The Lt. Colonel drew several detailed maps of the area showing the Plain of Jars, the Phon Savan airport, the seminar camp near the airport where he and his fellow inmates had been held and the jail complex at Ban Nok where he and the others had seen the Americans. He was careful to make a notation on each map that the area around the Ban Nok jail was heavily wooded and thus the jail could not be seen from the air. He also provided the analysts with a number of rough sketches of himself and his fellow prisoners riding past the Ban Nok jail in the back of a truck and of the two Americans standing inside the jail compound. 11
The Lt. Colonel described both Americans as being thin and bearded and having long, shoulder-length light brown hair. When asked how old they were, he said he could not estimate their ages because their faces were too thin to allow for such an estimate. He said that both times he saw the Americans they were wearing leg chains and old green PL uniforms that were faded almost white.
The Lt. Colonel explained that he had first seen the two while riding past the jail in August 1978 and that at that time the Americans were picking up trash inside a barbed wire compound that had been constructed around the mouths of several caves. He said that when passing the compound again in December he had again seen the same two Americans and that this time they were sunning themselves near the entrance to one of the caves. He said he was certain the men were Americans POWs because, first, the instructors at his camp had repeatedly told him and his fellow inmates that American POWs were being held in the area; and secondly, because a Pathet Lao guard captain and some villagers in the area where the Americans were held had told him that the two prisoners he had seen were Americans.
At the conclusion of the interviews, a polygraph was administered by a certified DoD polygraph examiner. The results indicated that the Lt. Colonel had testified truthfully about having twice observed the two American prisoners inside the jail at Ban Nok. 12
Background: The Plain of Jars, located approximately 100 miles north northeast of the Laotian capital of Vientiane, gets its name from the hundreds of prehistoric stone jars, some over 10 feet tall and measuring five feet across, that dot the area’s fertile, gently rolling landscape. Called "Thong Hai Hin" ("Plain of Jars") by the Lao and known to most westerners by the acronym "PDJ" - from the French "Plaine Des Jarres" - the irregularly shaped, roughly 18x18 statute mile Plain is surrounded by towering karst mountains that rise precipitously around its edges and is dotted with caves that protrude from its floor like stone bubbles. (Authors’ photo).
 |
| REP. HENDON OUTSIDE CAVE ON PDJ, NOVEMBER 1982. (Hendon Congressional Files) |
Strategically located at the intersection of National Routes 4 and 7, the Plain has long been the economic hub of northern Laos. There are many small airstrips located on and around the Plain, and two major airfields - Muong Phanh, Phon Savan’s main airport located just north of the city and the Thong Hai Hin (Plain of Jars) military airfield located just west of Phon Savan.
Because of its strategic economic and military importance, the Plain was the site of many bloody ground battles during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. When good weather prevailed and air support was plentiful, pro-American Royal Lao, Neutralist and Hmong forces and their American advisors, backed by planes flown by U.S. military, CIA, Royal Lao and Thai pilots generally had the run of the area; however, when the monsoon rains began and allied air activity was curtailed, Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops would move down from the mountains in force and drive the allies from the Plain. Then, when the weather improved, air attacks would resume and the process would reverse itself. This fighting and re-fighting over the same territory went on for years, and resulted in the PDJ being subjected to bombing more intense than any other region in the history of warfare. By war’s end all of the villages and towns in the area of the Plain, including Phon Savan on the eastern side of the Plain, and the ancient capital city of Xieng Khoang, located on Route 4 just southeast of the Plain, had been totally destroyed.
The first indication that American servicemen were still alive in the area after the war had come in July 1973, mere weeks after the end of Operation Homecoming. It was then that U.S. intelligence analysts studying reconnaissance photos taken just northeast of the Plain by a "Buffalo Hunter" pilotless drone had discovered that sometime just prior to 20 May 1973, the numbers "1973" followed by the letters "TH" had been either tramped or cut into elephant grass near the intersection of a trail and a primitive road and adjacent to what appeared to be a primitive shelter. 13 (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 1).
An examination of this photography by Senate investigators in 1992 (the photography was still highly classified at the time) would show that the "T" portion of the "1973 TH" had been modified by the person or persons who had put it down in the elephant grass in a manner that, when combined with the "H," formed an official USAF/USN escape and evasion symbol known as a "Flying Tango Hotel." This symbol had been one of many such escape and evasion symbols that had been given to U.S. air crewmen during the war with instructions that if they survived their loss incident they should immediately display the signal on the ground to inform anyone flying overhead that they were alive and awaiting rescue.
