50 Years After This Airman Disappeared In Vietnam, Investigators Made An Astonishing Discovery

fifty years after this airman disappeared in vietnam investigators made an astonishing [Music] discovery in 1968 three a6 intruder planes took off from uss enterprise for a mission over vietnam for the two-man crew of one of those aircrafts this mission would not turn out well still it would be more than 50 years before anyone would know the story of navigator m bombardier lieutenant richard c lanham when lanham and shurik disappeared in march 1968 the u.s was well and truly embroiled in the vietnam war the north vietnamese communists with the support of their chinese allies called the conflict the resistance war against america in fact the fighting in vietnam is seen by many as part of the cold war the decades-long dispute that pitched america and her allies against communist countries led by the soviet union a turning point in the war came in january 1968 when the north vietnamese launched a massive assault the tet offensive this involved over 85 000 north vietnamese fighters attacking more than 100 south vietnamese cities fighters even attacked the american embassy in the south vietnamese capital saigon many towns fell to the communists and two more large-scale attacks quickly followed after the tet offensive in south vietnam on january 30th the enterprise resumed its journey to the tonkin gulf on february 16th her specific destination was yankee station a mustering point at sea for u.s naval forces some 90 miles off the north vietnamese coast enterprise arrived at yankee station on february 21st and airborne combat missions commenced the very next day on the 23rd despite bad monsoon weather attack squadron 35's a6 intruders headed out on their first mission of the deployment they attacked the north vietnamese port at hanoi the country's capital city attack squadron 35 was lanham and sharik's unit and this first mission to hanoi was judged a success concerning these types of a6 missions it's worth noting the words of admiral william f bringle the vice commander of the seventh fleet quoted on the pow network website they give a flavor of what men like shurik and lanham were up against admiral bringle said the low-level knight missions flown by the a6 over hanoi and heifong were among the most demanding we have ever asked our air crews to fly fortunately there is an abundance of talent courage and aggressive leadership in these asic squadrons the missions lanham and shirik undertook then were no cakewalk and the a6 crews continued to fly in the heavy rains and stormy weather that characterized the northeast asian monsoon season indeed it's been said that the airmen actively welcomed these bad conditions which persisted through february and into march their aircraft was specifically designed to cope with the conditions and the bad weather offered the planes a cloak of concealment from the enemy but let's return to march 1st 1968. three a6s took off from the enterprise at 6 pm that day the lead aircraft number one was crewed by pilot and squadron commander glenn coleman navigating was johnny griffin lieutenant commander greg young was flying the second plane with lieutenant bill siegel as navigator and lanham and shurik were in plane number three coleman's plane was to attack this strategically important fun hoa bridge planes two and three however were heading for the kamfah barracks about 90 miles from hanoi after the three planes had taken off from the enterprise they met up at a preordained point just off the north vietnamese shores after final weapons and communication checks it was time to fly to their targets coleman headed west for the seemingly indestructible bridge while the other two planes led by young set a course northwards for campha the approach to this target was fraught with difficulty the sea was dotted with small islands by the hundred many with jagged rock formations reaching to the sky this made low altitude flying particularly perilous and the mission was made no easier by the fact that there was a heavy concentration of north vietnamese anti-aircraft defenses in the very area the crews were flying into at low altitude young sped in for his attack at 1500 feet shurik came on the radio to say he was about to attack as well young's plane then dropped its bombs meanwhile lanham's plane turned its identification transmitter off this was presumably to avoid detection by north vietnamese anti-aircraft batteries the plane also disappeared from radar as it was flying at the low altitude of 2500 feet for all intents and purposes the a6 was now undetectable except by the human eyes the three planes had a pre-arranged rendezvous point where they were to meet after completing their missions the location was intended for a situation when one or more of the planes had lost radio contact or sustained damage two of the planes arrived on schedule but there was no sign of lanham and sharik's aircraft the two crews that made it to the rendezvous searched the area for the missing craft but found nothing they then tried to raise their buddies on the radio when there was no response they alerted search and rescue they too drew a blank and no emergency signals from the intruder were detected nor did they spot any wreckage the mystery was complete it seemed that lanham and shurik had disappeared into thin air the two a6s waited as long as they could in the hope that lanham and shurik would show up but eventually with fuel running low they had no choice but to return to the enterprise as they made their way back to the carrier they radioed the ship to report their comrades missing the next group of planes due to make an attack from the aircraft carrier then jettisoned their bombs