Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1/swsii.zip/swsii/009/H103.ZIP/H103.TXT

Text File | 1990-04-18 | 4KB | 71 lines

HARROLD, PATRICK KENDAL

Name: Patrick Kendal Harrold
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 17 December 1944
Home City of Record: Leavenworth KS
Date of Loss: 05 February 1969
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 193600N 1034800E (UG745675)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4E
Other Personnel in Incident: John C. Clark (missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1990 with the assistance of
one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: In violation of the neutrality of Laos accorded at Geneva in a
14-nation protocol conference July 23, 1962, the North Vietnamese and supporting
communist insurgent group, the Pathet Lao, lost no time in building strategic
strongholds of defense in Northern Laos and establishing a steady flow of
manpower and material to their revolutionary forces in South Vietnam via the Ho
Chi Minh Trail on the eastern border of the Laotian panhandle.

As a result, the Royal Lao sought help from the U.S. In turn, U.S. involvement
in Laos was justified by an expected quick victory in Vietnam. Every initiative
had to be cleared through the U.S. Ambassador at Vientiane, so that the delicate
balance of "look-the-other-way-neutrality" engaged in by the nations involved
(including China) could be preserved. Before many years passed, however, it
became clear that the U.S. would have no "quick victory" in Vietnam, and the
secret war in Laos grew more difficult to contain.

Defense of non-communist activity in Laos generally fell into three categories:
1) U.S. Army and CIA's bolstering of the Meo (Hmong) army led by General Vang
Pao;  2) Strategic U.S. Air Force bombing initiatives on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
(Operations Commando Hunt, Steel Tiger, etc.);  3) U.S. Air Force bombing
initiatives in northern Laos (Operation Barrell Roll, etc.) both against
communist strongholds there, and in support of the Royal Lao and Gen. Vang Pao's
army.

1Lt. Patrick K. Harrold and Capt. John C. Clark II were pilots assigned to an
F4E Phantom fighter jet dispatched on an operational mission over Laos on
February 5, 1969. Their mission would take them to the northeast edge of the
Plain of Jars in Xiangkhoang Province in Military Region II.

At a point about 10 miles northwest of the city of Nong Het, the Phantom was
shot down and both crew members declared Missing in Action. The Air Force told
the Harrold and Clark families that there was every reason to believe the enemy
knew the fate of both men; that perhaps they had been captured. It was too soon
to tell.

When the war finally ended for the U.S. in Southeast Asia, families of the
nearly 600 men lost in Laos were horrified to learn that no negotiations had
been struck that would free Americans held in Laos. The Pathet Lao had stated
publicly that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, but they wished to
be negotiated with. The U.S. was not willing to negotiate with the communist
faction, even at the cost of abandoning some of their best men.

Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in
Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Many authorities have
reluctantly concluded that there are hundreds of them who remain alive today,
held captive by a long-ago enemy.

Whether Clark and Harrold are among those thought to be still alive is not
known. What is clear, however, is that we owe these men our very best efforts to
bring them home. What must they be thinking of the country they proudly served?