During this week of our English class, we came together in small groups to do a project on selected
articles or stories. My story was called "Lost over Laos" where a soldier went missing after his plane went down during a night mission. It would be 40 years until his wife would get some closure over the loss of her husband. Why did it take so long?
Capt. Michael J. Masterson was doing a night mission over Laos when he realized that his sky-raider stopped functioning. He radioed his wing-man Maj. Peter W. Brown who tried to maneuver out of Masterson's way. As he was in the middle of sharp turn he noticed a orange ball in the trees. At 6:55 p.m. on October 13, 1968 Capt. Masterson was officially missing. Many wondered if he had made it to safety or if Pathet Lao troops had captured him. These questions would go unanswered for 40 years. The war didnt end until April 1075 making hard for Americans to look for Capt. Masterson. The enemy was more focused on putting their life back together then to help Americans look for lost soldiers.
As time went on and the Americans became allies with Vietnam and technology progressed, anthropologists went back to Laos to search for Masterson and many others that missing over the years. Martinson Goodman was one of many investigators looking for Masterson who found his crash site in the autumn of 2005. According to the article Lost Over Laos, "it was hard to find the crash site." During autumn of 2005 and over several more months they would find dog-tags and remaining bones left over belonging to Masterson. All of his remains were placed neatly into a briefcase and shipped back to his wife who never remarried in hopes that her husband was still alive. In February of 2006 the case was closed due to circumstantial evidence.It took the anthropologsts so long to find Masterson's remains because of delayed technology. Without the proper technology that evolved over time, I feel that the would have not been able to find the evidence that they did. Do you think without technology would the anthropologists been able to find the remains of Masterson?
That is so sad. Especially when you said that she never remarried. AT LEAST 10 years you think that it was safe to assume he was dead. This was a good post, but I do think you could have gone into a little more depth when explaining how and when they found him. Also, How did his plane go down? When you say "orange ball in the trees" were you referring to him being shot down?
ReplyDeleteNo his plane wasn't shot down he lost functioning of his plane and crashed into hillside because he wasn't able to locate hisself in the clouds.
DeleteThis is so heartbreaking, I hate to think that 40 years from now, we may still be waiting to hear about soldiers that have gone MIA during the Iraqi war. As for the fact that his wife never remarried, she loved him more than anything in the entire world. Maybe if she had known he was gone, she would have been able to grieve and move on, but she had absolutely no idea what happened to him. All she knew for 40 years was that his plane had gone down and he was missing in action.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danielle this is completely awful and heartbreaking. I think that if I knew that my husband was missing for forty year I would assume he was dead. Ms. Masterson is lucky she ever got closer though, many POW or missing soldiers were never found. However, a love like that seems unreal. I enjoyed your post, I am a sucker or love stories.
ReplyDeleteThis is a heart breaking post, that she never loses hope that her husband is alive. I thought this post was a very good post. I like how you summed up the story. Ms. Masterson is a strong woman and I look up to her for being so strong and never giving up hope.
ReplyDeleteThis is a sad story! It's a shame that the War prevented the search for Captain Masterson for so long. At least his wife could somewhat find closure with the briefcase. I also enjoyed the Smithsonian article you linked; it had even greater info on this story.
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