LIEUTENANT LARRY JAMES STEVENS



[stevens.txt 11/07/91]
Written Testimony of Gladys Stevens Fleckenstein
Mother of L/CDR Larry Stevens
To Senate Select Committee on POWs November 7, 1991

Members of the Senate Select Committee:

My name is Gladys Stevens Fleckenstein. I am the mother of L/CDR Larry James Stevens. After taking off from the USS Coral Sea, Larry was shot down in a night action over the Ho Chi Mihn trail in Laos on February 14, 1969.

Eye witness reports from three US fliers who saw the crash of Larry's plane state they picked up a five to ten second beeper signal two to three minutes after Larry's plane impacted the ground. They are positive the signal came from Larry.

The official report from Larry's commanding officer on the incident stated that he felt the chances of Larry's survival were good. A navy man, John Hamill, Lemoore, California, who was aboard the Coral Sea on this same cruise told me that the ship's crew was told that Larry "punched out" immediately and was known to be alive on the ground. These and other data throughout the years only strengthen my belief, Larry is alive.

I have always felt in my heart that my son survived the crash. Now I have that proof. After twenty-two and a half years of searching, traveling to Paris, Geneva and Laos, flag raisings, speeches, and doing what ever I could do to keep the awareness about our LIVE POWS before the public. We have spent everything we have had over the years and now I have reached the end of my quest to find my son. We have found Larry Stevens. I have a picture brought out by a source of the Three POWs in my possession. The man on the right is my son. I have a new LIVE POW picture, of Larry wearing a blue shirt, brought out by Judge Hamilton Gayden's sources. This blue shirt POW photo has been positively identified by Dr. Charney of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Larry Stevens has been positively identified by a second forensic expert, Thomas Wilson, of Pittsburg, Penn. (Documentation of photo I.D. attached.)

My family and friends who have men in a "missing" status have long felt that the U.S. government, and especially the DIA, are not aggressively pursuing the data and evidence that support our belief that live Americans remain captive in Southeast Asia today.

One single fact shows the most damning proof that DIA is not serious about finding live POWs. Using information DIA had been sitting on for six months, the families contacted a source known to the DIA for those six months, talked with him by phone, flew to his home in California, and were given a copy of the Three POW Photo showing the three men, and which had the names of Col. Robertson and L/CDR Stevens on the back. All of this was accomplished in well under 72 hours from the time news of the sighting report was first received by the families on November 8, 1990. Yet, in a letter dated December 10, 1990, a month later, Deputy Chief Trowbridge states DIA is still trying to interview this same source.

In support of my belief that DIA is remiss and not doing a adequate job on the POW/MIA issue, I offer the following:

1. DIA has over 1,400 first hand live sighting reports which claim that live Americans are being held against their will. These 1,400 reports are classified and are denied to the families and to the American public (including members of Congress).

Why should reports of incidents that occurred 20 to 25 years ago remain classified? Is it "national security" matter or is LIVE POW information being classified in order to cover up DIA's ineptitude?

Worse yet, these files denied to the families have been TURNED OVER TO HANOI.

2. The Tighe report specifically charges DIA to have a mind-set to debunk all live sighting reports and states that evidence proving LIVE POWs exists, remains classified and is hidden from the families and from several congressional committees which have oversight responsibility.

3. The 5-page letter submitted by then Chief of the POW/MIA section of the DIA, Col Millard A. Peck, makes the same charge.

4. The interim report as well as the final report by the "US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff" document in detail similar allegations.

5. DIA and the IAG (inter agency group) have launched a concerted and continuous attack to debunk the identification by family members of at least five military men whose reported photos have been made public lately. The names of L/CDR Larry Stevens, Col. John Robertson, Major Albro Lundy II, Lt. Daniel V. Borah, Jr. and Major Donald G. Carr (all names appearing on official MIA lists) have surfaced along with photos and reports which claim these American military men are still alive. Instead of trying to deny these men are alive, the DIA should send out their teams to follow all available leads.

