Reply letter from above inquiry about My Adopted American Hero
This page is dedicated to all the missing POW/MIAs,
and most especially, to the one I have adopted as part of
"Operation Just Cause"
It is with a heavy heart that I ask all who read this page to send a prayer of love and support, and
a letter to your congressman demanding an answer, for the 2,400+ men who are still unaccounted for, and their families. This
situation is an outrage that can not be tolerated.
Please consider this:
What if it was YOUR son or husband who was missing and no one seemed to care?
Please join with us and help bring him home!
Sgt. Dennis Lee Gauthier
Rank/Branch: E3/US Army
Unit: Company C, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry
Division (Ivy Division)
Date of Birth: 08 August 1949 (Duluth MN)
Home City of Record: Rochester MI
Date of Loss: 31 October 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 140656N 1074341E (YA944622)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Synopsis of Loss Report
PFC Dennis L. Gauthier was with Army ground forces in Pleiku, South
Vietnam on October 31, 1969. He was serving as a rifleman when his
company was attempting to withdraw from an ambush, and PFC Gautier's
platoon was sent up a hill to provide covering fire for the company. The
platoon began receiving fire and engaged in a fire fight with the enemy.
Gautier was hit in the leg, and another men was hit, but they could not be
immediately evacuated. PFC Gautier hid behind a log while the others advanced.
On November 2, a reconnaissance platoon was able to search the area. This
platoon found and recovered the body of the other soldier, but found no trace
of Gautier or any of his personal effects. Dennis was barely 20 years old.
There are nearly 2500 Americans missing in Southeast Asia. Mounting evidence
indicates that some of them are still alive, held captive by the communists of
the region.
The Paris Peace agreements of 1973 dictated that the Vietnamese would return all prisoners of war and make the fullest possible accounting of the missing. They did not do either. Men known to have been prisoner of war were not released. Many men who died in captivity have not been returned for burial. The U.S. Government policy statement is that we do not have actionable evidence of Americans held captive, yet points to "several million documents" relating to these men. Until serious effort is made to find those men we left behind, their famlies will wonder whether their men are alive or dead - and why they have been abandoned by the country they proudly served.
We 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 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.
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 we do not make this issue our
"Highest Priority" now, then you can bet if the need
ever arises and our sons and daughters go off to war, their
husbands, wives and children will end up carrying the same torch.
We do not want our grandchildren to ache with the pain of not
knowing. This outrage must be stopped NOW, and we must not accept
any more excuses.
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POW/MIA Ring
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