Synopsis: On February 6, 1969, CW2 Charles I. Stanley, pilot; 1LT. David E. Padgett, aircraft commander; SP5 Robert C. O'Hara,crew chief;PFC Eugene F. Christianson,door gunner; LTCol. Donald E. Parsons,1LT Ronald D Briggs, and Maj. Vu Vanh Phao, ARVN, all passengers,were aboard a UH1H (serial #67-17499) on a resupply mission in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. While in route from Landing Zone Vandergrift to Landing Zone Tornado, 1Lt. Padgett contacted the LZ Tornado radio operator at about 1100 hours and stated that due to poor weather conditions and poor visibility, the flight was returning to LZ Vandergrift. At that time,the radio operator at LZ Tornado could hear the helicopter northeast of his location, which sounded as if it were heading in a northerly direction.When the aircraft failed to return to LZ Vandergrift a coordinated search and rescue operation was initiated and continued for seven consecutive days,finding nothing.
However on the morning of February 7, Crown an airborne control aircraft,reported receiving radio beeper signals several times from the general vicinity of where LT. Padgett's aircraft was last reported.The beeper signals were estimated to emanate from that general direction.The source of the signals was never determined.The area in which the aircraft was estimated to go down has been dubbed " Antenna Valley" and is located west of Cam Lo and on the backside of Camp Carrol.The area was occupied by NVA regulars, and was never cleared. On-site search was not possible at that time.On September 4,1969, an ARVN source reported that in August he had seen LTC Parsons, Maj. Phao, 1LT. Briggs, and four other unidentified American POWs in a hospital in Laos. The U.S. Army determined that the four unidentified Americans could possibly be Christiansen, Stanley, Padgett and O'Hara.
On July 5,1972, an NVA rallier reported seeing two caucasian POWs in the vicinity of a T-35 commo-liaison station on the 499th infiltration corridor in Laos.The two POWs were being taken to North Vietnam. This information was tentatively correlated to LT padgett and PFC Christiansen. In September 1970, LTC Parson's wife and friends identified him in a North Vietnamese film of a Protestant service in a POW enviroment. CW2 Stanley's mother made a tenative identification of her son in the same film. In December1979, an alleged "gun-runner", Sean O'Toolis reported that he had the fingerprints of Robert O'Hara,and that O'Hara was at that time being held south of Hanoi near Bong Song. O'Toolis' information was summarily dismissed by the U.S. Government and he was thoroughly discredited, thus it is not clear how much credence can be given to his information.
The reports relating to the crew of the UH1H that went down on February 6,1969 are typical of the over 10,000 reports received by the U.S. Government relating to American Prisoners of War, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. After reviewing "several millon documents" and conducting "over 250,000 interviews" the U.S. Government has been unable to stae categorically that Americans are still alive. Many authorities, however,including a former Director of Defense Intelligence Agency, have reluctantly concluded that there are many Americans still held against their will in Southeast Asia. Families who receive these reports are especially tortured. With no means to prove or disprove them, the tormen is indescribable. When they turn to their Government, they are usally met with the "mindset to debunk" described by one high official in Congressional hearings.When they approach Vietnam, they are told the person they seek is unknown to them.
Diplomatic considerations aside...We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair stategists, to determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "The Plans" for the future of Southeast Asia.
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