Material found herein should not be interpreted as legal advice.     Legal Disclaimer Notices

"Advocacy
- for the benefit of others,
is a blessing."
"Advocacy
- for profit,
is a sin."
- "Buk" Frank

Winter, 1967  
Ft Hood, Texas  
SP/4 F Picchione  
Legal Clerk  
502d Repl Depot  

Send your "Did You Know.." info
  to Franco @ Email; photo evidence is most welcomed too

Frank, in his ten years of active duty and year with the Hawaii Army National Guard
was a Legal Clerk, Company Clerk, Assistant Team Leader (Transit Depot) and Finance Clerk
Frank is a totally disabled vet today in name alone; fighting the same V.A. you are.

U.S. Army Support, Thailand (USARSUPTHAI) .. finally, given recognition for veterans wear on "combat sleeve" shoulder

Frank's service in S.E.A. was in Thailand -- not Vietnam.
He has nothing to appologize for .. he was exposed to the same agents
as Vietnam veterans, but only the government covered it all up.

    Frank is a kin to our Laotian (Lao) allies with family friends of my wife, Nong Khan, born in Vientiane and raised in Ban Pa Ka along the Mekong River in Nong Khai Province of Thailand.

    Some of these friends relatives died in these "Orientation Camps" supposedly set up in the jungles of Northern Laos and others very well in the corner of North Vietnam where the French fought and lost decades ago, territory only known to the Communist.     One was the father to our friend, left for a reconciliation "meeting" in the Laotian capital of Vientiane to never be seen again, and another a good friend that was the No. 1 Ace pilot that lived to escape and now resides in Riverside, California.

    It is presented for your consideration -- you decide whether you want to believe any spin our government puts on such matters for yourself, a face this publisher declines.

    FWIW, I do not get one cent for the reference to Amazon dot-com below.

An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account
of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia

From Publishers Weekly

    Controversial former North Carolina congressman Hendon and attorney Stewart make the case that the U.S. knowingly left hundreds of POWs in Vietnam and Laos in 1973, and that every presidential administration since then has covered it up. The main reason for the secrecy, say the authors, is the billions in war reparations demanded by the Vietnamese and promised by Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon at the Paris Peace talks. Hendon and Stewart provide a mountain of evidence, mainly intelligence reports of live sightings of American prisoners in Vietnam and Laos that make for less-than-scintillating reading. But riveting sections describe Hendon's crusade on this issue in the early 1980s, including two meetings with President Reagan, pleading his case that the government free the live POWs. Hendon and Stewart directly accuse a long list of government officials of the coverup. Among the most culpable: Kissinger, President George H.W. Bush, Senators John McCain and John Kerry, Gen. Colin Powell, former secretary of state George Schultz and former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It's a chore wading through the live-sighting reports and the massive, detailed endnotes, but the descriptions of Hendon's unsuccessful personal mission provide an intriguing story—and carry the ring of truth. 36 b&w photos not seen by PW. (June 1) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description

    The dramatic history of living American soldiers left in Vietnam, and the first full account of the circumstances that left them there

    An Enormous Crime is nothing less than shocking. Based on thousands of pages of public and previously classified documents, it makes an utterly convincing case that when the American government withdrew its forces from Vietnam, it knowingly abandoned hundreds of POWs to their fate. The product of twenty-five years of research by former Congressman Bill Hendon and attorney Elizabeth A. Stewart, An Enormous Crime brilliantly exposes the reasons why these American soldiers and airmen were held back by the North Vietnamese at Operation Homecoming in 1973 and what these men have endured since.

    Despite hundreds of postwar sightings and intelligence reports telling of Americans being held captive throughout Vietnam and Laos, Washington did nothing. And despite numerous secret military signals and codes sent from the desperate POWs themselves, the Pentagon did not act. Even in 1988, a U.S. spy satellite passing over Sam Neua Province, Laos, spotted the twelve-foot-tall letters “USA” and immediately beneath them a huge, highly classified Vietnam War-era USAF/USN Escape & Evasion code in a rice paddy in a narrow mountain valley. The letters “USA” appeared to have been dug out of the ground, while the code appeared to have been fashioned from rice straw (see jacket photograph).

    Tragically, the brave men who constructed these codes have not yet come home. Nor have any of the other American POWs who the postwar intelligence shows have laid down similar codes, secret messages, and secret authenticators in rice paddies and fields and garden plots and along trails in both Laos and Vietnam.

