Today I’m starting out calling for Kerry to fill out his 180 properly so we can fill in the gaps between when he left the Navy and when he received his discharge. At the end, you’ll see how you can join this blogburst.

But aside from calling for him to really fill out his 180 rather than pull a magic trick with his biographer that was supposed to shut people up about it but really didn’t answer the questions…I’d like to start telling the stories of some of the POW/MIAs who were left behind after we pulled out of Vietnam. Not only did millions die in Cambodia after we pulled out, but in our haste, we left our dogs behind as ’surplus equipment’, and left some of our men behind, left to fend for themselves at the hands of merciless cruel torturers; a horrifying story to anyone who cares about a fellow human being. This is particularly important because Kerry has a long history of betraying his brothers at arms in Vietnam - first when he came back from Vietnam and became the spokesman for the Vietnam Vets against the War, met with Madame Binh in Paris, came back talking the communist talking points, and then later, when he sat on the Senate Committee for POW/MIA Affairs in 1992/1993 and did his utmost to bury the men who might still be alive.

Michael Benge, himself a POW from 1968-1973 had this to say in an interview with Jamie Glazov at Frontpage Magazine:

The office in DID in charge of accounting for the POW/MIAs has never investigated the Cuban connection to American POWs despite intel intercepts that Cubans were guarding POWs in Laos, Intel reports that 17 Americans POWs from Vietnam were being held in Cuba, Intel reports of Cubans interrogating POW at COSVN headquarters in Cambodia and that all of the historical records of the same Cuban engineering unit that maintained a good stretch of the Ho Chi Minh trail was captured at the airfield in Grenada when the U.S. invaded that country.

The Cuban and Soviet influence here begs more questions.

There are many pilots who worked in may of our very most top secret missile, electronics warfare and other programs lost in Vietnam who should never had been allowed to participate in that conflict. There are indications of a jump in Soviet Technology correlated to certain pilots lost in Vietnam, and there have been books written by Soviet’s in their aircraft industry giving thanks our American friends (POWs) who helped us develop this technology.

He makes the point that we will only get the truth out of the Vietnamese if they have a democratic form of government. As long as the communists rule there, we will not get an honest accounting of what happened to our men, or have their remains returned to us. There is evidence to suggest that they have kept meticulous records on our men and women that they captured, their hope was to hold some of them for ransom.

… I lay part of the blame on the fact that our politicians lost a winnable war. You are at a great disadvantage in getting the truth out of the enemy when you lose, instead of winning — rather like being a eunuch. The American and Vietnamese military were not defeated by the NVA, but were betrayed and defeated by politicians in the United States. These same politicians, such as John Kerry, and later, John McCain, as U.S. senators in 1993, swept it all under the rug when they were members of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs and issued their final report that there was no evidence that any POWs were still alive in Vietnam. Neither was there evidence that they were dead. Our government gave the North Vietnamese a list of over 300 POWs that were last known to be alive and in the hands of the North Vietnamese. To this date, only a handful of remains of these POWs have been returned. This begs the question, “What is the fate of those not yet accounted for?” Yet Senators McCain and Kerry, apologists and advocates for the North Vietnamese communists, claim that they are fully cooperating in the accounting process. I beg to differ with them.

You see, we had no bargaining chips with the communists after we withdrew and ‘lost’ the war with Vietnam. And we left men and women behind, some of whom weren’t even in uniform. Some were journalists, doctors, nurses and Christian missionaries.

I’d like to highlight the first man on the list, Richard Bram. He is listed along with the others below, on this post that I published on March 17th during the Gathering of Eagles demonstration in Washington, D.C.

Kerry, McCain and their POW/MIA Committee knew about this List of “New” POW cases back in 1993, but the families were never notified. The news about their loved ones has slipped, though. Some of them are a part of- Project X, which was an investigation into the whereabouts of some of these individuals, in secret. Much of the information on the men seen last alive, and sightings was actually instructed by U.S. government officials to be buried in the archives. Unfortunately, relatives and friends, and just concerned citizens like me, will never forget that these men went missing and our government turned its back on them during SEVEN presidential administrations.

