He wrote back saying what we were hearing about US casualties was a lie, as his small station was processing around 500 US combat deaths a month, which was near the total of all deaths reported for all the stations.
He believed that all soldiers killed with no next of kin listed were simplify omitted from the US body count as a political move lessening the impact at home.
That would be quite a 45 year conspiracy, but if a guy who washed out of one of your classes said it to you, well then it must be totally true.