The "Flying Tango Hotel" seen in the 1973 photography derived its name from its two core letters, the "T," known in the military alphabet as a "Tango," and the "H," known as a "Hotel," and the fact that short, downward sloping "wings" had been added to each end of the crossbar of the "T" to denote flight or evasion and to help prevent the signal from being viewed as having occurred naturally on the ground. 14 Senate investigators would determine that in spite of an almost 20-year effort by Special Office management to disparage the photo - first to DoD officials at the time the photo was first received, then to the Montgomery Committee in 1976, then the U.S. House Task Force on POWs and MIAs in 1985 and finally to the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs in 1992—the "Flying Tango Hotel" photographed on the ground just northeast of the PDJ in the spring of 1973 had been a clear and unmistakable message to the U.S. government: "I am an American flier. I am alive. Get me the hell out of here." 15
A second report of an American air crewman being alive in the area around the time the war ended had been received at the Special Office in 1974. This report, received from the CIA, stated that an American pilot had been seen in captivity at war’s end in a cave detention center located at Xieng Khoang province town, just southeast of the PDJ on Route 4. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 2). The source of this report told CIA that he had personally observed the downed American flier when Communist soldiers brought the man into the cave where the source was being detained. The source said the American was still dressed in his flight suit and zippered flight boots and appeared to be suffering from a wound or injury to his left leg. The source further stated that he had been present when North Vietnamese and PL troops later interrogated the American, and that he could still recall two words the American had spoken during his interrogation. One, he said, was "Texas," the other "Korat." 16
Following receipt of the "Texas/Korat" report, the trail had gone cold, and for five years, from 1974 until 1979, records show that the Special Office had received no further intelligence even remotely suggesting the presence of American military personnel on or near the PDJ. Then, in mid-May 1979, the Office had received a report from JCRC in Bangkok that told of six American POWs being held in January 1979 in a cave prison just northeast of Phon Savan. This report quoted a Lao merchant lady who worked in the market at Phon Savan as saying in January 1979 that her two sons, both of whom were Communist soldiers, were guarding six American and eight Thai prisoners at a nearby prison cave. The merchant lady reportedly said the facility was located near "Kilo 7," the kilometer 7 road marker stone on Route 7 northeast of Phon Savan. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 3). The lady also reportedly said her sons had told her the Americans were kept inside the cave continuously except for Saturdays, when they were allowed outside for exercise and sunning. The JCRC report concluded by quoting the lady as saying that the Americans were still being held "because there is still a war going on" and that if anyone didn’t believe she was telling the truth about the Americans, that person could "bring one of those American diplomats over here to see for himself." 17
In March 1980, the Special Office had received another JCRC report from Bangkok that told of Americans imprisoned near Route 7 northeast of Phon Savan. This report quoted a Hmong refugee with strong Pathet Lao connections as saying he had seen two American POWs less than a year earlier—and had heard about a third—all of whom were being detained in a cave prison near Ban Sala, a small village located just off Route 7 northeast of Phon Savan. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 4). The refugee reported that he had seen the Americans at the prison on 15 April 1979 at 1500 hours (3 p.m.) for approximately five minutes from a distance of 10 meters. He explained to JCRC interviewers that he could recall the exact information about the sighting because he had been working for the Pathet Lao at the time and had been required to keep a detailed diary of his political activities.
