thedrifter
02-11-06, 09:27 AM
'Until they are home'
U.S. team searches Cambodian site as part of effort to ensure no service member is left behind
By Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News
February 11, 2006
KAMPONG THOM PROVINCE, Cambodia - A black plastic bucket partially filled with bits of metal and rubber hangs from a wood post here, nearly 8,500 miles from America and more than 30 years after the Vietnam War.
But the search continues for the remains of a U.S. Air Force pilot - and his downed jet - as part of an unusual military program dedicated to recovering and identifying the remains of every American service member listed as missing in action from nearly every conflict in which the United States has been involved.
As part of that mission, 15 U.S. military personnel and a civilian archaeologist have been rumbling down a dirt road in this central Cambodian province for nearly a month, past primitive dwellings, through villages that appear populated equally by livestock and humans.
The site they're working is now a large excavation, dug by a backhoe and 100 villagers. The effort, on a plot of land in an area once targeted for a military strike, is characterized by international cooperation.
"A lot of work and a lot of resources go into bringing home our heroes," said Maj. Duane Hennion, an Army doctor who, like other team members, sifts dirt for crash remains when he isn't occupied by other duties.
"It was 30 years ago," he said of the Vietnam War. "Relationships have changed. It's just a chance for us to show goodwill between nations."
Hennion and his colleagues are part of the military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, based at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. JPAC was formed in 2003 but continues work begun in 1973 in similar projects.
With an annual budget of about $47 million, JPAC draws on every branch of the military as well as civilians to work in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
The command, whose mission does not include current conflicts, concentrates on cases from World War II and later but has reviewed the remains of a soldier dating back to the War of 1812, said Air Force 1st Lt. Jim Ivie, a spokesman for JPAC in Hawaii.
While some team members in Cambodia say they were not even aware of the unit until recently, Ivie says no other country in the world commits as many resources to fulfilling the JPAC mission statement: "Until they are home."
"Obviously, our primary mission is to return Americans home, but a side benefit to that is that you have military personnel on a humanitarian mission," Ivie said. "If that can help in any way improve relations with other nations, that's great."
Killed on impact
JPAC does not publicly name the soldiers being sought while a search is under way but does release incident details.
The current Cambodia excavation grew out of an April 4, 1971, strafing run to destroy a suspected storage depot as the Vietnam War spilled into this neighboring country.
The F-100D Super Sabre jet was making its fifth pass over the target when white vapor started streaming from its left wing. The plane continued its "slight descent," according to JPAC, before rolling upside down and crashing. The pilot appears to have died on impact.
An aerial search was conducted the day after the crash, but JPAC says intense enemy activity prevented a ground search. Villagers buried the pilot, but the body was moved over the years, according to reports. JPAC excavated the area on two previous occasions, in January and October of last year.
After the January dig, possible human remains were returned to JPAC headquarters for analysis. But the fragments proved too small for preliminary tests to determine if they were human, according to Ivie. More thorough tests will be conducted when the excavation site is deemed "closed."
Last month, the Kampong Thom excavation became the first JPAC operation in Cambodia to be visited by a reporter in at least five years, Ivie says. The monthlong dig is scheduled to end Sunday.
The work site is considered large, with the most concentrated debris spread over an area 185 by 80 meters - about 610 by 265 feet - says Laura Miller, the energetic archaeologist who oversees the dig.
As at many sites, investigators expect to recover only small pieces of human remains, such as teeth or bone fragments, after decades of disintegration and human intrusion have taken their toll. Scavengers, in fact, had removed 95 percent of the plane long before this effort had begun, according to Miller.
The process of finding what is left is meticulous and difficult. "You never know what it is until you dig it," said Air Force Lt. Col. Pete Huddle, who is based in Bangkok, Thailand, and oversees Cambodian operations, during a visit to the Kampong Thom site.
Dirt sifted for remains
Rice paddies here have been drained, allowing a backhoe operated by a local civilian to scoop out 4-by-4-meter squares and dump the dirt onto an adjacent tarp.
Under a division of labor set up by the Cambodians - who are paid for their efforts - the dirt is then shoveled into plastic buckets and ferried to one of three screening stations staffed by women.
