Name: Everett A. McPherson

Rank/Branch: USMC, O2

Unit: VMCJ 1 MAG 11

Date of Birth: 18 December 42

Home City of Record: Norfolk, VA

Date of Loss: 18 March 66

Country of Loss: Laos

Loss Coordinates: 191958N 1050959E

Status (in 1973): Missing in Action

Category: 2

Acft/Vehicle/Ground: EF-110B

The Wall: Panel 06E-Row 021

Other Personnel In Incident: Brent E. Davis

Source: Compiled by THE P.O.W. NETWORK 02 February 93 from the following published sources - POW/MIA's -- Report of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs United States Senate -- January 13, 1993. "The Senate Select Committee staff has prepared case summaries for the priority cases that the Administration is now investigating. These provide the facts about each case, describe the circumstances under which the individual was lost, and detail the information learned since the date of loss. Information in the case summaries is limited to information from casualty files, does not include any judgments by Committee staff, and attempts to relate essential facts. The Committee acknowledges that POW/MIAs' primary next-of- kin know their family members' cases in more comprehensive detail than summarized here and recognizes the limitations that the report format imposes on these summaries."

On March 18, 1966, First Lieutenants McPherson and Davis were the crew on board an EF-10B, one in a flight of two aircraft on an electronic counter-measures mission in support of an air strike approximately 10 miles west of Thanh Hoa City, Thanh Hoa Province.  Their flight received 85mm anti-aircraft fire during the mission.  There was an explosion in their aircraft while at an altitude of 26,000 feet and over neighboring Nghe An Province. They were believed to have been hit and downed by enemy surface to air missile. A SAR mission over the area produced negative results.  Both airmen were initially declared missing in action. Returning U.S. POWs had no information on their fate. Both airmen were initially declared dead/body not recovered, based on a presumptive finding of death.  

In December 1988, Vietnamese officials acknowledge having knowledge of their loss incident.

My reason for this letter is to ask you what your stand is on the POW/MIA situation. 

My name is Stephen R. Scherr.  I grew up in the Marine Corps, because my father was a Marine officer, and served in the Marine Corps.  Thankfully, my father returned from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.  However, so many didn’t return at all, alive or dead, from these three wars.  I have recently adopted an MIA through Operation Just Cause (OJC).  The MIA assigned to me is 1^St Lt. Everett A. McPherson, USMC, who was lost 18 March 1966 in Laos, fighting for his country he was but 24 years old.  I have started a WebPage dedicated to 1^st Lt. McPherson at http://www3.50megs.com/sscherr/POW/mcpherson.htm.

1^st Lt. McPherson, along with many others, has never been accounted for and this brings me to the larger picture, I would be very interested to learn what your policy is and what the U.S. government’s current policy is on bringing these men back home, whether dead or, horrifying thought, still being held in a prison camp somewhere in Vietnam, China, or even Russia. The possibility that at least some of these men are still being held somewhere (prison camp, perhaps a very remote village) seems likely considering the fact that apparently there have been live sightings within the past couple of years.  I can’t imagine many things more terrible than to know, or at least think, you had been totally abandoned by your service and your country for all these years.  I do know that a number of these men were returned in Operation Homecoming, but obviously not all of them.   I also know that some remains have been repatriated (supposedly all by 1990), but again obviously not all of them.  I have recently found a document on the DoD site that mentions that the North Vietnamese held and stored the remains of many of our men – a number of which have been repatriated, but again not all.  Only last summer, for instance, the remains of a MIA Navy officer I adopted were returned to the U.S.  This officer was positively identified in July of this year.   He was obviously missed in the repatriation of ALL in 1990.  I realize that   politics gets in the way of things and out of sight out of mind is better for the governments concerned in an issue such as this – I truly believe, however, that it is time to set politics aside in this matter.

The real only concern in this case should be -- What about those that remain?  We sent them there.  We left them behind.  We need to bring them home!  Now!

Sincerely,

Stephen R. Scherr

This RingSurf The Forgotten Net Ring owned by
1st Lt. Everett McPherson, USMC, POW/MIA.

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