[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL ROBERTS AND THOSE WHO PAID THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE 
                               IN VIETNAM

                                 ______
                                 

                   HON. CHARLES W. ``CHIP'' PICKERING

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 18, 2003

  Mr. PICKERING. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House to remember one 
of Mississippi's native sons who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the 
Vietnam War, and returns to us just this year for his proper internment 
at Arlington National Cemetery.
  This week, the brothers and sisters of Michael L. Roberts, a U.S. 
Navy Petty Officer from Purvis, Mississippi, will travel to Washington, 
DC to lay their missing brother to rest. He and eight of his colleagues 
on a secret reconnaissance mission in 1968 crashed and died in the 
Laotian jungle. Their mission had been to drop sensors designed to 
detect enemy movements in our struggle with communist North Vietnam.
  Their Navy OP-2E Neptune aircraft took off from Thailand on January 
11, 1968, but never returned. Two weeks later an Air Force air crew 
photographed what appeared to be the crash site, but enemy activity in 
the area prevented a recovery operation. Between 1993 and 2002, six US-
Laotian investigation teams interviewed villagers in the surrounding 
area, gathered aircraft debris and surveyed the purported crash site 
scattered on two ledges of Phou Louang Mountain in Khammouan Province.
  Then during a 1996 visit, team members recovered identification cards 
for several crew members as well as human remains. Recovery missions in 
2001 and 2002 yielded additional remains, as well as identification of 
other crew members.
  Michael Roberts was a graduate of Purvis High School and Pearl River 
Junior College. Out of college, he enlisted in the Navy. He was twenty-
four years old when his mission went missing.
  In addition to Michael Roberts, his eight friends and companions were 
Navy Commander Delbert Olson of Casselton, North Dakota; Lieutenants 
Denis Anderson of Hope, Kansas, Arthur Buck of Sandusky, Ohio, and 
Philip Stevens of Twin Lake, Michigan; and Petty Officers Richard 
Mancini of Amsterdam, New York, Donald Thoresen and Kenneth Widon of 
Detroit, Michigan and Gale Siow of Huntington Park, California.
  More than 1,900 Americans are still missing in action from the 
Vietnam War. While we mourn their losses, there is some joy that the 
families of these nine men can finally experience closure of this 
thirty-five year old wound.
  For over two centuries, the Territory and State of Mississippi has 
paid the price of freedom with the blood of our sons and daughters. 
Whether their sacrifice still remains hidden in a foreign land, or they 
rest in a small country churchyard, or they are honored in our 
country's national cemetery, we will always remember them--we will 
always honor them--we will continue to fight for the dreams they gave 
their very lives to secure for us and future generations. Thank you, 
Mr. Speaker.

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