The refugee went on to say that he had observed the two Americans as they were being taken from their prison cave that afternoon for fresh air and sunshine. Both men, he said, were Caucasian and both were dressed in ill-fitting PL military uniforms. He said the older of the two appeared to be approximately 35 years of age and had what the refugee described as "black and red" stubble on his head which a guard said was re-growth from an earlier period when the prisoner’s head had been shaved to prevent him from escaping. The other prisoner was approximately 30 years old, was very skinny and had what the refugee described as "very long red hair."* The refugee reported that the guard who was guarding the two Americans told him that a third American was also being held at the cave, and that all three were pilots who had been captured in the Lao/Vietnam border area. 18
In mid-February 1982, the Special Office had received yet another report from JCRC in Bangkok that told of American POWs being held after the war on the PDJ. This report quoted a former PL militiaman who said that during early 1973 he had seen four or five Caucasian prisoners whom he assumed to be captured American pilots who were being held at a PL detention facility located on Route 7 near Ban Son village, just northeast of the PDJ. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 5). The militiaman said that the Americans, dressed in PL uniforms that were obviously far too small for them, were outside emptying their waste buckets when he saw them. He said a friend at the detention facility told him that the prisoners "would be returned to the American government when the war ended." The militiaman drew a sketch of the detention facility and its approximate location east of Route 7. 19
In June 1983, a former Royal Lao Major visiting the U.S. from his home in France approached the Special Office through intermediaries with information about POWs reportedly being held at various locations in Laos. When interviewed by Special Office analysts in Washington in early July, the Major said that he and former Neutralist General Kong Le had gathered the information in France from a number of fellow Laotians who had emigrated there. The Major told the analysts that based on the information he and General Kong Le had collected, they had determined that the U.S. should concentrate its search for living POWs on three specific areas of Laos: the Plaine Des Jarres, the panhandle region of central Laos and the old guerilla stronghold of Sam Neua. Specifically addressing the area of the PDJ, the Major informed the analysts that sources had reported that there was a camp for American POWs located somewhere between Phon Savan and Muong Kheung and that about 15 American POWs had been detained there after 1976. 20 (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 6 (est.)).
By August 1983, then, the time the Special Office analysts first interviewed the Royal Lao Lt. Colonel about his sightings of the two American prisoners held in the Ban Nok jail during late 1978, all six of the above mentioned intelligence reports were already in the Special Office files, i.e., (1) the Buffalo Hunter drone photography showing the "Flying Tango Hotel" USAF/USN escape and evasion code laid out in elephant grass at a point just northeast of the Plain; (2) the report of the injured pilot—presumably from Texas and presumably based out of Korat—being interrogated in the cave near Xieng Khoang province town; (3) the report of the six American prisoners being held with eight Thai prisoners in a cave prison near the kilometer 7 road marker stone on Route 7; (4) the report of the three pilots being held in the cave prison near Ban Sala on Route 7; (5) the report of the American prisoners emptying their waste buckets at a PL detention facility at Ban Son village east of Route 7 and (6) the report of the 15 American POWs held in a prison located between Phon Savan and Muong Kheung. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," points 1-6).
Disposition of the Lt. Colonel’s case. Several months after the Lao desk analysts had first interviewed the Lt. Colonel about his sightings of the two American prisoners at the Ban Nok jail and administered the polygraph, the decision was made to bring the Lt. Colonel back to Washington for an additional week of interviews. During this series of interviews, which took place in early 1984, the Lt. Colonel was subjected to intense cross examination and then interrogated under hypnosis. 21 According to the AFOSI hypnotist’s report, the Lt. Colonel did not waver from his August testimony, but "repeated essentially the same story under hypnosis." 22
In June 1984, as the analysts continued to weigh the Lt. Colonel’s testimony—testimony now enhanced by both polygraph and hypnosis - the Special Office received word from JCRC officials in Bangkok that a former Royal Lao Second Lieutenant and his brother, a former Royal Lao Captain, had contacted JCRC representatives to report that they had both seen two Caucasian prisoners on the Plain of Jars on two or three occasions between the years 1976 and 1979. According to this JCRC report, the Lieutenant, speaking for himself and his brother who was present with him at the interview, stated that they had seen the Caucasians on several occasions near the village of Ban Na, located on the PDJ proper west of Phon Savan, and that each time they had seen them the Caucasians were being used in place of water buffalo and made to pull plows in the rice fields. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 7). He said that both of the Caucasians were under the guard of Vietnamese soldiers. Both Caucasians, he said, were thin and had long, light brown or blond hair, long beards and skin reddened by the sun. Both wore tattered green shirts and long green trousers and had sandbags wrapped around their feet for shoes. The Lieutenant further stated that a Communist soldier told him the two men pulling the plows were American pilots who had been captured during the war. 23
