Loss Coordinates Map

Engineman Petty Officer 2nd Class George R. Weaver Jr. was assigned to Mine Squadron 11, Detachment ALFA. On November 1, 1966, the minesweeper he was aboard hit a mine and sank in the Long Tau River south of Nha Be, South Vietnam. Petty Officer Weaver was forward below decks at the time of the explosion, and the entire forward section of the boat was destroyed. No identifiable remains were recovered.

It was believed at the time that Weaver could not have survived, and he was placed in a category of Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered (KIA/BNR). Further, it was determined that his remains were non-recoverable.

Weaver is listed among the missing because his remains were not found. Others who are missing do not have such clear-cut cases. Some were known captives; some were photographed as they were led by their guards. Some were in radio contact with search teams, while others simply disappeared.

Since the war ended, over 250,000 interviews have been conducted with those who claim to know about Americans still alive in Southeast Asia, and several million documents have been studied. U.S. Government experts cannot seem to agree whether Americans are there alive or not. Detractors say it would be far too politically difficult to bring the men they believe to be alive home, and the U.S. is content to negotiate for remains.

Well over 1000 first-hand, eye-witness reports of American prisoners still alive in Southeast Asia have been received by 1990. Most of them are still classified. If, as the U.S. seems to believe, the men are all dead, why the secrecy after so many years? If the men are alive, why are they not home?