Vietnam II: A War Novel Episode 1 (V2) Read Online Free Page A

644 servicemen who could in theory still be alive in Vietnam.  How likely are they after all these years?  And if they are where are they?  Vietnam ain’t that big a country.”
    I wrote all of this down.  It was all gold when we started putting the slides together later.
    “Why are you asking all these questions?  Have you found something?”
    “That’s classified.”
    “I’ll take that as a yes.”  His eyes got wide and he shook his head rhythmically.  “Holy shit.  And you let me sit here telling you how it couldn’t be possible.  I had scratched those guys all out.  Now I feel like an asshole.”
     

Lieutenant Colonel William Carter
    Air Force Intelligence Officer
    Defense Intelligence Agency
     
    Former Defense Intelligence Agency worker Henry James met me at the agency headquarters for the interview.  The man was in his late sixties and was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War.  According to his records he had put in twenty years with the Army and then another twenty as a government service worker.
    He had seen a lot.
    “I retired in 1981 and this isn’t the first time I’ve been called in to talk about the POWs.  It was every six months in the beginning.  Then once a year.  It has been since 1987 that anyone has spoken to me officially about the POWs.  I was beginning to think that it had become history.”
    I went through the standard interview questions that Carol had given me.  He listened politely and shook his head to everyone.  When I was finished he took over the interview.
    “Witnesses?  I’ve got all the witnesses you could ever want.”
    “Could you put us in touch with them?”
    “Of the 4,000 cases of alleged POW sightings from Vietnamese refugees since 1975, the Defense Intelligence Agency discounts almost all.  Only a few hundred were actual firsthand accounts and not just hearsay and rumor.  Most were secondhand accounts.  Many of the supposed sightings were fabricated.  Of those few hundred many of the interviewees merely said they saw a Caucasian.  This does not mean that Caucasian was American or a POW.”
    “What about the ones that you could not discount?”
    “We used science and due diligence.  It’s not like we could send someone into Vietnam to verify their story.  That’s the real catch isn’t it?  So instead the DIA used polygraph exams to investigating the most credible reported sightings.  Again more than half showed signs of deception or the polygraphs were inconclusive.  Of the interviewees that showed no deception and whose supposed sighting was not verified to be a Russian military advisor or some other white guy there were only a handful that we would consider possible sightings.”
    “How many is a handful?”
    “Exactly that.  You can count them on one hand.”  He shook his head.  “I’m sorry, but love, magic and emotional appeals aside, there is little credible evidence that any of them are still living.”
     

Lieutenant Colonel Carol Madison
    Air Force Intelligence Officer
    Defense Intelligence Agency
     
    “I’m getting nothing actionable here.”  It was TSgt Luciano on the phone.  He was less than positive.  “All the experts are just dumping numbers and statistics on me.”
    I knew he was telling the truth.  I had been through everything that the team had collected.  Unfortunately we were looking to affirm the POW theory.
    “Thanks for the update.  Move on to the other witnesses.”
    “I talked to Colonel Carter.  We’re really bombing out here.”
    “Press on.  We need something that we can take to the Pentagon and State.”
    “I’ll keep trying.”
    “That’s the spirit.”
    It was just me and the two Daves in the office.  I was fielding phone calls and they were compiling.  Everyone else was out on the road.  After the flurry of activity following the invasion of Kuwait the offices were uncomfortably quiet.  It was like a house with all the children gone.
    “I read somewhere they did