American Legion
Post # 312
St. Charles, Mo.
American Legion
St. Charles, Mo.
Information About Legion Post 312's Adopted POW/MIA
On the morning of 6 June, 1972, at 10:00 AM, Lt. Colonel James A. Fowler, pilot, and his
weapons systems officer, Captain John W. Seuell, departed Udorn Airfield on a combat air
patrol mission Northwest of Hanoi. Their F4D fighter was the lead aircraft in a flight of four
F4Ds on the mission.
The mission progressed as planned and the flight arrived in the target area without incident. Upon completion of the mission, the flight proceeded back to Thailand. Approaching surface-to-air missile launching sites near Yen Bai Airfield, North Vietnam, the launch of a missile was detected about 11:29 a.m. Although evasive maneuvers were initiated, the missile was seen to explode about five feet below the tail section of Fowler's plane. The aircraft burst into flames, but did not disintegrate. No canopies or parachutes were seen. Thirty minutes later, flights in the area reported hearing two emergency signals, but no voice contact could be established. Because the incident occurred deep in enemy territory, no organized search could be made.
The shootdown site was in an area in North Vietnam that the U.S. had access to in May, 1973, but failed to inspect.
When 591 Americans were released from Vietnam in 1973, Fowler and Seuell
were not among them. Neither were hundreds more whom military heads believed
had been captured. Unlike MIAs in other wars, most of the nearly 2500
missing in Vietnam can be accounted for with relative ease. Since the war's
end, thousands of reports have been received by the U.S. Government
regarding Americans still in captivity in Southeast Asia. There is a large
volume of evidence which indicates that hundreds are still being held.
Perhaps two of them could be Fowler and Seuell.
Henry Kissinger predicted, in the 50's, that future "limited political engagements" would result, unfortunately, in nonrecoverable prisoners of war. We have seen this prediction fulfilled in Korea and Vietnam, where thousands of men and women remain missing, and where ample evidence exists that many of them (from BOTH wars) are still alive today. The U.S. Government seems unable (or unwilling) to negotiate their freedom. For Americans, the "unfortunate" abandonment of military personnel is not acceptable, and the policy that allows it must be changed before another generation is left behind in some faraway war.
James A. Fowler was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the period he was maintained missing. Seuell's rank was maintained as Captain.
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By OSCAR AVILA - The Kansas City Star
Date: 09/26/99 22:15
WHEELING, Mo. -- It's unclear whether Maj. Charles Morley and Capt. John
Seuell knew each other. But in many ways, they lived the same life.
Both grew up in small Missouri towns, graduated from Central Missouri State
University, joined the Air Force and trained in Texas.
Both were navigators in the Vietnam War.
Both fell from the sky and were lost in alien jungles.
For decades -- through Watergate, disco, Reagan, the fall of the Berlin Wall
and the Gulf War -- their families mourned. In different ways.
In a Warrensburg apartment, Josephine Morley still sheds tears as she sits
in a rocking chair and her son's memory invades her mind.
In a farm home near Wheeling, Austin and Maxine Seuell plan new ways to
create a positive legacy for their fallen son.
The families never allowed themselves to forget. And they never built too
much hope that their sons' remains would be found.
Meanwhile, the Defense Department searched for Morley, Seuell and others
missing in action.
Researchers with the Joint Task Force -- Full Accounting have interviewed
residents in Asia, studied incident reports and dug through crash sites.
They toil in the hope of giving families a peaceful final chapter.
The task force has identified 529 sets of remains, but more than 2,000 men
and women are unaccounted for. Forensic scientists are working to identify
about 100 sets of remains.
"This country happens to place a high value on the serviceman or woman. The
government feels an obligation to ensure that this commitment is upheld,"
said Larry Greer of the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office.
"As long as it takes," he said.
Surrounded by pictures
Josephine Morley owns more pictures than her shelves and tables can hold.
More than 30 framed photos stand on the floor, sprouting like flowers.
Her eyes move past those pictures to one on a corner table.
She looks into the eyes of her son, Charles.
Her hair has grayed, but Charles is a son frozen in time. "I look at that
picture and think, `What a handsome young man,' " she said.
He was a sports star at Warrensburg High School and played football at
Central Missouri State, where he married his high school sweetheart.
He enlisted in the Air Force and soon was sent overseas.
Morley says she created a world where Vietnam didn't exist.
She avoided television reports and newspaper articles about the subject.
When Charles wrote, he never mentioned the fighting.
"He wrote me like he was off at school and nothing else," Morley said. "I
think he wanted to keep that part of his life from me."
Then came the news that her son's aircraft had been shot down, two days
before he was scheduled to return home.