    An Enormous Crime is based on open-source documents and reports, and thousands of declassified intelligence reports and satellite imagery, as well as author interviews and personal experience. It is a singular work, telling a story unlike any other in our modern history: ugly, harrowing, and true.

    From the Bay of Pigs, where John and Robert Kennedy struck a deal with Fidel Castro that led to freedom for the Bay of Pigs prisoners, to the Paris Peace Accords, in which the authors argue Kissinger and Nixon sold American soldiers down the river for political gain, to a continued reluctance to revisit the possibility of reclaiming any men who might still survive, we have a story untold for decades. And with An Enormous Crime we have for the first time a comprehensive history of America’s leaders in their worst hour; of life-and-death decision making based on politics, not intelligence; and of men lost to their families and the country they serve, betrayed by their own leaders.

Reviewers

"Fascinating Military and Political History Book,"   May 31, 2007
By George B. Primbs "Book Hunter" (Washington D.C.)

    A former Congressman who served on the POW MIA Committee in Congress writes An Enormous Crime. Congressman Bill Hendon was involved with POW issues and had access to top secret documents regarding American Prisoners of War. He and other congressmen want to tell the real story about Vietnam and the POWs. The author spent ten years researching and putting together the book.

    A great read about how Washington D.C. really works. Should be required reading for all who are interested in Vietnam and citizens concerned about the future of America. This is a real life historical adventure.

    A fascinating book that is hard to put down once you start reading. There are real life stories about secret rescue missions, presidential politics and military intelligence that involve many of today's top leaders.

    The book highlights the American can do spirit, battles between good guys and bad guys and efforts to free American prisoners of war.

    The author takes you right into the action, negotiating for prisoners, working with the intelligence agencies, organizing rescue missions and how major world events shaped policies regarding POW issues.

    Starting with an excerpt from World War II to today, the book examines the battles and struggles between America and its enemies, especially Cuba and its relationship to Vietnam.

    The author takes you inside the White House Oval Office for planning meetings to the jungles of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The book covers privately funded rescue missions funded by Hollywood heavy weights such as Clint Eastwood and William Shatner.

    Billionaire Ross Perot, who successfully organized a hostage rescue mission in Iran is involved with trying to get the POWs home from Vietnam.


"The Bible of the POW Issue,"   May 29, 2007
By John LeBoutillier (Old Westbury, New York USA)

    AN ENORMOUS CRIME is simply the BEST book ever written about the biggest cover-up in American political history.

    One of the keys to understanding the POW issue - and it is all explained in detail in this seminal work - is the context in which these 700 US POWs were abandoned. By the spring of 1973 - just when Operation Homecoming was underway and the first group of POWs was being released in Hanoi - Watergate began to dominate President Nixon's thinking, time, concentration and focus. Simply stated, he was fighting to save his presidency.

    And then came word that not all the POWs we thought would be returned had been released. AN ENORMOUS CRIME proves there was a second, 'secret' system of POWs kept behind - following the example of Fidel Castro and the Bay of Pigs prisoner swap - and these 700 men were kept as an 'insurance policy' against the $4.75 billion President Nixon secretly promised to pay Vietnam on Februarly 1, 1973.

    Since Watergate soon consumed the Nixon Administration, the unwitting victims became this second group of yet-to-be-released POWs. They simply fell through the cracks.

    And the US Government started to do what it always does: denied a fact. Just denied it. Defense Secretary William Clements said, "There are no more POWs." Period. End of story.

    Only it wasn't - and isn't - the end of the story. AN ENORMOUS CRIME details how the Defense Intelligence Agency tracked these POWs for years - and even photographed Escape and Evasion signals that these airmen placed in fields, on roof-tops and in rice paddies. The message? "I am a US airman. Please come rescue me right now!!!"

    AN ENORMOUS CRIME will become one of the biggest books of 2007 once it is read and the message spreads. With 200,000 US troops in Iraq, the lessons of the abandoned POWs in Vietnam and Laos are directly relevant to our current war effort.

    This book is not only a great read but - for all patriots who care about our country's future - AN ENORMOUS CRIME is also a MUST read.


"Done with Incomplete Research!!!!,"   June 12, 2007
By Howard A. Daniel III (Deltaville, VA USA)

    I received my copy about an hour ago so I have only looked in the Index and went to a few pages. From what I saw in those few pages, the authors did not interview all available personnel who worked POWs and MIAs in Viet Nam during the war. But there was one person referenced who got it wrong about me and the second POW/MIA database at MACSOG Op-80 in Veith's book, so I am thinking this is just a rehash of many of the old accusations that have been disproved and/or had unreputable sources. I will update this review after I read the entire book, which might be never because of the negative feeling I already have about it.

