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CNN Live Sunday
Lab in Texas Looks for Remains of Soldiers Missing in Action in the Vietnam War
Aired September 02, 2001 - 16:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War and never come home and are still considered missing in action, well now old war relics are helping a special team of investigators dig up clues in MIA cases, bringing relief to families still searching for closure. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you are not looking at a pristine type item.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Each thread weaves an untold story, each clasp of rusted metal unlocks the answers to the war's darkest secrets.
In a San Antonio Army lab, a team of 11 analysts study the leftover remnants of Vietnam War plane crashes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you get all the pieces in the very beginning of your case, it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
LAVANDERA: There are almost 2,000 Vietnam troops still missing in action.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are looking to see if we can get a match.
LAVANDERA: Now this team has to figure out what might have happened to them. The process is tedious.
HOWARD LUSK, LIFE SCIENCES LAB ANALYST: And my job is to find that the crew members...
LAVANDERA: Howard Lusk is trying to figure out how many troops were on board this aircraft that crashed in Laos in 1969.
LUSK: We know that the crew members had to have on lap belts to attach themselves to the aircrafts.
LAVANDERA: So using a well-preserved lap belt that would have been used in that plane, he compared.
LUSK: So, when I find the pieces that match the lap belt...
LAVANDERA: An exact match provides the logical answer.
LUSK: We also know, since I have three of these, and there is only two per lap belt, that I have two systems here, so I am fairly positive that I have two occupants.
LAVANDERA: It is only circumstantial evidence, but when coupled with other information it could provide the clearest clue for families still waiting for answers.
JOHN GOINES, LIFE SCIENCES LAB ANALYST: By looking at these type of items, we can actually tell a family member that, yes, your loved one died at the time of the incident.
SUE JENKINGS, WIFE OF VIETNAM VETERAN: When they went down through the clouds, a hole in the clouds, no one ever heard from them again.
LAVANDERA: Sue Jenkins hopes records analysis will answer what happened to her husband, Lieutenant Dennis Anderson (ph), during a mission over Laos in 1968. She believes her husband died that day, his body was never recovered. But Sue Jenkins needs to know for sure.
JENKINS: I can't imagine really what closure will be like. People say, oh, well, you know, it's great, you know, and it's something elusive to me.
LAVANDERA: But to bring Sue Jenkins piece of mind, the Army needs donations of well-preserved military flight gear.
(on camera): There were countless variations to military gear during the Vietnam and Korean wars. Flight suits, for example, changed suddenly from year to year, but the military did not document every change. So analysts are hoping that these donated items can provide clues to unsolved mysteries.
(voice-over): Since the lab opened in 1994, it has collected many flight artifacts, most of them donated by those who work here.
ELTON HUDGINS, CHIEF, LIFE SCIENCES LAB: In a lot of cases, this is the only closure the family is going to receive. So if you are just a little part of that, it gives you a feeling that's hard to describe.
LAVANDERA: Sue Jenkins has touched the leftover wreckage from her husband's suspected crash site. After 33 years, the mystery of what happened to Lieutenant Dennis Anderson (ph) could finally be solved in a central Texas laboratory.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, San Antonio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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