The Official Voice of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. ®
An organization chartered by the U.S. Congress
September/October 2002
LEADERSHIP CONFERENCEFace to Face with Gary Flanagan
BY FRANCISCO MUNIZ III
During the Tucson Leadership Conference, I interviewed Gary Flanagan, Casualty Resolution Specialist Supervisor, JTF-FA. We talked about his personal point of view on the issue of POW/MIAs and how successful the governments of the United States and Vietnam have been in resolving these cases.Flanagan began his tour in 1972 when he joined the U.S. Air Force. Since then, he has served in many capacities. His educational background is extensive and varied. He has a command of the Vietnamese language and has had duty as an interrogator-debriefer-interpreter for the Joint Casualty Resolution Center in Hawaii.
He has interviewed many refugees from Southeast Asia who claimed to have information about American POW/MIAs. As one of the first members of the team to travel to Vietnam, he served as the interpreter and analyst for seven of the first Joint U.S.-Vietnam Forensic Teams. Flanagan is one of the original members of the MIA Office staff in Hanoi and has directed more than a thousand investigations and a hundred excavations during his tenure in Vietnam. He currently directs field programs for the President's Four Areas for Measuring Progress, including resolving priority cases, repatriating remains, researching documents, and interviewing Vietnamese witnesses participating in investigations in Laos.
When asked why he was still involved with the POW/MIA issue, Flanagan said that with his skills, knowledge of the language, and experience, he saw that as his only choice. The Vietnam War, he said, affected every veteran who served during that period and, most important, it also affected the families and friends of those still listed as POW/MIA.
Flanagan said that when he started in 1987 he reviewed all the case folders on hand. There were 2,263 files for Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China. There were too many to account for, and it was his responsibility to clear the way for some answers.
"We owe it to our service veterans and their families that if something happens to them while on duty, we will not stop looking," he said. "This is the right thing to do."
Flanagan tries to know about all the cases where a report or lead had been filed, and then follows each up for review. He must decide which cases to forward to the recovery team for excavation.
Each team is provided information from each lead. All hot leads are brought to the immediate attention of the recovery teams for review and follow-up. The team handles only one case at a time.
Flanagan was asked if the Veterans Initiative has been a hindrance or a help in solving some of these cases. The Veterans Initiative, Flanagan said, has been instrumental in opening doors for him and for other investigators. The Veterans Initiative has helped many Vietnamese families find closure. The Vietnamese feel that we are cooperating with them, and they in turn help us to resolve our cases. When asked by his Vietnamese counterpart, "What have you done for us?" Flanagan is able to demonstrate how Vietnam veterans have cooperated on the MIA issue.
When asked whether the government of Vietnam is cooperative or still looking for money, he replied: "That is a tough question to answer. Everyone is looking for money, but that is not the central issue. We are the central focus for all other relations with the United States in Vietnam."
Flanagan has been in Vietnam for 11 years. As an American and a patriot, he is happy to know that he is doing what needs to be done. Unfortunately, he said, one hundred years from now there still will be open cases because so many leads arrive each and every day. Moreover, answers may never arrive for many of the families because of the nature of war and its consequences. Although many remains have been vaporized by massive tonnage of explosives and flash heat, Flanagan does not give up hope. He knows that all it takes is one individual to come forward with some piece of information to solve open cases.
|
Visit The VVA Veteran
archives |
E-mail us at TheVeteran@vva.org