SYNOPSIS: On February 6, 1969, CW2 Charles I. Stanley, pilot; 1Lt. David E. Padgett, aircraft commander; SP5 Robert C. O'Hara, crew chief; PFC Eugene F. Christiansen, door gunner; LtCol. Donald E. Parsons, 1Lt. Ronald D. Briggs, and Maj. Vu Vanh Phao, ARVN, all passengers, were aboard a UH1H (serial #67-17499) on a resupply mission in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam.

While in route from Landing Zone Vandergrift to LZ Tornado, 1Lt. Padget contacted the LZ Tornado radio operator at about 1100 hours and stated that due to poor weather conditions and poor visibility, the flight was returning to LZ Vandergrift.

At that time, the radio operator at LZ Tornado could hear the helicopter northeast of his location, which sounded as if it were heading in a northerly direction. When the aircraft failed to return to LZ Vandergrift, a coordinated search and rescue operation was initiated and continued for seven consecutive days, finding nothing.

However, on the morning of February 7, Crown, an airborne control aircraft, reported receiving radio beeper signals several times from the general vicinity of where Lt. Padgett's aircraft was last reported. The beeper signals were estimated to emanate from that general direction. The source of the signals was never determined.

The area in which the aircraft was estimated to go down has been dubbed "Antenna Valley" and is located west of Cam Lo and on the backside of Camp Carrol. The area was occupied by NVA regulars, and was never cleared. On-site search was not possible at that time.

On September 4, 1969, an ARVN source reported that in August he had seen LTC Parsons, Maj. Phao, LT Briggs, and four other unidentified American POWs in a hospital in Laos. The U.S. Army determined that the four unidentified Americans could possibly be Christiansen, Stanley, Padgett and O'Hara.

On July 5, 1972, an NVA rallier reported seeing two caucasian POWs in the vicinity of a T-35 commo-liaison station on the 499th infiltration corridor in Laos. The two POWs were being taken to North Vietnam. This information was tentatively correlated to LT Padgett and PCF Christiansen.

In September 1970, LTC Parson's wife and friends identified him in a North Vietnamese film of a protestant service in a POW environment. CW2 Stanley's mother made a tentative identification of her son in the same film.

In December 1979, an alleged "gun-runner", Sean O'Toolis reported that he had the fingerprints of Robert O'Hara, and that O'Hara was at that time being held south of Hanoi near Bong Song. O'Toolis' information was summarily dismissed by the U.S. Government and he was thoroughly discredited, thus it is not clear how much credence can be given to his information.

The reports relating to the crew of the UH1H that went down on February 6, 1969 are typical of the over 10,000 reports received by the U.S. Government relating to Americans prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. After reviewing "several million documents" and conducting "over 250,000 interviews" the USG has been unable to state categorically that Americans are still alive.

Many authorities, however, including a former Director of Defense Intelligence Agency, have reluctantly concluded that there are many Americans still held against their will in Southeast Asia.

Families who receive these reports are especially tortured. With no means to prove or disprove them, the tormen is indescribable. When they turn to their government, they are usually met with the "mindset to debunk" described by one high official in Congressional hearings. When they approach Vietnam, they are told the person they seek is unknown to them. Yet the reports continue to flow in, month after month, year after year. And year after year, families wait.

And year after year, American servicemen wait -- wondering if their country will ever bring them home.

Subject: Vietnam MIAs Identified
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 14:00:17 -0400
From: dlnews_sender@DTIC.MIL

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 398-02
(703)697-5131(media)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2002
(703)697-5737(public/industry)

VIETNAM MIAS IDENTIFIED

The remains of three U.S. Army servicemen previously unaccounted for from the war in Vietnam have been identified and are being returned to their families.

They are Lt. Col. Donald Eugene Parsons, of Sparta, Ill.; Chief Warrant Officer Charles I. Stanley, of Cleveland and Sgt. 1st Class Eugene F. Christiansen, of Barstow, Calif.

On Feb. 6, 1969, Stanley and Christiansen were members of a crew of a UH-1H Huey helicopter, flying Parsons and one other individual on an emergency resupply mission in South Vietnam. While enroute from a landing zone in the Quang Tri province, the crew radioed that the flight was returning due to poor weather conditions and reduced visibility. When the flight did not return, a search and rescue mission was initiated, but it proved unsuccessful in locating the missing aircraft.

In December 1993, a joint U.S. and Vietnam investigation team, led by the Joint Task Force- Full Accounting, interviewed several local informants in Quang Tri province. One claimed to possess the remains of a missing serviceman. Two months later, the remains were repatriated to U.S. officials and submitted to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI), for analysis.

On July 16, 1995, another joint U.S. and Vietnam team interviewed a witness who gave information about a helicopter crash site in the Huong Hoa District. After investigating the site, the team recovered aircraft debris, personal artifacts, and human remains that corresponded to the missing aircraft and its crewmembers. This additional evidence was also transported to CILHI.

From July 1996 to October 1996, additional remains, personal artifacts, and aircraft debris were recovered from the crash site. Some of the remains were submitted by CILHI to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory for mitochondrial DNA analysis. By analyzing dental records and comparing the DNA of skeletal fragments found at the crash site to that of maternal family members, CILHI scientists were able to make positive identifications of the missing servicemen. The remains of three others from the same incident have yet to be identified.