 She has contacted his sister, Helen, and has done an outstanding job of helping to relieve the sorrow and pain after all these years. I personally want to thank you, my Indiana sweetheart, for the wonderful gesture.
SP4 Charles Elbert Beals
This webpage is
dedicated to all
MIA/POWs but especially
God Bless you, my Indiana brother, and all the MIA/POW brothers
SP4 Lewis Howard
REMARKS: SYNOPSIS: On July 7,
1970, SP4 Lewis
Howard, point man, and SP4 Charles
rounds of machine gun fire in the back and the neck. Attempts to maneuver up to the point position to retrieve Beals and Howard met with heavy enemy attack, and the rest of the platoon were forced to withdraw, leaving the two men behind. After 6 hours, the enemy was still firing machine gun and rifle fire over the area. The intense enemy fire made any further attempts to recover Beals and Howard impossible, and the platoon withdrew from the area.Beals was thought to be dead because of the number of rounds that hit him. He was classified Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered. The extent of Howard's wounds were unknown, and he was classified Missing In Action. There is a strong probability that the enemy knows the fate of both men. If they survived, it is very likely that they were captured. Nearly 2500 Americans remain missing, prisoner or unaccounted for from the Vietnam war. Since American involvement in the war ended in 1975, almost 10,000 reports have been received by the U.S. Government relating to the missing. Most authorities believe there are hundreds of them still alive. Whether Beals and Howard survived to be captured that day in July 1970 is not known. What seems certain, however, is that we must bring home any Americans being held against their will. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing this issue inside the Beltway...The need to get specific answers is more important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70s...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the ans wers from the bureaucrats and keep standing on their necks (figuratively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about getting these long overdue responses. Diplomatic considerations aside..We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia. If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition to writing their congressmen, senators and the Whitehouse, check out some of these sites: http://hawk.nji.com/~mred/mialist.htm  Proud member of Operation Just Cause Website Webring
 This
Web Page was
created and |
