Posted on 03/14/2025 8:25:54 PM PDT by MAGA2017
In the early to mid-1980's I watched an episode of ABC's Nightline hosted by Ted Koppel. The topic was on the plausibility that there were still Americans being held captive or were held captive after the war in Vietnam.
I don't remember who the guests on the program were. What I do remember is a black & white photo that the program showed. It was a photo of a half-dozen or so Caucasian-looking men standing together. They appeared to be wearing what could have old worn uniforms or work clothes. I believe on one corner or side of the photo there was some cyrillic script. Supposedly this was a photo of American POWs.
I didn't really believe it at the time. The men in the photo didn't look American to me. Most, if not all of them had mustaches. They had a Eastern European or Slavic look to them. Think Lech Wałęsa.
But I'm curious what the story is with that photo. When and where was it taken? Who were those men? I've been looking online for it. But I cannot find it or any reference to it anywhere. Does anyone else here remember this? I'm pretty sure this photo was also published in newspapers around this time.
The photograph may be the one form 1991 that depicted MIAs Air Force Col. John Robertson, Air Force Maj. Albro Lundy and Navy Lt. Larry Stevens.
Defense Intelligence Agency’s Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action commander, Army Col. Millard Peck resigned in February 1991 stating that the Pentagon, State Department and White House all were subverting POW-MIA search efforts.
Unfortunately, there never was a search for missing LIVE Americans, just bones!
lol.. it did, but it did not..
that is the question.. make sense? probably not.. :D
Thanks. I think I said that in a round about way. My dad was still using mainframes as a computer programmer in the 80s. Those primitive computer games were out then, too. No elaborate graphics, though.
I think he was suggesting using AI to search for the pic
ROFL Okay, that makes sense.
Thank you for the link. No, I haven’t been to this site. But the photo I’m talking about doesn’t seem to appear here.
For sure.
Thank you! I did a search for “Maj. Albro Lundy” and found a photo that looks very close to what I remember. This might be it. But I remember it differently. I remember more than 3 men, maybe 4 to 6 standing together. But the photo image quality is right. This is how the photo looked. I first saw this back when I was a young teenager in the 80s. Maybe my memory is just a bit off:
https://images.app.goo.gl/cK2kB6Ax7nG76Jhn8
Found this article from 1991 from the LA Times:
MIA’s Son Insists His Father’s Alive
By BOB ELSTON
Sept. 21, 1991
Albro Lundy III is convinced that his father, who was reported missing in action in Laos in 1970, is still alive—and his wife wears a T-shirt to prove it.
Cathi Lundy was among several dozen people who turned out for a POW-MIA Recognition Day at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda on Friday. Her T-shirt featured a grainy photo of three men holding a sign which reads, among other things, “25.5.90,” which could be the date that the photo was taken. The black-and-white photo drew controversy when it was released this summer but has since been denounced by some experts as a fraud.
Lundy, an attorney for a Beverly Hills law firm, presented his case Friday morning at the ceremony that one of the three men in photo is his father. “I can convince a jury of 12 people that this is my father,” he said.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-21-me-2428-story.html
I think you are right, my bad.
Thank you. I thought you meant the photo I’m talking about might have been generated by AI. But you must mean to use AI to look for it.
I found a NY Times article from 1991 about this. This is most likely the photo I’m thinking of:
The Administration has begun a diplomatic effort around Southeast Asia to check the veracity of a photograph that supposedly shows that three American flyers missing since the Vietnam War may still be alive, officials said.
The blurry black-and-white snapshot shows three mustachioed men posing in a woody setting with a white sign marked with the numbers “25-5-1990,” which may be meant as the date May 25, 1990. There is nothing visible in the photo that definitively establishes the location, time or identity of the men. Nevertheless, relatives of three American listed as missing in action in Southeast Asia said today that the men shown in the photo were their relatives.
Since a copy of the photograph was made public by a former Vietnam War prisoner of war on Monday, it has added fuel to a growing contention in Congress and among some veterans groups that the Administration should work harder to account for the missing in action.
Administration officials said it would take time for Federal Bureau of Investigation technicians to determine whether the photograph appears to be authentic, and they note that the picture could have been faked by people hoping to receive a reward from relatives and P.O.W.-M.I.A. groups for the information they offer. But they say they are taking the picture seriously because American officials have received several reports from around Southeast Asia that the three men have been seen by witnesses. ‘Hard Not to Take It Seriously’
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/18/world/does-photo-show-3-vietnam-mia-s.html
Looks like I was able to find it:
Albro Lundy III’s Decades-Long Search for His POW-MIA Father
https://www.superlawyers.com/articles/online-features/albro-lundy-iiis-decades-long-search-for-his-pow-mia-father/
Purported photo of POWs may be of Soviet farmers
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/07/20/purported-photo-of-pows-may-be-of-soviet-farmers/
YouTube video: The POW/MIA issue in the early 1990s: The case of Major Albro Lundy, Jr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jApwi_LuGYU
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
