THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501190384
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
In a unique outreach to former enemies, Vietnam War veterans are digging through dusty footlockers and long-cinched duffel bags for clues that might help identify some of the 300,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers missing in action in Southeast Asia.
Photographs, maps, diaries and war souvenirs are being sought by leaders of the Vietnam Veterans of America, who believe that helping the Vietnamese identify their war dead will lead to more cooperation in locating the remains of some 2,200 missing American soldiers.
``It's a way for us to help them,'' said Larry Hammonds, vice president of the local chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, ``and a way for them to help us.''
James Brazee, the group's national president, came to Norfolk on Wednesday night to accept documents and photos from local vets. Brazee will lead a delegation to Vietnam next month in which the articles will be used to search for Vietnamese war dead.
Some of the artifacts turned in were just the sort of things Brazee is looking for.
Jim Bathurst, a Navy veteran from Chesapeake, brought color photos of prisoners captured in the Mekong Delta in 1968. He also had a rare document, a copy of a Viet Cong soldier's certificate of graduation from guerrilla warfare school. The name and date were legible.
``This is outstanding,'' Bathurst said of the information-swap program. ``Maybe this will put a lot of people's minds to rest.''
Faces in the photos he provided were clearly identifiable. ``I fear these fellows may be dead, though,'' he said. ``We turned them over to the South Vietnamese.''
Ray Weaver of Norfolk, a Navy communications adviser in Vietnam in 1964-65, provided black-and-white photos of an enemy junk that was sunk off the South Vietnamese coast while trying to smuggle automatic weapons into the country.
Bruce Julian of Chesapeake offered a map that he hopes will lead to the bodies of two North Vietnamese regulars his platoon killed on a trail between Hue and Quang Tri in 1968.
``There were three of them,'' said Julian, a veteran of the Army's 1st Air Cavalry. ``Our point man walked up on them while they were taking chow. We killed two, one got away. We buried them right there.
``I hope they can find it,'' Julian said. ``There was a big tree in the middle of the trail, with high roots that came out of the ground. If they find that tree, they'll find them there.''
Brazee's visit to Vietnam last year, documented in an October edition of the ``60 Minutes'' television program, led to the location of a mass grave where 95 North Vietnamese soldiers were buried. So far, he said, the vets have provided information that could potentially identify 3,500 missing Vietnamese.
The Vietnam Initiative, as the program is known, began when Brazee's request for help in finding American MIAs was met with this question: ``Why is nobody helping find our 300,000 missing?'' Now, the Vietnamese are asking their veterans to come forward with artifacts or stories that might lead to more American remains.
``This is a humanitarian issue that should benefit both sides,'' Brazee said. ``And who better to do it than those who fought the war themselves?''
Most helpful, Hammonds said, are identity papers taken from enemy soldiers, sketches of grave sites and photos of Vietnamese war dead. It was not uncommon for American soldiers to photograph enemy bodies, he said.
``We had a habit of doing that. It was part of that revenge attitude that Vietnam veterans had, a way of remembering that if one of our brothers was killed, we got back at them for it.''
Hammonds, who served with the Air Force in 1969, said the information exchange represents a change of attitude among many veterans, an easing of the hard-core resentment against the enemy they fought and the social and political forces that left those who returned feeling like outcasts.
``Vietnam vets are an odd group to begin with,'' he said. ``We've always believed that if anything is going to be done for us, we're going to have to do it ourselves.'' As examples he listed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the POW-MIA initiatives and the push for action on health problems from the use of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange. The American vets also plan to study the effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese populace.
``We came from radical beginnings,'' Hammonds said. ``We were the old Vietnam Veterans Against the War. We were very radical, but now some of us have become very conservative. We were mad at the government, but now we want to resolve problems.'' MEMO: Vietnam veterans with information that might help identify burial sites
of Vietnamese war dead can contact the local VVOA chapter at 498-2541,
or forward the information to Veterans Initiative, Vietnam Veterans of
America, 1224 M St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005-5183. Original
documents are preferred, although copies will be accepted.
ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Martin Smith-Rodden
Jim Bathurst of Chesapeake turned in photos of prisoners captured in
the Mekong Delta.
KEYWORDS: VIETNAM VETERAN by CNB