In October 1984, the Special Office received another report from JCRC officials in Bangkok that told of Americans being confined in the area of the PDJ. This report involved the testimony of a former Hmong 1st Lieutenant who had informed JCRC interviewers that his brother, whom he said was a pro-PL council member at Thong Hai Hin (the Plain of Jars), had told him some months before that in 1980 he had seen four or five Caucasian foreigners whom he believed were American prisoners at a PAVN work camp located northeast of the PDJ. The brother reportedly said the camp was located just off of Route 7 near the village of Ban Ta. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 8). The brother also reportedly said that the Americans were usually taken from Ban Ta to the nearby village of Nong Pet at night, (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 9), but that occasionally they remained overnight at their worksite at Ban Ta. 24
On 12 April 1985, Carol Bates, the former National League of Families official brought on board in 1983 (see An Enormous Crime, Chapter 22), received word that a Lao refugee who had recently arrived in the U.S. had information about American POWs held in Laos. When later contacted by another analyst and interviewed in the Lao language, the refugee said that he had learned from a relative who was in the North Vietnamese Army that he, the PAVN relative, had served as co-commander of a prison camp at Ban Namchon, a small village located about one and one-half kilometers (approximately one statute mile) northwest of the Phon Savan airport, and that located in the same area was an underground prison for foreigners, including American POWs, who were serving long sentences. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 10). The refugee quoted the PAVN co-commander as saying that American POWs were being held in the underground facility during 1978. 25
On 2 July 1985, as the analysts continued to ponder the Lt. Colonel’s two late-1978 sightings of the two American prisoners in the Ban Nok jail, the Special Office received word from JCRC in Bangkok that more American POWs had been sighted pulling plows in rice fields on the PDJ. The information was contained in a report describing the testimony of a 60-year-old former Royal Lao Special Guerilla Unit (SGU) Major, who had recently told JCRC interviewers that he had been held in a seminar camp at Najong, located some eight miles north of Phon Savan, and that during the summer of 1976 he had observed 10 Caucasians near his camp who were plowing the rice paddies in a state-owned rice field as water buffalo would, with two or three pulling the plow instead of the water buffalo and another in back guiding it. The Major said that the 10 Caucasians were guarded by Pathet Lao guards and that one of the guards said the men pulling the plows were American pilots who had been shot down during the war.
The Major went on to say that he had seen the group of Americans on two occasions when he and some other Lao prisoners were rotated into the area northwest of the PDJ where the Americans were working. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," estimated location point 11). The Major said that when he had seen the American pilots, all of whom were thin, they were wearing blue prison uniforms and black rubber sandals made from auto tires. None of the 10, he said, appeared to have been wounded or injured. The Major added that as the Americans worked he could hear them speaking English among themselves. 26
The JCRC report went on to state that the Major:
... POINTED OUT THAT IN COMPARISON, THE LAO PRISONERS IN HIS GROUP TOOK EIGHT MEN TO PULL THE PLOW. JCRC REP [THEN] TOLD SOURCE THAT HE HAD HEARD STORIES OF PRISONERS PULLING PLOWS BEFORE, BUT DID NOT UNDERSTAND HOW A FEW MEN COULD PULL A PLOW THAT USUALLY REQUIRED THE STRENGTH OF A WATER BUFFALO. SOURCE RESPONDED THAT THE FIELDS HAD BEEN INUNDATED AND WERE ONLY PLOWED TO A DEPTH OF A FEW INCHES. HE [FURTHER] EXPLAINED THAT USING PRISONERS TO PULL PLOWS IN LAOS WAS A COMMON PRACTICE FOR TWO REASONS. FIRST, MANY OF THE WATER BUFFALOS, ESPECIALLY IN THE XIANGKHOANG AREA HAD BEEN KILLED DURING THE HEAVY BOMBING OF THE AREA. SECOND, EVEN WHEN WATER BUFFALOS WERE AVAILABLE, THERE WAS TOO MUCH OF A RISK THAT THE ANIMAL COULD BE KILLED IF IT STEPPED ON ONE OF THE MANY CLUSTER BOMB UNITS (REFERRED TO LOCALLY AS "BOMBEES") WHICH HAD BEEN DROPPED IN THE AREA DURING THE WAR AND CONTINUED TO BE A HAZARD. [THEREFORE] WHEN PLOWING NEW FIELDS, IT WAS COMMON FOR THE LAO MILITARY TO ENGAGE PRISONERS, WHO WERE CONSIDERED MORE EXPENDABLE THAN WATER BUFFALOS. 27
