NOT FORGOTTEN

OUR ADOPTED POW/MIAs

Name: Gary Henry Fors
Rank/Branch: O3/US Marine Corps
Unit: VMFA 122, MAG 11
Date of Birth: 29 April 1941
Home City of Record: Puyallup WA
Date of Loss: 22 December 1967
Country of Loss: Laos
Status (In 1973): Missing In Action

SYNOPSIS: The Phantom, used by Air Force, Marine and Navy air wings, served a multitude of functions including fighter-bomber and interceptor, photo and electronic surveillance. The two man aircraft was extremely fast (Mach 2),and had a long range (900 - 2300 miles, depending on stores and mission type). The F4 was also extremely maneuverable and handled well at low and high altitudes. The F4 was selected for a number of state-of-the-art electronics conversions, which improved radar intercept and computer bombing capabilities enormously. Most pilots considered it one of the "hottest" planes around. Capt. Gary H. Fors was the pilot, and Lt. Gary Lashlee his weapons systems operator when the two led an attack mission over Laos in their F4B Phantom. At a point about 5 miles inside Laos in northern Saravane Province, Fors' aircraft was hit and he and Lashlee ejected. Lashlee, the first to eject and still drifting towards the ground, observed Fors as he parachuted safely to the ground near the crash site of the aircraft. As Fors was landing on the ground, communist troops were approaching. Lashlee drifted farther away, and could not determine what happened next. The Marine Corps concluded that Fors had probably been captured. Lt. Gary Lashlee drifted was rescued within half an hour. In 1969, Fors' family identified him in pictures of captured servicemen. The military first ruled the photo unrecognizable, then agreed with an Air Force POW who, after he was released in 1973, said it was a picture of himself. In 1972, a Pathet Lao defector reported that he had seen someone who looked like Gary Fors chained near a limestone cave in Laos. A photograph of a POW in captivity was correlated to Fors by CIA in 1973. In 1980, a Seattle refugee resident named Boukeva Phavavont said that in 1976, after his own capture by communist soldiers the year before, he saw five Americans imprisoned in a cave near the site where Fors was shot down. Fors is one of nearly 600 Americans who were left behind in Laos. Even though the Pathet Lao stated publicly that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, these men were not negotiated for in the Paris Peace Accords which resulted in the release of 591 Americans from North Vietnam. Nearly 10,000 reports such as those on Gary Fors have been received by the U.S. Government since American involvement in Indochina ended in 1975, yet U.S. policy continues to be that there is not actionable evidence that any Americans are still alive. Many authorities disagree, believing that there are hundreds of Americans still alive and being held unjustly and against their will in Southeast Asia. Gary Fors could be one of those thought to still be alive. If so, what must he be thinking of us?

Name: Peter Joe Wilson
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army
Unit: Command and Control Central, MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 23 August 1938 (Ridley Park PA)
Home City of Record: Pulaski, NY
Date of Loss: 19 October 1970
Country of Loss: Loas
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action

SYNOPSIS: In Vietnam, Peter J. Wilson was assigned to MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions. On October 19, 1970, SSG Wilson was the team leader of a long range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) that made contact with a numerically superior enemy force in the tri-border of Laos southwest of Ben Het. After the fourth contact with the enemy, Wilson directed SGT John M. Baker to the front of the patrol and told him to continue to the east if the column was split. At that time, Wilson was covering the rear of the patrol and assisting a wounded indigenous soldier, Djuit. The patrol abandoned the battlefield with the enemy in hot pursuit. Later, Baker heard Wilson transmit, "May Day, May Day" on his emergency radio and the sounds of a firefight from the direction of the separated patrol element. This was the last word of Peter Joe Wilson. An intense air search was made for 3 days without success. Wilson was never found, and is listed among nearly 600 Americans missing in Laos. Although the Pathet Lao stated on several occasions that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, not one American was ever released that was held in Laos. Laos was not part of the peace agreements ending American involvement in Southeast Asia, and the U.S. has never negotiated for these prisoners since that time. For every insertion like Wilson's that was detected and stopped, dozens of other commando teams safely slipped past NVA lines to strike a wide range of targets and collect vital information. The number of MACV-SOG missions conducted with Special Forces reconnaissance teams into Laos and Cambodia was 452 in 1969. It was the most sustained American campaign of raiding, sabotage and intelligence gathering waged on foreign soil in U.S. military history. MACV-SOG's teams earned a global reputation as one of the most combat effective deep penetration forces ever raised. The missions Wilson and others were assigned were exceedingly dangerous and of strategic importance. The men who were put into such situations knew the chances of their recovery if captured was slim to none. They quite naturally assumed that their freedom would come by the end of the war. For 591 Americans, freedom did come at the end of the war. For another 2500, however, freedom has never come. Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to missing Americans in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S., convincing many authorities that hundreds remain alive in captivity. Peter J. Wilson could be among them. If so, what must he think of us?

�Had the (Congress) . . . . . , instead of exercising a manly confidence in their country, by whose confidence they had been so peculiarly distinguished, and of pointing out a system capable, in their judgment, of securing its happiness, taken the cold and sullen resolution of disappointing its ardent hopes, of sacrificing substance to forms, of committing the dearest interests of their country to the uncertainties of delay and the hazard of events, let me ask the man who can raise his mind to one elevated conception, who can awaken in his bosom one patriotic emotion, what judgment ought to have been pronounced by the impartial world, by the friends of mankind, by every virtuous citizen, on the conduct and character of this Assembly?�---JAMES MADISON, FEDERALIST PAPER NO. 40, PUBLISHED JANUARY 18, 1788.

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