“Unclaimed” charts search for forgotten Vietman vet

[dipsydoodle]

Filmmaker Michael Jorgensen has charted a remarkable journey with Vietnam vet Tom Faunce in the documentary “Unclaimed,” which aims to reconnect a U.S. Vietnam war vet, reported dead in 1968, with his American family.

The man, whom Faunce believes to be Special Forces Green Beret Master Sgt. John Hartley Robertson, remembers only that his helicopter was shot down in Laos in 1968 and that he had a wife and children in Alabama. Though presumed dead by Americans, the man says that he survived a year of torture in Vietnam and then married the nurse who cared for him.

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Robertson-Holly and the woman thought to be Robertson’s American wife, along with his two children, declined to participate in DNA testing, however.

“Does Jorgensen believe that the man Faunce found in Vietnam is American soldier John Hartley Robertson?” asked the Star.

“It does not matter what I think,” said Jorgensen. “There’s no doubt in the family.”

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/unclaimed_charts_search_for_forgotten_vietman_vet/

More here :

U.S Army veteran 'found living in a Vietnam village 44 YEARS after being shot down and presumed dead during the war - but cannot remember the names of his family or even how to speak English'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316937/The-stunning-story-Vietnam-vet-shot-1968-living-remote-village--forgotten-speak-English.html#ixzz2RwHCWAEh

[struggle4progress]

1. The US seems to have good resources for resolving cases like this

E7 John Hartley Robertson of Birmingham AL was presumed dead in Laos after 20 May 1968 incident

Various media report the claimant here submitted fingerprints: these seem not to have been helpful, which probably means the quality of either the original prints or the sample was inadequate for a match

The sister of the soldier said she was convinced that the claimant was her brother even before meeting him. But the wife of the soldier has made no such statement; her children originally agreed to submit DNA samples but then declined; these facts rather strongly suggest the wife does not believe the claim

Images of the claimant seem consistent with a Vietnamese heritage. He goes by a Vietnamese name, which he says was the name of his Vietnamese wife's previous husband and which he says he adopted after the death of that man. He cannot speak English. He did not know the soldier's birthday or the names of the soldier's American children

I'd say the story is a stretch