The O1 Bird Dog was used widely by Army, Air Force and Marine Corps forward air controllers in Southeast Asia. The slower, low-flying craft could locate and mark targets with accuracy not possible by higher flying jets. Although it performed a valuable service, the O1 also lacked adequate armor or self-sealing fuel tanks, its range was short and it carried too few rockets. It was used widely as late as 1968, whereupon the planes passed into the hands of Lao and South Vietnamese airmen. In the years following the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugees have fled Southeast Asia, bringing with them reports of Americans still alive and in captivity in their homelands. By 1989, the number of these reports topped the 8000 mark. A committee charged with investigating Defense Intelligence Agency, the entity charged with analysis of these reports, concluded that there was a strong possiblity that Americans were being held against their will. The Reagan administration declared for eight years that the resolution of the POW/MIA issue was one of "highest national priority". President Nixon said the same thing. These words have no meaning to men like Jerry Clark, should he be one of the hundreds still thought to be alive. We can't emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing this issue inside the Beltway... The need to get specific answers is more important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70s...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the bureaucrats and keep standing on their necks (figureatively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about getting these long overdue responses.
Diplomatic considerations aside...We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or influence the fate of men who were "in the trences" while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "Their Plans" for the future of Southeast Asia. To get email addresses for your Congressmen and Senators please go to: Congressmen: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ Senators: http://www.ussenate.com/email.htm Email addresses for the President and Vice President are: President@whitehouse.gov vice.president@whitehouse.gov We urge you to help us "keep up the pressure" on the politicians and bureaucrats and "demand" that answers be provided. Our POW/MIAs deserve NOTHING LESS! LET'S BRING THEM HOME NOW!
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