conducted in Laos and Cambodia to prevent the enemy from having a free hand in
troop and equipment mobility. At first these operations were very secret, to the
extent that records were "altered" to show operations in South Vietnam,
but later in the war were conducted with relative openness.
SFC Almendariz and SFC Sullivan were on such a mission in Laos on 12 July,
1967. Their reconnaissance team, consisting of three Americans and 8 indigenous
personnel, was operating just inside Laos in the extreme southeast portion of
Savannakhet Province when the team came under attack. From 1100 hours until 1600
hours that day, the team was under heavy attack and attempting to evade.
Only one of the Americans was rescued, and he reported that both Almendariz
and Sullivan had been mortally wounded.
On July 16, a search force went back to the area of contact, but were
unable to locate the bodies of either man. Almendariz and Sullivan were listed
as killed, body not recovered.
Almendariz and Sullivan are among nearly 600 Americans who disappeared in
Laos. Although the Pathet Lao stated on several occasions that they held "tens
of tens" of prisoners, not one prisoner held in Laos was ever released.
Since American involvement in Vietnam ended in 1975, over 10,000 reports
relating to Americans missing, prisoner, or otherwise unaccounted for in
Indochina have been received by the U.S. Government. Many officials, having
examined this largely classified information, have reluctantly concluded that
many Americans are still alive today, held captive by our long-ago enemy.
Although Almendariz and Sullivan, apparently, are not among them, they
could be accounted for. More importantly, anyone who is still alive must be brought
home.
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