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Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1
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1990-06-05
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FINNEY, CHARLES ELBERT
Name: Charles Elbert Finney
Rank/Branch: O3/US Marine Corps
Unit: VMA 533, Marine Air Group 12
Date of Birth: 05 August 1944
Home City of Record: Saltville MS
Date of Loss: 17 March 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 161900N 1063300E (XD530190)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Other Personnel In Incident: Steven R. Armistead (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 June 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: The Grumman A6 Intruder is a two-man all weather, low-altitude,
carrier based attack plane, with versions adapted as aerial tanker and
electronic warfare platform. The A6A primarily flew close-air-support, all
weather and night attacks on enemy troop concentrations, and night interdiction
missions. Its advanced navigation and attack system, known as DIANE (Digital
Integrated Attack navigation Equipment) allowed small precision targets, such as
bridges, barracks and fuel depots to be located and attacked in all weather
conditions, day or night. The planes were credited with some of the most
difficult single-plane strikes in the war, including the destruction of the Hai
Duong bridge between Hanoi and Haiphong by a single A6. Their missions were
tough, but their crews among the most talented and most courageous to serve the
United States.
1LT Steven R. Armistead was the pilot and Capt. Charles E. Finney was the
bombardier/navigator on board an A6A Intruder aircraft sent on a night mission
over Laos on March 17, 1969. The mission was in support of air activity being
conducted by the 7th Air Force.
When the aircraft had completed its target strike, it was hit by enemy fire and
went down near the city of Muong Nong, located southwest of the demilitarized
zone (DMZ), in Savannakhet Province, Laos. Air searches proved unsuccessful, and
both men were listed as Missing In Action.
The Defense Intelligence Agency further expanded Armistead's and Finney's
classifications to include an enemy knowledge ranking of 2. Category 2 indicates
"suspect knowledge" and includes personnel who may have been involved in loss
incidents with individuals reported in Category 1 (confirmed knowledge), or who
were lost in areas or under conditions that they may reasonably be expected to
be known by the enemy; who were connected with an incident which was discussed
but not identified by names in enemy news media; or identified (by elimination,
but not 100% positively) through analysis of all-source intelligence.
Finney and Armistead are among nearly 600 Americans lost in the country of Laos
during the Vietnam War. Although the numbers of men actually termed "prisoner of
war" are quite low, this can be explained in understanding the blanket of
security surrounding the "secret war" the U.S. waged in Laos. To protect the
public perception that we "were not in Laos," details of many loss incidents
were "rearranged" to show a loss or casualty in South Vietnam. Only a handful of
publicly-exposed cases were ever acknowledged POW, even though scores of pilots
and ground personnel were known to have been alive and well at last contact
(thus increasing the chance they were captured alive).
The Lao communist faction, the Pathet Lao, stated on several occasions they held
"tens of tens" of American prisoners, but the Pathet Lao were not included in
the Paris Peace agreements ending American involvement in the war. Consequently,
no American POWs held in Laos were negotiated for. Not one American held in Laos
has ever been released. They were abandoned to the enemy.
Reports continue to be received that Americans are alive today, being held
captive. Whether Armistead and Finney are among them is not known. What is
certain, however, is that they deserve better than the abandonment they received
at the hands of the country they so proudly served.
Charles Finney attended the military academy at West Point, and had been named
first, to the Marine Corps Honor Guard, and later to the Silent Drill Team. He
was promoted to the rank of Captain during the period he was maintained missing.
Steven R. Armistead was promoted to the rank of Major during the period he was
missing.