Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1/swsii.zip/swsii/009/D606.ZIP/D606

Text File | 1990-10-13 | 4KB | 84 lines

DRIVER, CLARENCE NESBIT

Name: Clarence Nesbit Driver
Rank/Branch: Civilian/Air America
Date of Birth: 07 March 1922 (Phoenix AZ)
Home City of Record: Riverside CA
Date of Loss: 07 March 1973
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 195145N 1010900E (QB230980)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: C123K

Other Personnel In Incident: James H. Ackley (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: During the Vietnam war, Air America contracted with CIA to fly in Laos
transporting a variety of supplies. Because the United States "was not at war"
in Laos, some AA activities were secret. CIA considered its work important
enough to deceive the U.S. Congress, and obtained a large portion of its funding
through AID dollars that Congress believed were for civilian help. Although Air
America openly spoke of its humanitarian drops of rice, blankets and medicine,
they also conducted many "hard rice" drops - ammunition, grenades, bombs and
weapons to the secret CIA directed indigenous army.

Many Air America pilots were crack pilots from World War II and Korea who just
were not ready to quit flying in the challenging arena of war. Some took the job
because they believed that in doing so, they could help fight communism. Laos
was a tough assignment. Not only were maps antiquated, forcing the pilots to
"eyeball" their way through the countryside, but the weather and terrain could
also be quite unpredictable.

Refugees created by the war depended on Air America, whose planes could alter
weeks of starvation, when the wounded suffered without medical supplies, in a
single drop. Enough food and supplies could be dropped in a single morning to
supply and feed five thousand people for a month. The secret army depended on
the AA materiel drops to such an extent that they sometimes resorted to trickery
to make sure they occurred. On one occasion, a pilot observed the wind sock at a
village strip hanging straight down, but when he landed found the wind
dangerously strong. An amiable native explained, "We know plane not land when
sock flies, so we put rocks in sock."

At the foot of any runway, an AA pilot could encounter armed communist troops
intent on preventing him from ever flying again. Many planes returned to base
peppered with bullet holes, and some were destroyed. Others were downed and
their crews captured.

On March 7, 1973, a C123K flown by Clarence Driver on which James Ackley was a
crewmember was sent on a mission over Laos. The C123K differed from other C123
models in that it had the addition of auxiliary turbojet engines mounted in
underwing pods. While this addition did little to increase the speed of the
"Provider," it added greater power for quicker climbing on takeoff and power for
maintaining altitude. Driver's aircraft crashed in Louangphrabang Province,
Laos, about 25 miles north of the Laos/Thailand border near the city of Pak
Beng. Ackley and Driver were classified Missing In Action.

As late as 1984, reports were being received that at least Driver was alive, in
good health, and being held in a group of 8 American prisoners. Four of the
original 12 prisoners had died of dysentary, and two who were still resisting
had rings in their noses and were treated like beasts of burden. A private,
unauthorized rescue plan was formulated to attempt to free him in 1984. The
attempt was unsuccessful.

Over 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia have been
received by the U.S. Government since 1975. A Pentagon panel concluded in 1986
that there were at least 100 men still alive. Ackley and Driver are two of
nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos. Although the Pathet Lao publicly stated that
they held "tens of tens" of Americans, NOT ONE MAN returned that had been held
in Laos. The U.S. has yet to negotiate their release.

Clarence Driver's daughter Sharon describes the agony of their uncertainty,
"Imagine yourself on a telephone and ther person says 'hold on, I'll be right
back,' and they never come back...you just keep holding on."

How much longer must these men wait for their country to bring them home?

Clarence Driver retired in 1964 as a KC135 pilot at March Air Force Base in
Riverside, California.