and instead went to search for the missing a6 lanham and shurik's navy comrades now made a thorough search for the pair the intruder association website later carried an interview with bob benjamin who had been a member of attack squadron 35 at the same time as the two missing men and he'd been flying in one of the planes that ditched their bombs to help with the search as i remember it was a clear but dark night benjamin explained if there was a fire on the ground from the wreckage we should have been able to see it but we didn't we found neither fire nor a survival radio signal we searched the area near camphor the islands south west and east of kampha and even went north as far as the chinese border looking for any sign of the wreckage nothing ominously benjamin also added cam fa on a dark night was almost impossible to find on radar it was a place that was tailor-made to get disoriented the limestone formations and the mountains behind cam faw made low-level flying deadly and as a result of the fruitless search lanham and shurik were declared missing in action the naval authorities then announced that shuriken lanham's plane must have gone down about 29 miles from kampha in the bay of tonkin but the truth was that nobody really knew where the plane had ditched or even crashed perhaps the men had ejected near their target before being captured by the communists but it was all speculation nobody knew for sure whether lanham and shurik were dead or alive but there was still the possibility that the pair had survived and were being held in a north vietnamese pow camp somewhere this after all had been the fate of many other us airmen but this too turned out to be a blind alley after the u.s forces withdrew from vietnam in 1973 just under 600 american prisoners of war were released sadly neither lanham nor shurik were among them and even now there are still men that haven't been accounted for according to the defense pow mia accounting agency in fact 1592 americans remain missing as of december 2018. the years passed and the families of lanham and shurik were left in limbo not knowing what had happened to their loved ones in 1978 however the navy declared that shurik was no longer missing in action instead he was now presumed dead but for both families there was still no grave to grieve over but that wasn't the end of the story for lanham's family indeed employees of the officer for seeking missing persons a vietnamese state organization tracked down some local witnesses to a 1968 incident they'd seen a u.s plane crash on the densely forested island of trauban just off the coast of the mainland one witness gave a convincing account of visiting the site where an american plane had crashed the location was a mountaintop on traban near a village called nassan the man also said he found a helmet belonging to a pilot another local witness described hearing an explosion one night these testimonies were compelling enough to prompt the vietnamese authorities to take further action in 2017 a team from the office for missing persons visited trial ban there they found plane wreckage and human remains the following year the remains underwent dna analysis and a positive identification was made it was lanham at last after a 50-year wait his family finally knew what had happened to him on march 2nd 2019 lanham was buried 51 years and one day after his death his final resting place is in his hometown of union city tennessee the airman's wife charlotte spoke to cbs news i just want him to know how proud i have been all these years to have been his wife i would just like to be able to tell him she said sadly for thomas shurick's family however his remains are yet to be discovered thomas edwin shurick was born in 1933 and brought up on his parents farm near norfolk nebraska along with his brother and two sisters he was a student at norfolk junior college and graduated from there in 1953 after that he attended pre-flight training at the pensacola florida naval air school shurik went on to become a qualified pilot of the gruman a6 intruder this was an assault plane specifically designed as an all-weather craft and was one of the main planes used by the u.s navy at the time of the vietnam war and it could carry up to 18 thousand pounds of bombs making it a highly effective attack plane the a6 often flew at low altitudes to deliver its deadly payload and that is just what shurik and lanham were doing on their mission to bomb kamfa barracks unfortunately this low flying meant the a6 was a target for anti-aircraft weapons and in fact the military lost 84 of the planes during the course of the conflict when the vietnam war got underway shurik actually volunteered for active service despite being 35 at the time towards the end of 1967 he deployed to the uss enterprise and that of course was the ship from which he and his navigator lieutenant lanham took off on their march 1st mission in 1968 shurik's flying partner richard clive lanham who inherited the name tito from his father was born in union city tennessee in 1941. a keen athlete at school he went on to attend the university of tennessee where he studied business administration and it was while at college that he met his future wife charlotte lenham graduated from college in 1965 and from there signed up for the officer candidate school also in pensacola the young airmen started out flying in c-130 hercules planes but then transferred to the intruders he then received training for them at the whidbey island naval air station in washington state and like shurik he joined uss enterprise at the end of 1967. the vietnam war was one of the longest deadliest and most significant conflicts in u.s history but if you were to flip open any old history