Vietnam vet presumed KIA or MIA found alive in remote jungle

U.S. Army Sgt. John Hartley Robertson even has a Vietnamese wife and can no longer speak English.

Great and when do we get to see it?

May 12,2013 GI Film Festival Washington DC

Last Edited by UTownTrash on 05/01/2013 04:24 AM

These men left behind weigh heavily upon my generation of Americans.

Yes, our government knowingly and purposefully left men behind. More expedient a retreat that way.

Our men in VietNam, Laos, and Cambodia were not abandoned by their fellow airmen, soldiers, or Marines. Our politicians sold them out.

Green pinned to educate younger people about the US involvement in SE Asia.

This whole story of soldiers being "left behind in Vietnam" is interesting and disturbing if actually true. I figured that some of them probably went AWOL or just chose to stay and not go back home(US) because the soldiers weren't well received by the country. I wonder how many other soldiers are still in Vietnam?

It is important to learn from the past and not forget our mistakes.

Thanks for the pin

Interesting, never really occured to me that some may have actually chosen not to come back home.

An excellent book upon the subject of POWs left behind in SE Asia:

[link to www.amazon.com]

Available in used condition delivered to your door for as little as $4.00.

I'll check that out, have to admit my knowledge of Vietnam is lacking.

From link in OP

Sounds way to fishy for me. Forget your birthday, children's names and how to speak your native tongue?

The Japanese found Soldiers
on small Islands even 40 years
after WW2!

While i was travelling in Viet, Nam and Laos
i nearly always met US-Americans from the
War in Laos and Viet-Nam,
they are really far behind Reality,
some in a nice Way and some in a bad!

Hoax!

Senior McCain was a pow for a long time and didn't forget who he was. Many, many others as well.

Really fascinating! I would love to see the documentary.

for interesting/ intriguing topic....

years back there was much talk some that were known to have been given their freedom from imprisonment if they swapped sides.

the general consensus is that only maybe a few of those are still surviving unnacounted for, and i don't see how any could make it this long without wanting to and having help.

still , you'd sell a lot of books written by one

All it takes to forget who you are is the right brain injury.

So this is theoretically possible. If he had meningitis while in captivity (common in Southeast Asia) that might be an infectious cause of memory loss:

[link to www.merckmanuals.com]

I always heard that some men just walked off into the Jungle and never came back. After a "dear john" letter or news of a dead parent of dead child. Then they went to live up a tree somewhere away from the fighting. Like crazy street guys, only still in SE Asia.

There is a national geographic article from the 70's which references mentions a sighting of some european looking guy hiding in the woods. Goes to look for it...

There were other places that kept prisoners of war, then where McCain was. There we people who were prisoner a lot longer than McCain. There always was tells that soldiers were left behind, reports from different countries. There could very well be a soldier that had a bad air crash, then he was kept in a cage for years being beat and tortured. The
combination of wound from a crash and torture could make you have amnesia, even trauma of being in bad shape and you country leaving you behind.

Those Viet Cong and were well versed in torture.

Another reason to get rid of people that rep us.

I say publicly hang "Our" politicians that do not represent us and add to this all the congressmen that profit from their position!!

all goverments and politicians are the same, none of them give a sh1t for the populace. never have, never will.

that said, if this story is true, it's very good news.

Many secret ops in Laos and Cambodia were abaqndoned and denied existence by the US at the close of hostilities due to the sensitive nature of their missions. Ive often thought that there might exist a mind control trigger to make the individual forget sensitive info if the mission is compromised somehow.

+1

Would someone actually forget how to speak their first language? It seems like that would stick with you no matter what.

bullshit shill, in the article i read last night - the dude came back to the states met his kids and went back to vietnam bc the usa didnt want him.
[link to au.businessinsider.com]

A head injury -- or some sort of infection -- could destroy just about any particular part of the brain, including the language center.

But I am thinking: If the guy was a fake, wouldn't the try to at least learn some words in English to bolster his story?

In a strange way, I find that his total lack of English skills makes the story all the more credible.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ THIS ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

I wonder how many were still prisoners of war, then when they were released, they just assimilated into Vietnam culture.

More and more westerners going to Vietnam. I figure more of them will be found out.