Bram, Richard C.
Dingwall, John F.
Egan, James T.
Greer, Richard (documents say Richard, he’s actually Robert Lee Greer)
Hamilton, Roger Dale
Harris, Gregory J.
Hasenbeck, Paul A. part of the Mangino Four
Mcdonnell, John T.
Mangino, Thomas A. part of the Mangino Four
Massucci, Martin J.
Mellor, Fredric M.
Newton, Donald S.
Nidds, Daniel R. part of the Mangino Four
O’Grady, John F.
Platt, Rober L. Jr.
Scharf, Charles J.
Schreckengost, Fred T. *remains returned*
Winters, David M. part of the Mangino Four

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But before we get to Bram, let’s take a look at the Tourisan Memo

“My review of JCRC casualty files has surfaced several messages which list a total of nine American servicemen Vietnam has acknowledged were captured alive, all of whom are listed by DOD as having been declared dead while missing. None are officially listed as ever having been a POW. This information has come from Vietnamese officials a piece at a time over the past two years. I suspect we will learn about more such cases as time goes on. While the precise fate of the nine is not clear, it appears likely they died in captivity in southern Vietnam and this is the first admission from Vietnam that these nine were captured alive.” This is how a memo entitled “Vietnamese reports about U.S. POWs not previously known by the Defense Department,” and dated July 22, 1992, reads, that was prepared by Sedgwick D. Tourison, Jr. during his tenure as an investigator with the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs.

In the memo Mr. Tourison speculates on the reason this information was not discussed during the 24 – 25 June 1992 hearing before the Senate Committee in which General John Vessey, along with representatives of DIA and JTF testified. Mr. Tourison offers the following: “… two obvious explaination (sic) could be that (a) it would be irresponsible to discuss such information prior to investigating it fully, (b) they do not want to publicly discuss active cases still under investigation, and (c) they may not believe Vietnamese assertions.”

The memo continued; “A fourth explanation is that the Administration is too embarrassed at this point to even want to have this information made public. After all, it must be clear to the Administration that the Vessey/DOD-ISA “lists” have led to a relatively inflexible investigation schedule which is being directly controlled from Washington and with little seeming flexibility on the part of those on the ground to react to changing conditions. This is a direct repeat of the criticism levied at DOD/JCS/White House in its inept prosecution of the war two plus decades ago and it is evident that Viet Nam is well aware of these modalities and these new “POW” reports could well represent Viet Nam’s own effort to tie up the Administration.”

The nine servicemen acknowledged by the Vietnamese as “captured alive” are: Carlos Ashlock, James T. Egan, Jr., Robert L. Greer, Roger D. Hamilton, Gregory J. Harris, Donald S. Newton, Madison A. Strohlein, Robert L. Platt and Fred Schreckengost. Remains for both Greer and Schreckengost were recovered. Commenting on Greer and Schreckengost, Tourison notes; “During the recovery of their remains in 1990 Vietnamese officials acknowledged they had been captured alive and killed in captivity. The U.S. Marine Corps still does not list them as having died in captivity but to have died while in a MIA status.”

Of the 7 remaining “new POWs” Tourison offers the following information:

Carlos Ashlock – “Vietnam has now acknowledged that Corporal Aslock (sic) was captured alive in Quang Ngai Province. His eventual fate has not yet been determined.”

James Egan, Jr. — – “Vietnam has now acknowledged that Lieutenant Egan was captured alive and has reported that he died in captivity in December 1968.”

[It should be noted that Egan’s name was not on the list of POWs who died in captivity presented in Paris in January 1973. Yet, based on this new information Egan survived in captivity for almost 3 years, from January 21, 1966 to December 1968. As no other POW reported seeing Egan in captivity, where was he held?]

Roger D. Hamilton – “Vietnam has now acknowledged that Lance Corporal Hamilton was captured alive in Military Region 5. His eventual fate has not yet been determined.”