textbook the words within would just barely scratch the surface of its impact though nearly half a century has passed since the final shots were fired these rare photos proved there was much more to the vietnam war than what we learned in history class the thrill of survival was a rare feeling for u.s troops that crossed into the vietnamese demilitarized zone here a group of american soldiers are seen celebrating following their safe return from the long tom spiking raid near kantian in 1968. plenty of wars have seen dogs deployed on the battlefield though not all of these pups were made for fighting while some dogs were returned home if they proved unfit for duty others were kept around as pets to help boost soldier morale on september 30th 1968 the uss new jersey fired its first shells into the vietnamese demilitarized zone the new jersey was the only u.s battleship to provide gunfire support during the war while lyndon johnson began his presidency with widespread approval public support declined as he ramped up u.s involvement in vietnam here lbj is pictured greeting american troops overseas circa 1966. u.s troops were woefully unprepared when it came to fighting in the jungles of vietnam leading most operations to be conducted by air toward the end of the war pictured here are over 800 soldiers parachuting into south vietnam's tai nin province as part of operation fi hoa 2. not many people know that the draft lottery for the war effort was a literal lottery on december 1st 1969 young men from all across the country watched as 366 tiny blue capsules rattled around a plastic tube to ultimately decide their fate [Music] along with most draft eligible men veterans of both the conflict in vietnam as well as previous wars heavily opposed the fighting having witnessed the destruction and brutality of war firsthand it came as no surprise that these men were among the most vocal in protesting u.s intervention in vietnam soldiers weren't the only casualties of the vietnam war as it's believed more than 2 million civilians also perished in the conflict many vietnamese were forced to flee their homes and villages in the chaos sometimes escaping with nothing more than the clothes on their backs though a lot has been made of the brutality of american soldiers during the war there were also many instances of humanity and compassion here two gis are seen carrying a young vietnamese girl out of harm's way with death being uncomfortably close at all times it should come as no surprise that many soldiers turn to religion here a priest performs a christian faith service before a crowd of kneeling gis despite the us being considered the driving force behind the war a number of its allies also entered into the fray including australia the country contributed approximately 7 672 combat troops and 50 190 military personnel to the war effort some of which are pictured here the might of the us's military arsenal was put on full display during the vietnam war especially when it came to aircrafts here a squadron of eight f-4 phantom twos are pictured flying over open water circa 1965. on january 27 1973 the warring sides officially signed the paris peace accords finally putting an end to u.s involvement in vietnam also called the agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in vietnam the treaty signing was attended by the governments of the democratic republic of vietnam north vietnam the republic of vietnam south vietnam the republic of south vietnam indigenous south vietnamese and the u.s despite comprising a small percentage of the us's civilian population at the time black americans made up 16.3 percent of draftees and 23 percent of combat troops by 1967. many of these soldiers were poor men already disillusioned by the ongoing racial conflicts back home richard nixon was a polarizing president to say the least and his policy of vietnamization was no different despite receiving a phenomenal number of telegrams pictured here supporting his plan to better train south vietnamese soldiers while simultaneously withdrawing u.s troops from the country his position ultimately led to the fall of saigon and the loss of the war in the quiet moments when the bombs stopped falling and the gunfire ceased soldiers turned to things like sports and music to restore even an ounce of normalcy if we had to guess this gi is probably playing a somber rendition of credence clearwater revival's fortunate sun while the vietnam war is often associated with mass counter-cultural protests there were also a good number of americans that supported the war effort fearing the spread of communism these individuals saw the war as just and necessary for the prevention of the american way of life [Music] between death and abuses suffered at the hands of oran soldiers vietnamese women found life incredibly difficult in wartime still many of them heroically served in the war effort with the vietnam women's memorial foundation estimating that some 11 000 vietnamese women aided on both sides of the conflict while religion worked for some others used humor to cope with the grim realities of war let's just hope this soldier wasn't making a face at his commanding officer the anti-war protests of the 60s and early 70s could get massive with tens of thousands of people from all walks of life coming together to call for an end to the bloodshed pictured here is one such protest which took place right at the turn of the decade on january first nineteen seventy thirty years prior during world war two the images captured were no less incredible despite the devastation caused by german bombings just days earlier this london milkman still made sure his customers would have something to pour on their cereal in the morning [Music] you