December 15 1998
The library received the microfilms that
I had requested and I viewed
them today. There are quite a few letters
from his family, one from
his father, another from his Aunt, and
still another from someone
who identifies herself as his fiance.
These are pain filled letters
of pleading and hope for anwers and I
refuse to publish them here.
It did make this a much more painful quest
for me as I not only
feel my own personal anguish for a fellow
American, but now
I feel as if I know his family and THIER
pain as well. I will not
post that pain here for everyone to see
without the express
permission of Al's family. One of the
last letters I read was to
Al's "next of kin", his Aunt, from which
I assume that Al's
father had passed away. Basically, it
stated that Al's
classification had changed from an MIA
to a Dead BNR
which means the government has decided
that aside
from any evidence to the contrary, Al
is dead and his body
was not recovered.
I refuse to live with that.
13 September 1998
Well, I guess our Government
is a little too busy with the Clinton/Lewinsky
thing to actually send copies
of the documents that I requested so
I ordered them at my local
library. As for luck, I've had a tidbit.
Thanks to a very kind person,
I now have the addresses of the
only three people with the
last name of Pitt that live in Hempstead, NY.
I will carefully
write each a kind but brief letter and try to find Al's family.
You'll also notice a wonderful
letter on the Letter's To Al page which is new.
If any of you recognize
the sender's name and served in the same unit at the
same time, drop him a line.
13 August 1998
A reply from Chuck and Mary
Schantag, confirms that Albert was part
of VMFA 314 MAG 11. Unfortunately,
I still have not heard from
anyone that knew Al personally
or served with him and knew him because
of that. On a lighter note,
I have had better luck with his navigator;
Lawrence N. Helber. I was
able to "speak" with someone that remembers
him, and you can see what
I learned by hitting the Next button below
and visiting Lawrence.
09 August 1998
Although I have yet to hear
from ANYONE regarding the issue of the correct
unit for Al, I have pretty
much nailed down VMFA 314, MAG 11 as the
correct one. Nobody has
responded to any of the postings that I have out on
the internet. Not for Al,
for VMFA 314 Mag 11 serving in that time frame,
or for the CO, Major Charles
A. Sewell. In the meanwhile, I have added to the
homepage, as you can see,
the insignia patch for VMFA 314. Also, below, is a
replica of the aircraft
that Al was flying when he and his crew mates went MIA.
This arircraft is being
flown out of VMFA 531 but is pretty much a duplicate
of what Al was flying at
the time.
08 August 1998
Yesterday I received a letter from the
White Hosue in
response to mine addressed to the President
(Bill Clinton)
and regarding not only my own POW/MIA's
but the entire
POW/MIA issue. This was a form letter
and it was designed
to "Thank" me for my concern and caring
as I paid attention
to this issue. It also included an "Informative"
pamphlet on where
the President and the White House stood
on the POW/MIA issue.
It was a mixed emotion day...part of me
was annoyed at receiving
a form letter as a response...the other
part was kind of proud. We
as a country must be contacting them regularly
for them to have
drawn up a form letter just for responding
to this. Still...the mere
thought that caring for an individual
in this country means a form
letter...where have we gotten to? It makes
me want to save Al
and Lawrence and all the thousands of
others just so I can
offer my apologies for how terribly they
have been denied the
caring of a country that they cared enough
about to give their
lives for.
03 August 1998
During my research and attempts
to find any members of Albert Pitt's unit, it
came to my attention that
there was nothing out there regarding VMFA 315.
I wrote to a wonderful and
helpful man, Alan Barbour, popasmoke@erols.com,
who also informed me that
HE could not find anything on VMFA 315, but that during the time frame
that Al was in-country, so was VMFA 513. I am looking farther to see if
I can verify that Al was actually part of this unit, NOT 315. If the government
can make a mistake like that...no wonder we are missing men.
30 July 1998
To date, several letters
have been written to advocacy groups, airwings,
and helicopter associations,
looking for ANYONE who knew, or even
came into contact with Albert
Pitt, or even heard of his family. I still
have not received replies
to those letters, nor have I received any
documentation that I have
requested from the government. Pray for
him, he seems to be the
MOST alone and forgotten POW/MIA on record.
The following is a document
widely circulated within the POW/MIA
Community. With the release
of the "Current Focus Vessey Cases"
List, it takes on added
importance. This will be typed as it appears,
blacked out portions will
be indicated with *****.
My thanks to Mary and Chuck
Schantag, P.O.W. Branch at http://www.asde.com/~pownet.
Without you folks, this
document would not be on this page.
************************************
************ REGIONAL OFFICE - Danang ********************* REPORTING OFFICER - ************* DATE - 23 APRIL 1969 REPORTS OFFICER - *************** ******************** RELEASING OFFICER - ************* DISTRIBUTION - CONSULATE, CORDS, XXIV CORPS, III MAF,
525TH MI,
1. ***************interrogation of *****************
********** Approved for Release
************** ************
ATTACHMENT NO. 1 REF. ****************
LIST OF US PERSONNEL IDENTIFIED BY ***************
Photo List: AVG3 - HCIS (10 Nov. 1968), 525 MI Group Positive Identification Name BR. SVC
POSSIBLE IDENTIFICATION NAME BR. SVE Photo No. 11 Former member of 704th
*******************
POSSIBLE IDENTIFICATION
NAME BR.SVC
SCHENKENGOST, Fred T. USMC
NOTE:
**** stated that two (2) American women were also prisoners.
(No
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