Howard A. Daniel III
MSGT, US Army Retired
VN War 66-70 & 71-73 (Op-80 69-70)


"AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY,"   June 6, 2007
By Liz Trotta (New York City)

    A monumental work of of research and dedication, this is a tragic and true account of how America's leaders--both Republican and Democrat--turned their backs on the men they sent into battle. If Vietnam was a mistake, then the fate of U.S. POWs is a colossal tragedy. Hendon and Stewart have harnessed the brutal facts.


"disgusting beyond belief and criminal in all aspects.,"   June 5, 2007
By Robert Noe (Alexandria, Louisiana, USA)

    I finished the book last night, I must say that I am totally convinced that our government intentionally and routinely covered up our live POW. I was never one to believe there were live POW's left behind, I swallowed the government's spin. This book will open your eyes as it did mine. Through out the book, time and time again, you will discover how the government attacked every aspect of any information that showed there were live American POWs left behind. You will discover at no time was there ever anyone in any of the administrations who looked at the information with an objective view to use that information to validate there were prisoners. The administrations took the position of debunking everything and time and again the government is laid out as presenting a false case.

    You will learn the depths of the relationship between John Kerry and John McCain; how they both derailed any hope our POWs had of ever being returned. You will learn that John Kerry intentionally lied about his trips to Hanoi. You must remember that John Kerry illegally met with the representatives of North Vietnam during the time when the Peace accords were being conducted (1973) on several occassios returning back to the US to advocate that America adapt all the North Vietnamese positions.

    Our government's acts are disgusting beyond belief and criminal in all aspects.

    I am sure the administration, past and present, will attacks the authors and book as a continuing process they have prefected; however, until they can stand and show me that they are taking an in-depth, objective look at each bit of evidence with someone who has not already shown themselves to be negative to the process, I'll just blow them off as liars they have shown themselves to be. I will not be blinded by someone who goes to Vietnam and demands to see prisons who already has a mindset that there are no prisoners. Do you think Kerry is stupid, he knew well in advance there would be no Americans in the prison he chose to inspect--if there had been, his career would have been shot and he has shown himself to be far to slick and sleazy to have that happen to him. Only an idiot would accept his word that he had a no warning prison inspection.

    I recently received information that I can get $2,000.00 for each recruit I get to enlist in the military, how can I do that, knowing how our government will one day willing abandon them on the field of battle?

    I have two sons in the Armed Forces and one Son In Law, now I must realize that their continued service may subject them to the status of POWs, with the Democrats wanting to pull out of Iraq, will our government once again walk away leaving these young men behind. I am conflicted, I love the military, but I know I must ensure they are fully aware their government "WILL NOT" stand behind them when the chips are down and suggest they may want to consider another way of life.

    I just got off the phone with my Grandson who is graduating high school this week and advised him that in no way would I recommend him going the military until he has read the book and understand the risk that he may never his homeland again and forgottened by his countrymen. It's one thing to be killed in action and quite another to be an abandoned Prisoner of War.

    My brother was Killed in Action in Vietnam, he was a Special Forces medic, I later volunteered to serve in Vietnam as a sole surviving son in Special Forces as an Operations and Intelligent Sergeant First Class and later receiving a Battlefield Commission.

Robert L. Noe
Captain, US Army Retired
MACVSOG, SFA, SFA, MUSTANG



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,   6/20/07
VIETNAMESE VICTIMS OF AGENT ORANGE VISIT CHICAGO
PRESS CONFERENCE AT VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL
Monday 6/25/07
11:30am
Wabash and State St. (River level)

PRESS CONTACTS:
Merle Ratner (917) 733-2100
Bill Davis (708) 574-5447

Vietnam Agent Orange Relief Vietnam Veterans Against the War & Responsibility Campaign

LAWSUITS BY VIETNAMESE VICTIMS AND U.S. VETERANS CHARGE DOW, MONSANTO & 35 OTHER CHEMICAL COMPANIES WITH SPRAYING CHEMICAL THEY KNEW WAS TOXIC

    A delegation of Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange is visiting Chicago and will hold a press conference at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Wabash and State St. (River level) at 11:30am Monday June 25th. The delegation is coming to Chicago following an appearance in New York before the U.S. Second Circuit Couty of Appeals on June 18th. A companion case on behalf of U.S. Vietnam War veterans was also argued before the Second Circuit earlier in the day. The lawsuit on behalf of the Vietnamese plaintiffs charges the U.S. chemical companies that profited from the manufacture of Agent Orange – including Dow Chemical, Monsanto, and 35 others – with knowingly providing the U.S. government with a poisonous agent to be sprayed indiscriminately on civilians and seeks compensation, clean-up and medical monitoring and support.

