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.
SYNOPSIS: On January 3, 1971, a flight of two aircraft
departed Korat Airbase Thailand for an operational mission
over Laos. Both aircraft were the reconnaissance version of
the Phantom fighter bomber aircraft. The crew aboard the lead
aircraft was Major James H. Ayres, pilot, and
Capt. Charles W. Stratton, weapons systems officer.

During the mission, which took the flight over Savannakhet
Province,Laos, Ayres' aircraft was seen to crash and explode
in a ball of fire prior to its second pass over the target
area. No parachutes were observed, and no emergency radio
beeper signals were detected. The loss occurred about 8 miles
southeast of the city of Ban Muong Sen.

Ayres and Stratton are among nearly 600 Americans lost in
Laos. During the course of American involvement in the war,
the Pathet Lao stated on a number of occasions that they held
"tens of tens" of American prisoners and that those captured
in Laos would also be released from Laos. Unfortunately,
that release never occurred, because the U.S. did not include
Laos in the negotiations which brought American involvement
in the war to an end. The country of Laos was bombed by U.S.
forces for several months following the Peace Accords in
January 1973, and Laos steadfastly refused to talk about
releasing our POWs until we discontinued bombing in their
country.

After the war ended, 591 Americans were released from
communist prison camps in Southeast Asia, but NOT ONE American
held in Laos was released. Even though family
members of the men still missing did their best to keep their
men's plight in the public eye, these "tens of tens" were
largely forgotten.

Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to
Americans missing in Southeast Asia have been received by the
U.S.Government, many of them relating to men lost in Laos.
Tiny steps towards recognition of the communist Lao
government have been taken over the years, but no effort to
negotiate the freedom of any Americans still alive has
been made.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing
this issue inside the Beltway...
The need to get specific answers is more important now
than ever before.
If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70s...They don't
have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the
bureaucrats and keep standing on their necks (figuratively
speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US
and that we are serious about getting these long overdue
responses.

REMARKS:
Diplomatic considerations aside...

We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by
pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or
influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches
while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and
talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia.
If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition
to writing their congressmen, senators and the Whitehouse,
check out these sites: