United States And Vietnamese Government Knowledge And Accountability For U S Pow Mia S

Excerpt from United States and Vietnamese Government Knowledge and Accountability for U. S. Pow/Mia's: Hearing Before the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the Committee on National Security, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, First Session, Hearing Held November 14, 1995 The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:11 a.m., in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Robert K. Dornan (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Opening Statement Of Hon. Robert K. Dornan, A Representative From California, Chairman, Military Personnel Subcommittee Mr. Dornan. The Subcommittee on Military Personnel will come to order. The chairman of this subcommittee has military heroes on his mind. Yesterday, in the rain, I drove up to Carlisle, Pa, and went to Westminster Memorial Cemetery to visit the grave of one of America's two last recipients of the Medal of Honor, Randall Shughart. I talked to his mother in the morning; his father was out hunting. His grave is a flat gravestone with the Medal of Honor etched into it, the Delta Force emblem etched there, and also with a Ranger patch etched there. He was born August 13, 1958; he was 35 years of age when he died in the streets of Mogadishu, giving his life to try and save Michael Durant, which he did, and Michael Durant's copilot and two gunners, which he did not. He gave his life trying to save all four of them, together with Gary Gordon. On November 4, I went up to Maine for a Presidential forum and drove an hour north of Bangor to a small typical little American mill town, Lincoln, Me, and visited the grave of Gary Gordon. Gary Gordon was a master sergeant, 2 years younger than 1st Sgt. Randall Shughart. Gary was the senior NCO, begging with Randy Shughart to be taken down to the ground in their H-60 which was flying cover for the two shot-down helicopters on October 3, 1993. When they got the four badly spine-injured men out of the helicopter, they went around to the front of the helicopter facing the building crowds, hundreds of people, and made their last stand. Both gave their lives so that at least Durant would live. A couple of the crewmen other than Durant were captured alive. We don't know their fate, but all of us who watched the evening news night after night saw the bodies of Durant's three murdered crewmen and the two Delta Force rescuers, the Medal of Honor recipients, being dragged through the streets. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.