On 27 January 1986, the Special Office received news from JCRC in Bangkok that a 36-year-old female Hmong refugee had recently told JCRC interviewers that she had personally observed a Caucasian prisoner whom she believed to be American at the Phon Savan market during December 1979. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 12) According to the JCRC report, this refugee had told JCRC interviewers that she was shopping at the market on an unrecalled day that December when, around 8:00 a.m., the Caucasian prisoner, chained at the ankles and accompanied by three Vietnamese military personnel armed with AK rifles, approached to within 10 meters of where she was standing. She said the prisoner had long, shoulder length blond hair and a full beard and mustache that were also blond. He appeared to be between 45 and 50 years old, was slightly over six feet tall, of medium build and wore glasses. The refugee recalled the Caucasian was wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt, khaki pants and green cloth military shoes. She told JCRC interviewers that she observed the prisoner for about 10 minutes while he looked over the various displays. She said that when the prisoner came upon an item he wanted he would point to it rather than speak. She stated that the prisoner ended up purchasing several items, but that she could recall only one, cigarettes. She said that when the prisoner completed his shopping he departed with his guards in the direction of the PDJ. She told JCRC interviewers that after the prisoner departed, she heard from spectators that he had been in a plane that had crashed somewhere in the Phon Savan area. 28
On 1 April 1986, the Special Office received another report from JCRC in Bangkok that told of American prisoners detained after the war on the PDJ. This report involved the testimony of a 50-year-old Hmong SGU Major who had recently informed JCRC interviewers that while being held in a seminar camp on the PDJ some four years earlier he had seen two American POWs and their Pathet Lao guards near the Phon Savan market. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 13). The Major explained that he and some fellow prisoners were on a work detail picking up trash along Route 7 near the market in April or May of 1982 when an old Russian truck approached on Route 7 from the east and stopped approximately 30 meters from where he was standing. He said that as he watched, two Caucasian prisoners got down off the truck, followed by two PL soldiers armed with AK-47’s. The Major said that the prisoners were given hoes and escorted to an area just off the road where they began working the soil for what he surmised would become a vegetable garden. The Major said the Caucasians were slender and tall and wore very old, worn out clothing. Neither, he said, appeared to have any physical infirmities. The Major said he was told a short time after the sighting that the two prisoners he had seen were Americans who had been captured "in the north" during the war and later brought to the area. He said he was further told that the two Americans were being held in the Nong Gnamma jail, located just northeast of Phon Savan. 29 (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 14).
Several months passed and then, during a six week period in November and December 1986, the Special Office received three more reports from JCRC that told of Americans being held prisoner on or around the PDJ.
The first of these reports, received from JCRC Bangkok on 13 November, described the eyewitness testimony of a Lao housewife who had recently told JCRC interviewers that in early 1985—some 18 months before - she had seen two American prisoners in the company of Vietnamese soldiers near Ban Song Hak, a small village located just north of the PDJ along Route 71. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 15). The housewife explained that she had gone to visit her sister who lived in a small village also located just north of the PDJ and that when she had arrived at her sister’s home, her sister had told her that she and her family were preparing to go work in the family rice field located at Ban Song Hak and had asked her if she would like to accompany them. The housewife said she agreed to the invitation and that the following morning she and the others departed on foot for the rice field. She said that at a point just before they reached their destination, she and the others were walking along a trail that cut across a broad, grass-covered field when they noticed a group of men walking toward them along the same trail in single file. She said that as the men got closer she could see that the two in the front of the column were Caucasians. She said that as the two groups approached and then passed one another on the trail she got a good look at the Caucasians. She said both were tall and light skinned and had regular length brown hair and were wearing well-worn short pants and shirts. Both were barefooted and both carried machetes. The housewife recalled that the two Caucasians were followed by about 10 soldiers dressed in green uniforms and wearing hats. Some of the soldiers carried AK-47 rifles and others had sidearms. She said she believed all of the soldiers were Vietnamese.
The housewife went on to say that after the two groups had passed one another on the trail, she remarked to her sister that she had never before seen Soviets running around without shoes. Her sister replied that the two Caucasians were not Soviets, but were American prisoners, and that most people in the area knew about them and that in fact she herself had seen them once before when she was visiting the nearby village of Muang (Muong) Kheung. 30 (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 16).
