Vietnam II: A War Novel Episode 1 (V2) Read Online Free
Author: C.R. Ryder
don’t want you to turn a blind eye. We want your full support.”
Go USA! I had a rock hard erection and I wanted to tie an American flag on the end of it.
Awesome!
Technical Sergeant Tony Luciano
Air Force Operations Intelligence Specialist
Waco, Texas
I interviewed retired Major Scott Eisenhower, formerly of Stony Beach, at his home. What drove a man like Eisenhower to give up the warm waters of Hawaii for the dry tumbleweeds of Texas was clear the moment I entered his home. To say there was a western motif would have been an understatement. We conducted the interview in his den with a portrait of John Wayne hovering over us on the wall.
“How many MIAs are you aware of?”
“How many? That easy. The answer is 2,477. Are you sure that is what you are asking?”
“There are that many?” I wrote it down. Hard numbers were always great when putting together briefs and often the hardest things to come by.
“Not really. I was with the DIA from 1984 until 1987. In June of 1983 a division of the Defense Intelligence Agency was assigned personnel and offices to collect information about MIAs and evaluate it. Later in 1986, on the recommendation of Director of DIA LTG Leonard Perroots himself the division was built up and moved to Hickam and the STONY BEACH GROUP was established.”
“Stony Beach comes up a lot in our records. Can you tell me about it?”
“Well all of this really started a decade after America's withdrawal from Vietnam when our last President declared that the recovery of the 2,477 American soldiers still Missing in Action would be a national priority. There was already a Congressional Task Force on POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia formed in 1977, and in the late seventies and early eighties Congress introduced more than 100 bills and resolutions aimed at resolving the issue. Celebrities took up the cause. There were public awareness campaigns as well as books, movies and fund-raisers. It became self-perpetuating. The less that was known, the wilder the stories became. Like the Bermuda Triangle or Bigfoot.”
“Why?”
“The word missing to begin with. It implies mystery instead of assumption. Did you know there are still people looking for Amelia Earhart? Is there any doubt among professional pilots that she crashed into the Pacific at this point?”
“I’m not sure I follow you.”
“Then follow this: the term "MIA" is misleading. Prior to the Vietnam conflict we called missing men who were presumed dead “killed body nonrecoverable.” That is a little strong. Especially to family members when the Department of Defense cannot produce a body for the funeral. So the term missing in action was implemented. The problem with that is it suggests that the DOD has no idea what happened to the soldiers and airmen in Vietnam.”
“We don’t?”
“We do. At the end of hostilities, the DOD listed fewer than 800 soldiers as either prisoners of war or missing in action. Later, the DOD added servicemen to the list that were considered killed in action but whose bodies were never recovered. Most of these were Air Force and Navy pilots. In fact 81 percent of the servicemen we now classified as MIAs were pilots, many of whom were unable to eject from their aircraft before crashing into the sea or Vietnamese jungle.
So of the estimated 2,477 MIAs, almost half, around 1,186, are known to actually been killed in action, but their bodies were not able to be recovered. I mean other pilots saw their planes crash and explode in some cases. On top of those 1,186 there are another 647 other cases a reasonable presumptive finding of death was made at the time the serviceman disappeared. Thus 1,833 of the 2,477 MIAs are presumed to be dead. You good with math?”
He could see me trying to figure it out in my head.
“600?” I said without confidence.
He shook his head.
“644 to be exact. That leaves
Go USA! I had a rock hard erection and I wanted to tie an American flag on the end of it.
Awesome!
Technical Sergeant Tony Luciano
Air Force Operations Intelligence Specialist
Waco, Texas
I interviewed retired Major Scott Eisenhower, formerly of Stony Beach, at his home. What drove a man like Eisenhower to give up the warm waters of Hawaii for the dry tumbleweeds of Texas was clear the moment I entered his home. To say there was a western motif would have been an understatement. We conducted the interview in his den with a portrait of John Wayne hovering over us on the wall.
“How many MIAs are you aware of?”
“How many? That easy. The answer is 2,477. Are you sure that is what you are asking?”
“There are that many?” I wrote it down. Hard numbers were always great when putting together briefs and often the hardest things to come by.
“Not really. I was with the DIA from 1984 until 1987. In June of 1983 a division of the Defense Intelligence Agency was assigned personnel and offices to collect information about MIAs and evaluate it. Later in 1986, on the recommendation of Director of DIA LTG Leonard Perroots himself the division was built up and moved to Hickam and the STONY BEACH GROUP was established.”
“Stony Beach comes up a lot in our records. Can you tell me about it?”
“Well all of this really started a decade after America's withdrawal from Vietnam when our last President declared that the recovery of the 2,477 American soldiers still Missing in Action would be a national priority. There was already a Congressional Task Force on POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia formed in 1977, and in the late seventies and early eighties Congress introduced more than 100 bills and resolutions aimed at resolving the issue. Celebrities took up the cause. There were public awareness campaigns as well as books, movies and fund-raisers. It became self-perpetuating. The less that was known, the wilder the stories became. Like the Bermuda Triangle or Bigfoot.”
“Why?”
“The word missing to begin with. It implies mystery instead of assumption. Did you know there are still people looking for Amelia Earhart? Is there any doubt among professional pilots that she crashed into the Pacific at this point?”
“I’m not sure I follow you.”
“Then follow this: the term "MIA" is misleading. Prior to the Vietnam conflict we called missing men who were presumed dead “killed body nonrecoverable.” That is a little strong. Especially to family members when the Department of Defense cannot produce a body for the funeral. So the term missing in action was implemented. The problem with that is it suggests that the DOD has no idea what happened to the soldiers and airmen in Vietnam.”
“We don’t?”
“We do. At the end of hostilities, the DOD listed fewer than 800 soldiers as either prisoners of war or missing in action. Later, the DOD added servicemen to the list that were considered killed in action but whose bodies were never recovered. Most of these were Air Force and Navy pilots. In fact 81 percent of the servicemen we now classified as MIAs were pilots, many of whom were unable to eject from their aircraft before crashing into the sea or Vietnamese jungle.
So of the estimated 2,477 MIAs, almost half, around 1,186, are known to actually been killed in action, but their bodies were not able to be recovered. I mean other pilots saw their planes crash and explode in some cases. On top of those 1,186 there are another 647 other cases a reasonable presumptive finding of death was made at the time the serviceman disappeared. Thus 1,833 of the 2,477 MIAs are presumed to be dead. You good with math?”
He could see me trying to figure it out in my head.
“600?” I said without confidence.
He shook his head.
“644 to be exact. That leaves
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