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"It was my unhappy experience to be present when remains of a college classmate were identified at the CILHI facility."
NEXT WEEK:
SOG VII:
The Tet Offensive
SOG
VI: JPRC
by Jean d'Isle
' 
he
Joint Personnel Recovery Center (JPRC)
was the SOG element responsible for recovering downed
airmen and allied prisoners from enemy territory. In the
case of aircraft losses, SOG assumed responsibility once
the immediate Search and Rescue (SAR) effort following
the shootdown was abandoned.
With air, sea and land assets at its direct disposal, SOG was ideally suited for these recovery operations. All intelligence related to MIA/POW situations was funneled to SOG and case files for each incident were maintained. In the case of lost aircraft, in addition to aircrew member names, the files contained information such as location of loss, whether chutes were sighted, whether emergency radio contact was made, whether enemy forces were sighted in the vicinity, and anything else that could bear on the status of the MIA.
Over time, these files would be augmented with refugee reports, agent reports, enemy POW interrogation reports, and in some cases overhead photography of suspected or confirmed POW compounds. The well publicized, but unfortunately unsuccessful raid on the Son Tay POW compound in southern North Vietnam was based on intelligence and photography accumulated by SOG's JPRC. The raid was led by COL "Bull" Simon, one of SOG's more illustrious members, who would go on to greater fame as the leader of the successful raid that freed Ross Perot's employees from an Iranian prison. (This story was the subject of a TV documentary mini-series, "Wings of Eagles", produced by a little known and greatly underrated fellow named Jeff Nelson -- jacko).
To assist in recovery of downed pilots deep in enemy territory and beyond helicopter retrieval range, SOG had three specially configured C-130 aircraft, modified for the "Fulton Extraction" package. I was flipping through TV channels the other day and stumbled onto one of John Wayne's worst cinematic efforts : "Green Berets." If one were willing to suffer through this turkey, one would see a "Fulton Extraction" rig in operation. (Don't run out and buy the video).
The concept is as follows: a downed pilot who manages to evade the enemy establishes radio contact with friendly forces. A "Fulton Extraction" package is dropped to the pilot. The package consists of a harness, a helium-inflatable miniature blimp, and a long coiled tether connecting the harness and the blimp. The downed airman gets into the harness and inflates and releases the blimp with tether attached. The specially configured C-130 homes in on the balloon and snags the tether with a "V" shaped device attached to the nose of the aircraft. The downed man is jerked into the air and reeled up to the open cargo hatch of the aircraft, which is moving at 200-300 knots.
Two major disadvantages of the
system
were that the inflated blimp clearly marked the location
of the downed pilot to bad guys as well as good guys; and
secondly, in order to avoid a "George of the
Jungle" encounter with a tree, a substantial piece
of open terrain was required. As outrageous as this
procedure sounds, it worked; but there were lots of
potential technical glitches. For this reason, before COL
Singlaub (more about him later), Chief of MACV SOG,
accepted the system for deployment, he insisted on
personally experiencing an extraction. After he was
snatched from an open field in South Vietnam without
incident, he required several of his SOG staff officers
to go through the procedure. An Army LTCol was the only
one who had a significant problem. As he was being reeled
up to the cargo hatch, the system failed to stabilize and
he spun out of control all the way up. The centrifugal
force of the prolonged spin broke every blood vessel in
his face. I saw him the day after. Boy was his face red.
We had no successful Fulton extractions of downed airmen during my tour of duty; but every pilot who ventured into the unfriendly skies of North Vietnam was aware that this rescue system was available and ready if circumstances required and permitted its deployment.
Many years later I would be associated with the office that fell heir to the records and responsibilities of SOG's JPRC. This organization was, and continues to be, the key player in efforts to account for approximately 2100 U.S. military personnel missing in action at the end of the war. Files on each MIA are updated as additional information becomes available. When sufficient locational data and other intelligence are developed, search teams are dispatched to Vietnam and Laos for recovery operations. When remains are recovered, either through these joint excavations or through unilateral recovery operations by the governments of these countries, the remains are returned to the Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI) for forensic confirmation of the identity of the MIA.
It was my unhappy experience to be present when remains of a college classmate were identified at the CILHI facility. LT Richard Sather, USN, was a pilot shot down in the first air attack on North Vietnam in 1964. His squadron mate, LT Everett Alvarez, USN, was shot down and captured on the same raid. LT Alvarez has the dubious distinction of being the longest held naval aviator POW of the Vietnam War.
Dick Sather and I were pre-med students together in college, attending many of the same classes. When I graduated, I assumed he continued with his medical studies until I saw his name and picture in the newspaper at the time he was shot down. Over 20 years later I attended his funeral at Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii.
__________________________________________________
Jean
d'Isle is a retired naval officer living
in Hawaii.
During his
military career he served in a number of overseas
assignments, including Germany, England, Spain, Viet Nam
and Puerto Rico. Following his retirement, he was an
adjunct faculty member of Hawaii Pacific University and
is currently under contract with the U.S. Navy at the
submarine base in Pearl Harbor.
Jean's column, View From d'Isle, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.