On 24 November, the Special Office received another report from JCRC about two American prisoners being held, coincidentally, in that same village of Muong Kheung. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 17). This report quoted a Hmong refugee who had served as an SGU Captain during the war as telling a JCRC interviewer that he had learned from another SGU soldier in late 1982 that two American were "living under loose Vietnamese control" in Muong Kheung. JCRC reported that the Captain said that when he had been told about the two Americans by the friend, he had asked the friend if he was sure they were Americans and not Soviets and that the friend had replied that he was certain the two were Americans and had added that the Vietnamese often took them in leg chains to work in vegetable gardens located on the outskirts of Muong Kheung. 31
On 1 December, the Special Office received the third of the late 1986 reports, this one quoting a former Lao SGU soldier as telling JCRC interviewers in Thailand that he had seen two Caucasian prisoners in chains near the Phon Savan airport in 1979. The former soldier said that on an unrecalled day in August/September 1979 he was being detained in a holding facility located just across the road from the Phon Savan airport when he noticed four men walking single file along the road toward where he was being held. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 18). He said that when the men got closer he could see that the first and third were Caucasians, both of whom were chained at the wrists and ankles, and that behind each Caucasian was an armed Pathet Lao soldier. The former soldier described both Caucasians as being thin and having light skin and longish, unkempt brown hair. Both wore dingy long sleeved shirts and mid calf length pants that were short enough to enable the source to see the metal cuffs around their ankles. 32
In 1987, the reports on live POWs held on or near the PDJ continued.
In February 1987, JCRC informed the Special Office that three Americans had reportedly been seen in 1982 at the town market in Xieng Khoang province town, located just southeast of the PDJ on Route 4, and that they had reportedly begged a passerby to help arrange their rescue. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 19). According to this JCRC report, a member of the Lao resistance living in Thailand had recently told JCRC interviewers that he had gone to visit relatives in the Xieng Khoang area in November 1982 and that while there his uncle had told him that he had recently met and talked with the three Americans at the Xieng Khoang market. The uncle reportedly said that the Americans were in the company of several Soviets who were watching them. The uncle reportedly further stated that he had been able to converse briefly with the Americans and that when he had told them that he did not like the Communists and was a supporter of the resistance, the Americans had asked him to swear that he was telling the truth and that after he had done so they had told him that if the Lao resistance or a Thai team would help them get to Thailand "they would take care of the persons responsible for their rescue for the rest of their lives." 33
In August, JCRC dispatched yet another report to the Special Office, this one containing the testimony of a former Royal Lao Lieutenant who had recently told JCRC interviewers that in April 1982 he had on two occasions seen four manacled Caucasian prisoners filling bomb craters inside a military camp adjacent to the Thong Hai Hin military airfield west of Phon Savan. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 20).
The Lieutenant said that he had seen the four Caucasians while visiting his cousin, a Pathet Lao Major based at the camp. The Lieutenant said that the first time he saw the Americans he had remarked to his cousin that "[T]hese Soviets look just like Americans, don’t they?" but that his cousin had replied, "[T]hey’re not Soviets, they are Americans." The Lieutenant said he had then asked his cousin, "[W]here did they come from?" and the cousin had replied, "[T]hey were in an airplane crash near Nong Het, 12 of them. Since they made these craters it is proper that they repair them. Besides these four, there are four working at Lat Sen…and four at Muang Phan…They are all kept together at night in a cave at Phu Keng Mountain." According to JCRC, the Lat Sen airfield was located on the southern PDJ near the intersections of Routes 5 and 74 in the vicinity of map coordinates UG 0539; (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 21); the Muong Phan airfield was located on the PDJ west of the Thong Hai Hin airfield in the vicinity of map coordinates TG 9949; (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 22), and Phou Keng (Mt. Keng) was located on the northwestern edge of the PDJ at map coordinates TG 9955. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 23).
The Lieutenant described the four Americans he saw at the Thong Hai Hin military airfield as being dressed in dark shirts and pants and wearing manacles with chains long enough to allow them to work. All were thin and though one had a disfigured arm that appeared to have been broken and not reset, all seemed to be in reasonably good health. The Lieutenant reported that the Americans were under the guard of both Pathet Lao and Vietnamese soldiers. 34
A year passed and then, in August 1988, the Special Office received two more reports from JCRC telling of American prisoners held captive on the PDJ. The first, hearsay in nature, was especially significant. This report, which was received at the Special Office on 11 August, told of three Americans held during the period 1976-1979 at "the Ban Nok jail," located just east of the PDJ and, of course, the same jail where the Royal Lao Lt. Colonel had reported that he had twice seen the two American POWs in captivity during late 1978. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 24). The source of this latest report about American POWs at the Ban Nok Jail was a former SGU 1st Lieutenant living in a refugee camp in Thailand who had come forward in response to a JCRC loudspeaker appeal for information on missing Americans.