At one station, 14 women hover over metal screens. Their standard-issue white plastic aprons and orange rubber gloves are set off by gingham-print scarves wrapped around their heads.
With a trowel in one hand, the women sift through the dirt and break up large clods. They use hoses hanging overhead to flush away dirt until nothing is left but pebbles - at least to the naked eye. The women expertly nab precious items that might easily escape notice: a tiny silver coil, a dark metal fragment, maybe a piece of bone.
JPAC team members stand across from the Cambodian women because an American is required to check each screen, Miller explains.
The screening stations, like other "buildings" on site, are nothing more than a frame of thin trees with a roof of black netting to keep out the blazing sun intensified by high humidity.
One day last month, an iPod and a pair of speakers sat on a screen hanging from a screening station roof. Green Day's I Walk Alone floated in the air, adding a surreal touch but also lightening the mood.
A language barrier exists between most of the Cambodians and Americans, but a two-day visit to the site revealed plenty of smiles on both sides and apparently amiable relations.
A Cambodian police official on site forbade interviews with local workers, according to Marine Capt. Michael Craighead, the team leader.
But Sieng Lapresse, vice chairman of Cambodia's POW-MIA Committee, said, "We realize the past is over," adding that his countrymen understand the need to return the remains of missing soldiers to their families.
Cambodians face a similar situation on a much more massive scale given that about 2 million of their countrymen died under the communist dictatorship of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.
"It's not a finished job," Lapresse said of the search for remains during an interview at the site. "We know how the American friends and their family feel about it."
In addition to possible human remains, any remnants of personal effects belonging to the U.S. pilot will be shipped back to the JPAC laboratory in Hawaii. So will any debris that can help confirm the aircraft's identity.
Despite the time and effort spent trying to unearth the remains, pieces with no evidentiary value are reburied in Cambodia. The coordinates are duly recorded, but there is no marker and no ceremony.
Yet for many, including Miller, the excavation of a decades-old fighter crash site speaks to them of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the casualties that are occurring there.
"It brings home the reality of wartime," Miller said of her work, "and the ramifications of what's going on in the world right now."
kassj@RockyMountainNews.com
Ellie
U.S. team searches Cambodian site as part of effort to ensure no service member is left behind
By Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News
February 11, 2006
KAMPONG THOM PROVINCE, Cambodia - A black plastic bucket partially filled with bits of metal and rubber hangs from a wood post here, nearly 8,500 miles from America and more than 30 years after the Vietnam War.
But the search continues for the remains of a U.S. Air Force pilot - and his downed jet - as part of an unusual military program dedicated to recovering and identifying the remains of every American service member listed as missing in action from nearly every conflict in which the United States has been involved.
As part of that mission, 15 U.S. military personnel and a civilian archaeologist have been rumbling down a dirt road in this central Cambodian province for nearly a month, past primitive dwellings, through villages that appear populated equally by livestock and humans.
The site they're working is now a large excavation, dug by a backhoe and 100 villagers. The effort, on a plot of land in an area once targeted for a military strike, is characterized by international cooperation.
"A lot of work and a lot of resources go into bringing home our heroes," said Maj. Duane Hennion, an Army doctor who, like other team members, sifts dirt for crash remains when he isn't occupied by other duties.
"It was 30 years ago," he said of the Vietnam War. "Relationships have changed. It's just a chance for us to show goodwill between nations."
Hennion and his colleagues are part of the military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, based at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. JPAC was formed in 2003 but continues work begun in 1973 in similar projects.
With an annual budget of about $47 million, JPAC draws on every branch of the military as well as civilians to work in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
The command, whose mission does not include current conflicts, concentrates on cases from World War II and later but has reviewed the remains of a soldier dating back to the War of 1812, said Air Force 1st Lt. Jim Ivie, a spokesman for JPAC in Hawaii.
While some team members in Cambodia say they were not even aware of the unit until recently, Ivie says no other country in the world commits as many resources to fulfilling the JPAC mission statement: "Until they are home."
"Obviously, our primary mission is to return Americans home, but a side benefit to that is that you have military personnel on a humanitarian mission," Ivie said. "If that can help in any way improve relations with other nations, that's great."
