Our Mission:
My first husband, Capt. Jerry Zimmer, was an F4B Phantom jet pilot, whose aircraft was shot down on August 29, 1969, approximately 20 miles South of Da Nang, Vietnam, after six months in country. Neither Jerry nor his navigator, 1st Lt. Al Graf, was able to eject, before the aircraft crashed into the Que Son Mountains. Initially Jerry and Al were classified as Killed in Action/No Body Recovered (KIA/NBR). Years later, both Marines were listed as MIA, along with other service members whose bodies were never recovered.
Jerry has been gone nearly a half century, and hope for recovering his remains had run out a long time ago. However, in recent years our family became involved with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), now merged with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), and learned that Jerry’s and Al’s remains might, in fact, be recoverable, so we are doing everything possible to support their efforts to make this happen and bring our guys home where they belong.
NOTE: BLOG POSTS ARE NOT UPDATED, SO INFORMATION MAY HAVE CHANGED OVER TIME.
Archive for August, 2010
JERRY’S EXCAVATION HAS BEGUN!
All the sites now being investigated or excavated during JPACs 100th JFA (Joint Field Activity) in Vietnam appear on this slide, including Jerry and Al's site (RT2). This slide was included in LTC Todd Emoto's presentation to the attendees at the recent League meeting in Washington, D.C. (Double click to enlarge)
I have been cleared by JPAC and its Vietnamese counterpart to visit the base camp, located below the crash site, close to the village of Son Vien. I want to personally thank the men and women who are working on the excavation in unbelievably challenging conditions. Getting to the crash site is considered moderately difficult, despite the 25-35 minute daily hike up the mountain, along a narrow, rocky trail, and I doubt that coming down is a cake walk. The area has been cleared of unexploded ordinance and jungle brush, but no one ventures off the trail or away from authorized areas, for safety reasons. Probably the worst part is the sauna-like heat. As many Vietnam vets will recall, it is unbelievably hot this time of year in the Central Highlands. In fact, the team’s heat meters on the first hike clocked above 106 degrees relative temperature! Read more
Unilateral POW/MIA Recoveries — A Solution?
Mark Stephensen, Chairman of the League Board, and Major General Stephen Tom, Commander, JPAC
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