Gregory J. Harris – “Vietnam has now acknowledged that Corporal Harris was captured alive. His eventual fate has not yet been determined.”

Donald Newton – “Vietnam has now acknowledged that Sergeant Newton was captured alive and taken to Hospital 102 of Military Region 5. His eventual fate has not yet been determined.”

Robert L. Platt – “Vietnam has now acknowledged that Private First Class Platt was captured alive. His eventual fate has not yet been determined.”

Madison Strohlein – “Vietnam has now acknowledged that Sergeant Strohlein was captured alive on June 22, 1971 in Quang Nam Province. His eventual fate has not yet been determined.”

Whatever the reason, this information was not made public during the life of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. Documents generated by that committee including its investigators were turned over to the National Archives where they remain today… Hidden in plain sight.

The family of M/Sgt. Gregory J. Harris, acknowledged by the Vietnamese as “captured alive,” was shocked by the information contained in the Tourison memo. The Harris family were never told of this information. Nor, does it seem as if U.S. investigators have factored this stunning information into ongoing efforts to locate M/Sgt. Harris. Instead, investigators continue to search for M/Sgt Harris at the loss area, when in fact the Vietnamese admitted, sometime prior to at least 1991, that he had been captured.

A word about this document, this and other documents were found within the Sedgwick Tourison Collection housed at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas, in mid-March. With the discovery of this document the National Alliance of Families and Mary Reitano, cousin of Greg Harris, joined forces to download and review the documents within the Tourison Collection. Through these efforts, many additional documents of value were located, and passed onto family members.

Among them a memo dated August 1, 1992 titled “Individuals Reported Died in Captivity and not listed on current DOD/Vessey/SSC priority lists.” In this memo, Mr. Tourison states: “My review of POW/MIA case files disclosed DIA/JTFFA message traffic referring to individuals DOD now has information survived into captivity.”

This memo appears to be a follow-up to the July 22nd memo. In the 13 cases cited, representing 19 servicemen, 9 are named in the July 22nd memo. The additional servicemen added to the list of men who “survived into captivity” are: Richard C. Bram, John F. Dingwall, Fredric M. Mellor, Charles J. Scharf/ Martin J. Massucci, John F. O’Grady, Thomas A. Mangino, Paul A. Hasenbeck, David M. Winters, Daniel Nidds, and John T. McDonnell.

———————–
Name: Richard C. Bram
Rank/Branch: USMC, E6
Unit: VMFA 225 MAG 12
Date of Birth: 25 November 35
Home City of Record: Cleves, OH
Date of Loss: 08 July 65
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 1084630E 152114N
Status (in 1973): Missing
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

South Vietnam

On July 8, 1966, Staff Sergeant Bram and Gunnery Sergeant Dingwall left their unit at Chu Lai Air Base for a hike in the surrounding countryside. They were last seen in a local hamlet.

Local South Vietnamese police reported on July 8th that the Viet Cong had captured and killed two Americans and then buried their bodies. This report led to a muster of the unit and the discovery that Sergeants Bram and Dingwall were missing. A search of the area in which they were last seen produced hearsay information that the two had been captured, but there was conflicting information on their fate. They were never seen alive again, and their remains
were never located.

Both individuals were initially declared missing. In September 1978 they were declared dead/body not recovered. Returning U.S. POWs were unable to provide any information on their survival in captivity, and U.S. investigation teams in Vietnam have been unable to learn anything further concerning their precise fate.

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I have been unable to secure a picture of Craig, but here is another page with his story and that of Gunny Sgt. John Dingwall. May God bless them all wherever they are today. And may McCain and Kerry both be ashamed of what they’ve done.

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It should be noted that both McCain and Kerry have been given recognition by the Vietnamese communists for their part in this whole affair. I will be talking more about that next week.

Join the blogbursts to help FREE Kerry’s 180 every Tuesday!

We’ve formed a blogburst group and here are the bloggers who are contributing so far. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.

Image: LindaSog.com

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