Posted on 05/28/2006 10:14:14 PM PDT by Ranald S. MacKenzie
Associated Press
LUBBOCK, Texas - The trail to finding soldiers still missing from the Vietnam War is beginning more and more at Texas Tech University.
An Internet archive of decades-old documents from the school's Vietnam Center has provided Defense Department researchers dozens of leads in the cases of 1,805 American soldiers who never returned from Southeast Asia.
The growing online collection, launched in 2004, led Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Robert Newberry to send a recent letter informing the center that POW-MIA analysts have uncovered 41 leads from the archive.
And many more new clues are likely on the way: of the 2.3 million documents the center purchased from the National Archives, only about 5 percent is online so far.
"It makes the hair stand up on our arms," James Reckner, the center's director, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Here we are in Lubbock, Texas, and to know that we are helping try to resolve these cases for families. This is history that matters."
After long being out of sight, North Vietnamese intelligence documents owned by the U.S. government have been featured on the center's Virtual Vietnam Archive.
The documents, which contain clues to prisoners of war and others missing in action, were taken from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers. The government set up a computerized search method for the collection, but the search tools became obsolete. By the 1970s, there wasn't a way to research the documents.
In 2002, the Vietnam Center bought copies of 954 reels of microfilm from the National Archives containing the documents.
About a year and a half ago, center staff began posting the documents online as part of the Virtual Vietnam Archive. The virtual archive allows people to review online 2.5 million documents, including military reports, photographs, 8 mm films and maps.
The archives have excited families with the possibility of new clues unearthing missing loved ones.
"Its an obligation for this country to support the people who are going worldwide to fight for freedom," said Jo Anne Shirley, chairwoman of the National League of POW/MIA Families' board of directors.
Shirley's brother is among those who haven't been found. Air Force Maj. Bobby Marvin Jones, a physician and flight surgeon, went down in an F-4 Phantom on Nov. 28, 1972, in Vietnam.
"Its important to servicemen, even today, that they be assured that we will not leave our fallen on the battlefield in a foreign country," she said.
Despite its importance, the documents are going online more slowly than before because of a dwindling funding. The $496,000 in federal money from the Institute of Museum and Library Services was eliminated this year.
"We have hopes of finding a considerable number of additional leads," said Gary Sydow, director for research and analysis at the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office. "We are really grateful that Texas Tech is taking this on."
On the Net:
Red Raider ping.
bump for reference
ping
I have a feeling if they would just ask for volunteers to scan and by means of data entry get those documents online they wouldn't need so much money. It's too bad the documents have sat around "obsolete" for so long.
Thanks to Neodad for this Red Raider ping.
ping
They would still need money to pay for additional licenses for the software to cover the additional hands on deck. The software that they use is a specialised package and is not an "off the shelf" programme - that is why it is so powerful. Also, each person scanning the documents has to skim the text to select and enter relevant search terms; it is a time-consuming process.
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.