According to Pentagon files, Morley and his pilot left a South Vietnamese
base on Feb. 18, 1970, for a night bombing mission over Laos.
Anti-aircraft fire hit their plane. Witnesses reported seeing a large
fireball on the ground about a mile east of the target.
Josephine Morley has erased nearly all memories of the day she was told of
her son's disappearance. She doesn't remember how many Air Force men came to
her family's home, what they said or who was with her.
She doesn't even recall whether it was day or night.
As Morley discussed her son, she held his picture. Occasionally, she stroked
the surface like a mother caressing a baby.
She tries, as much as she can, to keep Charles out of her mind. Another son,
who lives in Belton, and Charles' widow dealt with the Pentagon.
"I just try not to think about him," she said, shaking her head. "I try not
to think. That's what I've always done."
Over the years, Morley avoided movies and documentaries about Vietnam. She
assumed that the government had stopped searching for her son. Meanwhile,
the local high school built a memorial and dedicated a scholarship to him.
"When he left, I told him to trust in the Lord and we'd have to do what He
said," Morley said. "It didn't make much of a difference if they found him.
It really didn't matter. I knew where he was. He was in heaven."
Two brothers left//
Austin and Maxine Seuell's memories of Vietnam are painful, too.
But they confront them, embrace them and try to preserve them.
John, their oldest son, was a quiet, polite boy. His parents trace his love
of airplanes to a childhood trip to Downtown Airport.
Seuell went to Central Methodist College before transferring to Central
Missouri State. He graduated with a degree in business and got married.
Seuell and his younger brother, Gordon, both went to Vietnam.
"Any mother would be concerned for their children," Maxine Seuell said. "But
we just took for granted that they would make it home."
It was Gordon who called his parents from Vietnam to tell them that his
brother had been shot down. By the time the men from the Air Force traversed
Livingston County's gravel roads to the Seuell home, most of the town knew.
The Pentagon report says that Seuell and his pilot were flying in a
four-aircraft formation over North Vietnam on June 6, 1972. When one plane
became low on fuel the pilots started to leave the area.
Suddenly, Seuell's plane encountered MiG fighters and surface-to-air
missiles. A missile detonated and the plane went down in flames.
Enemy forces made a detailed search impossible.
There is no memorial to Seuell near Wheeling, 75 miles northeast of Kansas
City. But his parents have created living tributes.
Through a church group, they have sponsored children in Seuell's name all
over the world. Their first child lived in Vietnam.
They've affirmed their religious faith, too. Several times a month, they
minister to female inmates in nearby Chillicothe.
And they have kept Vietnam in mind, too.
They found their son's name on the traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial that stopped in Unionville. They also heard a former prisoner of
war speak at an area high school.
"I know his body is gone, but his spirit is in heaven," Maxine Seuell said.
"That's the part of him I want to keep alive, the memory."
Morley found
After months of analysis, the Defense Department in August officially
identified a set of human remains as Charles Frank Morley.
His Pentagon files show the clues that led to the answer: interviews with a
village chief in Laos, maps of crash sites, the recovery of survival kits,
several excavations in the countryside.
Josephine Morley always said it didn't matter whether they found her son.
But when she heard the news, she was surprised at how she felt.
"It's easier now," she said. "I don't know why, but it is. It helps to know
what happened to him and why. It's closure."
In a few weeks, Morley and other relatives will attend a ceremony at
Arlington National Cemetery.
The Seuells were encouraged to hear that Morley was found. Maybe, just
maybe, researchers might find a path to their son too.
Bob Necci, chairman of the National POW/MIA Committee for the Vietnam
Veterans of America, says the Joint Task Force's efforts have given hope to
thousands of families.
Necci credits the task force's persistence and the cooperation of Vietnam,
Laos and other nations.
But the work won't be easy. Necci says U.S. and foreign governments lack the
staffing and money to expand their efforts. Meanwhile, terrain changes,
vegetation grows and witnesses die.
So thousands of families continue to wait.
The Morleys and Seuells shared a tragedy. They dealt with it in different
ways. As Necci talks with families around the nation, he hears hundreds of
different tales. But, he says, the families share one sentiment.
"A lot of the families I work with are activists. They're very
well-informed. Other families have purposely closed those years and moved
on," Necci said. "They've accepted in their own minds that their son was
lost and that he'll never be found.
"Outwardly, it might seem that they've put it aside," he said. "In truth,
they probably haven't. It's never really over with."
To reach Oscar Avila, Missouri correspondent, call (816) 234-4902 or send
e-mail to oavila@kcstar.com
_______________________________________________________________________
For more Information go to:
Operation Just Cause
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Congressional e-mail Addresses
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