Killed on impact
JPAC does not publicly name the soldiers being sought while a search is under way but does release incident details.
The current Cambodia excavation grew out of an April 4, 1971, strafing run to destroy a suspected storage depot as the Vietnam War spilled into this neighboring country.
The F-100D Super Sabre jet was making its fifth pass over the target when white vapor started streaming from its left wing. The plane continued its "slight descent," according to JPAC, before rolling upside down and crashing. The pilot appears to have died on impact.
An aerial search was conducted the day after the crash, but JPAC says intense enemy activity prevented a ground search. Villagers buried the pilot, but the body was moved over the years, according to reports. JPAC excavated the area on two previous occasions, in January and October of last year.
After the January dig, possible human remains were returned to JPAC headquarters for analysis. But the fragments proved too small for preliminary tests to determine if they were human, according to Ivie. More thorough tests will be conducted when the excavation site is deemed "closed."
Last month, the Kampong Thom excavation became the first JPAC operation in Cambodia to be visited by a reporter in at least five years, Ivie says. The monthlong dig is scheduled to end Sunday.
The work site is considered large, with the most concentrated debris spread over an area 185 by 80 meters - about 610 by 265 feet - says Laura Miller, the energetic archaeologist who oversees the dig.
As at many sites, investigators expect to recover only small pieces of human remains, such as teeth or bone fragments, after decades of disintegration and human intrusion have taken their toll. Scavengers, in fact, had removed 95 percent of the plane long before this effort had begun, according to Miller.
The process of finding what is left is meticulous and difficult. "You never know what it is until you dig it," said Air Force Lt. Col. Pete Huddle, who is based in Bangkok, Thailand, and oversees Cambodian operations, during a visit to the Kampong Thom site.
Dirt sifted for remains
Rice paddies here have been drained, allowing a backhoe operated by a local civilian to scoop out 4-by-4-meter squares and dump the dirt onto an adjacent tarp.
Under a division of labor set up by the Cambodians - who are paid for their efforts - the dirt is then shoveled into plastic buckets and ferried to one of three screening stations staffed by women.
At one station, 14 women hover over metal screens. Their standard-issue white plastic aprons and orange rubber gloves are set off by gingham-print scarves wrapped around their heads.
With a trowel in one hand, the women sift through the dirt and break up large clods. They use hoses hanging overhead to flush away dirt until nothing is left but pebbles - at least to the naked eye. The women expertly nab precious items that might easily escape notice: a tiny silver coil, a dark metal fragment, maybe a piece of bone.
JPAC team members stand across from the Cambodian women because an American is required to check each screen, Miller explains.
The screening stations, like other "buildings" on site, are nothing more than a frame of thin trees with a roof of black netting to keep out the blazing sun intensified by high humidity.
One day last month, an iPod and a pair of speakers sat on a screen hanging from a screening station roof. Green Day's I Walk Alone floated in the air, adding a surreal touch but also lightening the mood.
A language barrier exists between most of the Cambodians and Americans, but a two-day visit to the site revealed plenty of smiles on both sides and apparently amiable relations.
A Cambodian police official on site forbade interviews with local workers, according to Marine Capt. Michael Craighead, the team leader.
But Sieng Lapresse, vice chairman of Cambodia's POW-MIA Committee, said, "We realize the past is over," adding that his countrymen understand the need to return the remains of missing soldiers to their families.
Cambodians face a similar situation on a much more massive scale given that about 2 million of their countrymen died under the communist dictatorship of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.
"It's not a finished job," Lapresse said of the search for remains during an interview at the site. "We know how the American friends and their family feel about it."
In addition to possible human remains, any remnants of personal effects belonging to the U.S. pilot will be shipped back to the JPAC laboratory in Hawaii. So will any debris that can help confirm the aircraft's identity.
Despite the time and effort spent trying to unearth the remains, pieces with no evidentiary value are reburied in Cambodia. The coordinates are duly recorded, but there is no marker and no ceremony.
Yet for many, including Miller, the excavation of a decades-old fighter crash site speaks to them of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the casualties that are occurring there.
"It brings home the reality of wartime," Miller said of her work, "and the ramifications of what's going on in the world right now."
kassj@RockyMountainNews.com
Ellie