The SGU Lieutenant told JCRC interviewers that his brother-in-law had been imprisoned in one section of the Ban Nok jail from 1976 to 1979 and that he had seen the three Americans on a number of occasions. According to the Lieutenant, the brother-in-law had described the Ban Nok Jail as being divided into three levels of detention: level one was for captured members of the Lao Resistance; level two was for Lao pilots and level three was for foreign prisoners, three of whom were American. The brother-in-law reportedly had said that on one occasion during his incarceration at Ban Nok the three Americans held there had been taken along with two of the Lao pilots to the military airfield west of Phon Savan to inspect aircraft the Communists had confiscated when the war ended. He reportedly said that while at the airfield the two Lao had taken a helicopter up for a test flight and after circling the airfield had flown off and escaped to Thailand. As a consequence, the brother-in-law reportedly said, the three Americans had not been allowed to make test flights of their own. The brother-in-law further reportedly said that [perhaps as punishment for what had occurred at the airfield] one of the Americans had had both of his thumbs cut off. 35
The second August report, received at the Special Office on the 17th, told of the 1982 sighting of two foreign prisoners, one Caucasian and one Thai, who were confined along with several hundred Lao prisoners at the Nong Boua labor camp, located just northeast of the PDJ near Ban Boua village. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 25). The source of this report, a member of the Lao resistance operating out of Thailand, had recently told JCRC interviewers that he had visited the Nong Boua camp in March 1982 and while there had seen the two foreign prisoners and had spoken briefly with the Thai.
The Lao resistance fighter described the Caucasian prisoner as being perhaps 60 years old and somewhat thin but in good health. He said the man stood approximately six feet tall and had short yellow hair and a darker full beard. At the time the source saw him, the prisoner was wearing a brown shirt, brown pants and green canvas shoes. The Thai, whose left forearm had been amputated, reportedly told the source during a brief conversation that the Caucasian was an American who had been held at the camp since 1976. The Thai also reportedly told the source that the American performed hard labor just like the other prisoners. 36
In September, 1988, the Special Office received yet another report from JCRC telling of Americans being held captive on the PDJ. According to this report, a Lao farmer had recently responded to a JCRC loudspeaker callout and had told JCRC interviewers that he had seen two older Caucasians in leg chains and under armed guard at the Phon Savan market in November 1986, some two years earlier. (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 26).
JCRC quoted the farmer as saying he had seen the two Caucasians, whom he was told were Americans, from distances as close as arms length while the two looked over displays of clothing items in the market. The farmer described the Americans as being dressed in white short sleeve shirts and white mid-calf pants similar to what patients in a hospital would wear. Both wore rubber sandals and both had leg irons attached to their ankles and connected by short chains. The farmer said that the chains rattled as the two Americans walked among the displays. He also said he had heard the two speaking in a language he believed to be English. The farmer added that a vendor at the market later told him that he had seen the two Americans at the market several times in the past, (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 27), and that he (the vendor) believed they were being detained either at the Nong Sadet jail located on the PDJ near Khang-Khai (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 28), or at the military prison at Song Hak/Muong Kheung, located just north of the PDJ.37 (Authors’ color map entitled "Sightings of U.S. POWs vic PDJ After January 1973," point 29). The analysts knew, of course, that there had been previous reports of American prisoners being detained in the Ban Song Hak/Muong Kheung area. (See sightings 16 and 17 above).
By the fall of 1988, the volume of intelligence received at the Special Office that told of American prisoners being held in and around the PDJ after the war had become quite impressive. As shown in the following table, more than two dozen independent sources had reported the presence of American pilots, aircrewmen and/or prisoners either evading capture in the area of the Plain or being held captive on, under, around or near the Plain from the spring of 1973 until November 1986.
n June 1983, a Vietnam vet named Tom Ashworth who lived in Arkansas and helped newly arrived Lao refugees acquire housing, employment, medical care and other services contacted the Special Office to report that one of the refugees he was assisting had recently told him that he had seen two American prisoners of war who were being held in a cave prison located just east of the Plain of Jars in northern Laos in late 1978. Ashworth, who had referred several refugees to the Special Office in the past and had long been convinced that Americans remained captive in Laos, informed the Special Office that he considered this refugee to be a credible witness and his account one of the most compelling he had ever heard. He provided the Special Office with the refugee’s name, U.S. address and telephone number and suggested that the analysts contact and interview the man at the earliest possible time.
