‘We Have Waited Long Enough--Send Rambo,’ Bumper Stickers Say : Vietnam Vet Seeks Public Awareness in Fight for Missing Servicemen

Whether David Moyle is selling Harley Davidson motorcycle parts at the La Mirada Swap Meet or just spending time at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3173 in Anaheim, he still makes his pitch for the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia.

Established as a nonprofit organization in 1970, the league is made up of the wives, children, parents and other close relatives of United States servicemen. Its stated goal is to obtain the release of all remaining Americans, living or dead, in Southeast Asia and receive the fullest possible accounting of the missing. According to U.S. Department of Defense statistics, 249 California servicemen remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.

2,500 Unaccounted

A disabled veteran of the Vietnam War, Moyle has been working for the league for six weeks to increase the public’s awareness of about 2,500 Americans listed as missing in action or prisoners of war who are still unaccounted for almost 10 years after the war ended in Vietnam.

Moyle sells bumper stickers with messages that range from: “We have waited long enough--Send Rambo” to “MIAs--Only Hanoi Knows.” When he takes his motorcycle parts business, Zodiac Choppers, to the swap meet, he passes out brochures, pamphlets and information kits. He sells bracelets and lapel pins and flies a black POW/MIA flag just below the American flag that graces the front yard of his Brea home.

Along with his father and 89-year-old grandfather, veterans of World War II and World War I respectively, Moyle is a member of the Anaheim VFW post. When the post set up a POW/MIA awareness program with the league a few months ago, Moyle volunteered to help. Now he runs the program.

‘It’s Worth It’

“I spend about 20 hours a week on it. It costs me money and takes time away from my business, but it’s worth it. I believe we were put here for a purpose and, by doing this, I’m serving part of that purpose.”

Moyle was sent to Vietnam in 1966. “One day, it seemed like I was cruising McDonald’s in my ’56 Chevy and the next I’m in some swamp with a bunch of people trying to kill me.”

In March of 1967, Moyle was hit by an incoming mortar shell. He suffered shrapnel wounds in his legs, left arm, chest and stomach. Doctors told Moyle in 1974 that, because of his wounds, he would only be able to walk for another two to three years. Eleven years later, he has trouble getting out of bed three or four times a year but is still walking. “A lot of people hear doctors say something and let it become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Moyle said. “I wouldn’t allow myself to become crippled.”

So far, Moyle has raised $453 for the league and gathered several hundred signatures on a petition to the Vietnamese government asking for help in returning the remains of any American soldiers and releasing any remaining prisoners of war. “The Vietnamese will be swayed by public opinion. We’ve sent boxes and boxes of petitions and I think that has an effect.”

Concerned about the lack of progress being made in learning more about the status of POWs and MIAs, Moyle said that “we’re getting lip service, not action,” even though the federal government and President Reagan say the issue is a high priority.

“We have planes and satellites that can take pictures from 100 miles in the air that show the color of your eyes. How come we haven’t used those to find out just what’s going on over there?”

Moyle said he believes that the American public’s attitude toward Vietnam veterans is changing, and added that he thinks the change in public opinion is helping the league in its work. “The war is in the past enough that we’re being recognized now as soldiers who served their country. It sure wasn’t that way when the war ended.”

For now, he will continue selling bumper stickers, bracelets and lapel pins and trying to get people to think about POWs and MIAs and, hopefully, get involved.

“What drives me is my love of freedom. Worst thing for me when I was a kid was to be restricted. I couldn’t imagine being kept in jail. Some of those soldiers have been there for 20 years. What’s happened to them could just as easily have happened to me.”