On March 13, 1966, TSgt Morgan's aircraft was assigned a mission
which took it over Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, about
10 miles from the Laotian border. The pilot, Capt. H. Henninger
was contacted by radio shortly after takeoff, but before reaching
the target area.
The aircraft and it's crew of seven souls disappeared that day.
All crew members aboard were declared Missing in Action.
There is no way to determine whether the enemy knows the fates of
these men because the U.S. Air Force is unsure of its area of loss.
Da Nang Regional Intelligence received a rallier's report in 1969 which
described a POW camp near Hue. The report included a very detailed
description of the camp and two lists of Americans held there. The lists
were compiled by the source viewing photographs of missing Americans, and
were classified "possible" and "positive". The source selected crewmember
Capt. Gerald E. Olson's photograph as possibly being a man held at the
camp near Hue. This report was obtained from the U.S. government in the
mid-1980's by an interested citizen through the Freedom of Information Act.
Although this report was later debunked by U.S. intelligence analysts,
and not distributed to the families of the men named on the lists, at least
one former POW who was held at this camp was shown the report and he confirmed
some of the names on the list and verified the accuracy of the camp description.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports have been received by the
U.S. related to Americans still missing in Southeast Asia. Some are as
detailed as the one received at Da Nang in 1969, and relate to many
individuals. Although most have been proven accurate, the public attitude
in the U.S. intelligence circles is that the reports are meaningless. Yet,
many of these reports remain classified.
Were any of the crew captured or killed ? While the Vietnamese may have
the answers to these questions, we may never know the extent of the
knowledge of our own government so long as information regarding
these men is allowed to remain classified.
Tragically, many who have seen this classified information believe there
are hundreds of Americans still alive in captivity. Any of the men aboard
the Spooky lost on March 13, 1966 could be among them. It's time we brought
our men home. It's time we knew the truth.
TSgt Morgan, at age 39, was the oldest man on the crew when the
plane went down. Today, he would be 72 years old, if still alive.
Dead or alive, it's time to bring him home.
