U.S. Searchers Praise Laos for MIA Help

The leaders of a U.S. military team returned here from Laos on Friday with praise for the cooperation of the Communist government there in helping with the recovery of remains at a site where a U.S. Air Force plane crashed during the Vietnam War.

Lt. Col. Joe Harvey, who headed the team, said human remains and personal effects were found at the site near Pakse in southern Laos.

Harvey said the excavation, which was begun this week with the help of Laotian soldiers, marked the first cooperative effort by the United States and an Indochinese government to seek the remains of missing American servicemen.

Step to Better Relations

He said he hopes that this cooperation will be the first step in a “pattern of . . . positive actions” that will lead to more recoveries and an “overall improvement in relations between the two governments.”

Neither Harvey, of the U.S. Joint Casualty Resolution Center, nor Maj. Johnny Webb of the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, who also took part in the excavation, would describe the remains recovered near Pakse other than to say that they were “very fragmented.” They said at a news conference here that any identification of the remains will take at least a month.

The two officers said they are not certain that the remains of all the missing airmen have been found, but Webb said, “Everything that could be recovered was recovered” and there is no need to return to the site.

Ho Chi Minh Trail Raid

Sixteen men were aboard the C-130 gunship when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire after a raid on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Laos in December, 1972. Two of the airmen parachuted to safety and were picked up by recovery helicopters the next day, and the body of a third crewman was found at that time. The 13 others are assumed to have been killed in the crash.

Webb said the crash site is in a heavily jungled area. The recovery team members cleared an area with about a 50-yard radius and formed a “skirmish line” on their hands and knees to probe the earth with knives, looking for remains or personal effects of the airmen.

At the crater formed by the crash, they dug a hole 19 feet long, 14 wide and 15 deep, and sifted the earth looking for evidence. The plane was destroyed on impact, Harvey said, and little clearly identifiable is left except the landing gear and guns. The aluminum sheathing of the aircraft has long since been scavenged by local people, he said.

No Talks With Hanoi

Asked whether similar cooperative recovery efforts are possible with Vietnam and Cambodia, the two other nations of Indochina and both Communist, Harvey said there have been no discussions with the Vietnamese-installed government in Cambodia, and he declined to comment on reports that the Vietnamese would approve joint search efforts for the remains of American servicemen.

Washington has diplomatic relations with Laos but not with Vietnam or Cambodia. Harvey said the search in Laos is part of a “series of gestures” between the Laotian and American governments. He specifically mentioned a U.S. effort to provide rice to Laos after a short 1983 harvest and unspecified help for the authorities in Vientiane with international financial institutions.