    Said Vietnamese plaintiff Nguyen Van Quy, who is in the end stage of multiple cancers and has two children with severe birth defects, “We have come to the Court seeking justice. The chemical companies must be forced to pay compensation to me and my children.”

    The delegation is from the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, which initiated the case and represents Vietnam’s more than three million victims of Agent Orange. A U.S. organization, the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign, has arranged a nationwide tour of the delegation to raise awareness about Agent Orange and the current case. Both U.S. and Vietnamese veterans as well as civilians continue to die from the dioxin contained in Agent Orange, a toxic chemical defoliant the U.S. sprayed multiple times over 5.5 million acres in south Vietnam from 1961 to 1971 during the war. Many more people continue to live with related disabilities and deformities that are affecting a second and third generation of children, as Agent Orange continues to poison the soil and natural environment of Vietnam. Studies have linked exposure to Agent Orange to cancer, reproductive illnesses, immune deficiency, endocrine deficiencies, nervous system damage, and developmental disabilities in children. The cases are being heard in the context of the current war in Iraq and questions about the use of white phosphorus, depleted uranium and other chemical agents.

    As a result of a 1984 settlement, many U.S. veterans have already received some compensation from the chemical companies for diseases caused by their exposure to Agent Orange. Yet the Vietnamese people remain completely without compensation.

    “Along with American veterans, it is time that the Vietnamese be compensated for the terrible damage done to them and their land from the use of these chemical weapons,” said American Vietnam veteran and Vietnam Veterans Against the War coordinator Bill Davis.

    “These chemical companies are responsible for producing an herbicide that contained excessive and avoidable amounts of one of the most toxic chemicals known to humankind,” said Jonathan Moore, attorney for the Vietnamese plaintiffs. “Agent Orange has caused untold suffering and lasting harm to the U.S. veterans involved in the spraying and to the Vietnamese, both combatants and civilians. It’s time for the companies to pay for what they did.”

 
"The Ravens"
.. they flew
  out of CIA bases in Laos
.. trained in Thailand

Ravens (smashed) 2000 Reunion (Pensacola)
I bet you can not pick the #1 (living) Ace
Clue: he started flyin missions @ 19
Flew over 4,000 missions
-- call sign is "Spooky-13"
His buddy, #1 Ace, was killed..

The Ravens had some (bitchin) call signs!

Give up?     He's the short one in the middle, grey shirt.     More on the Secret War in Laos.
Kham Phiou is a Raven.     Kham Phiou is my friend.     "Thumbs up"     My (autographed) Ravens.
Colonel Bounsoth was a mentor to Kham Phiou and came to my second wife, first Lao, wedding.
"Tragic Mountain" a story about the Hmong, Lao Tribe and our abandonment of (yet) another allie.
Royal Lao Air Force, our allie, another we dumped.     We've got a bad habit of not following thru on any commitments to soldiers and veterans.     I sure hope it isn't contagious -- you could never run a business like the government, and get away with it!     44th & Logistics in Thailand, of course.

Oh yeah, the Ravens were a bunch of ex-jocks (military-types) and Lao patriots such as Kham Piou
So, all this CIA-shit, well, it's off the books.     "You get screwed .. you get screwed."     Air America

Secret War:   Laos

Nearly 600 Americans were lost
in Laos during the Vietnam War. The Pathet Lao stated many times that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners. Laos was not included in negotiations ending US involvement in the war. The US has never negotiated for the freedom of these men.

"The Angel and the Eagle"

Sources:   My wife was a Laotian refugee for 5 years in a Nong Khai camp and 6 more months in a Phillipine refugee camp before giving admission to the United States almost 6 years after we abandoned our allies in S.E.A. in 1981.     She remembers the spraying and the common expression of "yellow rain" and warned to take cover.     Yeah, the United States (almost) covered it all up.     They (our government) was just lucky that the governments in that part of the world were corrupt or easily bought.