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RECEIVED FROM: Paul Clever
July 9, 2014
During December 2012 my wife Nita and I searched for and located the CAP 72
Crash Site in the jungle of Saravane Province, Southern Laos. The mission was
successful in recovering artifacts which specifically linked this site to C-47
type aircraft as well as recovering human remains. Four days after our return
from Laos the US Air Force announced a new accounting of the CAP 72 Crew was
being undertaken.
During July 2013 the 30 lbs of remains which were recovered in 1969 were
disinterred and transported to the Central Identification Laboratory at Offut
Air Force Base, Omaha, NE. This is only the third disinterment from over 500
group burial sites located at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.
On Memorial Day 2013 the remains which were recovered during the 2012 mission
to Laos were repatriated in Olive Branch, MS and then delivered by Danny Russell
to the Central Identification Laboratory in Nebraska. All ten CAP 72 families
have provided the CIL with DNA reference samples and the families continue to
wait for pending identifications and accountings of their loved-ones lost so
long ago.
Though it took unconventional methods to accomplish, I believe we as Americans
have "kept the faith" with this honored crew and have "brought them home". My
heart continues to grieve for the families who have waited over forty-five years
for this covenant to be upheld.
Paul Clever
RECEIVED FROM: Paul Clever
July 13, 2014
Hi JC,
As I mentioned in my last update: there are over 500 group burial sites at this
cemetery and this is only the third group site to be disinterred. It is something
which simply does not happen.
As I read the earlier updates which were posted on the EC 47 website I marveled
in how far this effort has come. The person which wrote to you years ago simply
did not understand what he was setting out to do was impossible. From the disinterment,
to locating remains at the crash site, to leveraging the Air Force to reexamine the
accounting: pretty much everything we set out to do was impossible. Yet here we are today.
The one thing that each CAP 72 family member which I have interviewed over the years
has needed the most (above the accounting of their loved ones) was the story of what
their loved ones were doing and the value of their sacrifice measured in an
understandable way. I remember clearly the look on Mike Connor Jr. face when I told
him about what his Dad was doing. He grew about three inches taller during the
conversation and his shoulders pulled back just a bit.
There is a process in pretty much everything we do. Each step in a process can be
traced back to a first step: where it all begins. When I trace the accounting of
CAP 72's Crew back to the first step I believe I was sitting in front of my computer
early one morning looking at the EC47 website for the first time. Imagine my surprise.
I believe I got up from that computer a little taller.
When you get to heaven and the veil which blocks us from all knowledge is lifted I expect
you will be pleased with how your efforts over the years towards telling the ARDF-in-Vietnam
story has impacted people which you have never met: Not just on a technical level, but on
an emotional level.
I remember how welcoming you were when NIta and I attended the reunion in San Antonio
years ago. I remember getting to sit in my Father's seat during the group photo: that was
special. About a year ago Roger Niles sent me an email about some trivial matter. At the
end of the email he wrote "You are one of us.". This email is one of my most prized possessions.
In November 2013 Mrs. Cindy Burke (CAP 72 Co-pilot's widow) was given Captain Burke's dog
tag (which had been recovered in 1995 at the crash site). This is probably a piece which
Mrs. Burke had touched many time and a piece which was with her husband when he died. Then
ended when the aircraft impacted the ground. I have held that dog tag in my hand.
Think of all the healing which would have been cheated from so many if you had not done
what you have done.
Thank you JC.
Please claim your share in achieving the impossible. You have Kept the Faith. You have
earned the laurel. Again, THANKS J.C.
It has been the long-standing covenant between the United States and its fighting forces when one should fall on the field of battle a determined effort will be made to bring that warrior back home to rest in peace.
On February 5, 1969 an EC-47Q code named “CAP 72” was shot down by hostile fire in Southern Laos near the Ho Chi Minh Trails System. In June 1969 a Security Recovery team went to the crash site which was located in a particularly dangerous area to recover remains and destroy classified material. With consideration for safety of the Recovery Team the cockpit which was driven underground in the crash was not excavated. The pilot; Major Homer Lynn and co-pilot; Captain Walter Burke (along with a possible third person) were left behind.
Over forty-years later and for whatever reasons there has never been a return visit to the crash site to recover the remains of these fallen warriors: even though documentation indicates the need. The official Crash Investigation was labeled as “Closed” in 1969 which makes the site ineligible for a Joint Prisoner of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) return visit today.
A small organization has been formed with the specific mission of finding, marking, and excavating the wreckage of CAP 72 to insure a determined effort has been made towards achieving “maximum recover” of crewmember remains. This organization is called CAP 72: MRSEA (Maximum Recovery in Southeast Asia). A privately-funded MRSEA plan is already in practical execution to aggressively search the mountainous jungle terrain of the crash area in November 2012.
As a family member of one of the crew lost with CAP 72 I can testify to the sorrow which has lingered all these years because there has never been a physical or emotional closure regarding the deaths of our loved-ones. As an American I can testify if we have willingly left one of our fallen warriors behind, then we have broken our covenant with all American fighting forces.
Together we may not be able to change the course of history or the course of warfare. We may be dwarfed by the military bureaucracy and federal government complexes. But as common Americans we share a legacy of achieving extraordinary things when our collective spirits are united. We can "make things right" for the families of this one aircraft lost so long ago.
When you are approached with a request to support MRSEA and this expedition please know your generosity will be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted,
Paul D Clever
There has to be Fear before there is Courage. Honor resides on the the other side of Courge.
The article immediately above was submitted by the son of one of the Crewmwmbers lost with this aircraft.
Much more of this loss and others can be found on The EC-47 History Site at ec47.com please check it out.
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