Our men shot down and captured are advancing in age. We need the WILL to find them NOW and bring them home AT ONCE. Advancing age, disease, confinement and possible torture are not conducive to their health and well-being. DIA's most urgent task is to send investigative teams to the prison sites and caves where indigenous people have stated that live Americans were observed being held against their will. I feel this may be our men's last hope to ever see their homeland again. It is up to you, the newly formed Senate Select Committee, to BRING THEM HOME NOW.

STRANGE HAPPENINGS THAT PUZZLE ME

1. The FBI claim they have no fingerprints for any of the men in the three POW photo. Yet, all three men have held high security clearances. It seems strange to me that the Los Angles Hall of Records have a birth certificate of my two younger sons, but not one of my POW son, Larry Stevens. The same situation exists with hospital and DMV records. (See The Fingerprint Saga, attached)

2. DIA sends us a tape and written material in a foreign language. When we request an English translation, DIA sanitizes all names and places in the returned English version, but leaves this data in the foreign copy. 3. Instead of helping the family members, DIA forces us to prove time and time again that our men are alive, while DIA classifies all the records we need.

DIA claims that the pictures of the Three Men is a hoax and yet they cannot prove it. I received a 19 page report from Sandia Laboratories and their conclusions which I would like to read to you.

I cannot prove that this photograph is a hoax, but I believe there is substantial evidence that rifles are being held. It doesn't make sense that POWs would have their picture taken holding weapons. This, however, is conjecture on my part. I have found no evidence that this photograph has been tampered with. I also have found no evidence that it is tamper free. i recommend a continued historical literature search to locate the original image.

Let me repeat part of that first line, "I cannot prove that this photo is a hoax."

Regarding the purported picture of the L/CDR Stevens along, Sandia Lab's state:

I cannot say whether or not the service record and purported images show the same man. The men in the two images do look somewhat alike. Sequence I on the video tape documents this. However, sequences 2 and 3 on the video show that an impostor can also be photographed to look somewhat like the service record and purported images. The increased width in the purported image compared to the service record images of the test subject as a youth and an adult. Age and weight gain did not increase the width. Finally, I am concerned about the technical foundation upon which Dr. Charney has made his identification.

Dr. Charney has positively identified my son's picture two different times and i believe in his analysis on hundred percent.

I have fought the fight all these years when our government should have brought my son, and all the LIVE POWS home and as full as possible accounting of those who perished. last, they flew me out over the Ho Chi Mihn Trail, Laos, and I left my heart and my son in that lonely land.

At the very best what is going on here is gross incompetence starting with Carl Ford and leading to President Bush.

At worst, there is an active government cover-up.

Gentlemen, if there are any real men left in the leadership of this country, I call on you now to stop this pathetic charade and bring my son, Larry Stevens, home.

Larry has managed to get his picture out. What more can he do?


STEVENS, LARRY JAMES

Name: Larry James Stevens
Rank/Branch: O2/US Navy
Unit: Attack Squadron 216, USS CORAL SEA (CVA 43)
Date of Birth: 17 December 1942 (Hawthorne CA)
Home City of Record: Canoga Park CA
Date of Loss: 14 February 1969
Country of Loss: Laos Loss
Coordinates: 163900N 1061900E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A4C
Refno: 1383

Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: LTJG Larry J. Stevens, a U.S. Navy pilot, was assigned to Attack Squadron 216 onboard the aircraft carrier USS CORAL SEA. On Valentine's Day, 1969, he launched in his A4C Skyhawk attack aircraft on a night strike mission over Laos. With him was another A4C piloted by LTCDR J.F. Meehan. A Forward Air Controller (FAC) aircraft and an A6 Intruder were also in the area.

The flight was assigned a ground target -- a group of trucks carrying ammunition and supplies to enemy forces fighting in South Vietnam. While maneuvering in the target area, the two A4's were fired upon by anti-aircraft artillery. The two aircraft were at 10,000 feet, when LTCDR Meehan, in the lead aircraft, heard and felt a double explosion with an accompanying white flash from the left side of his aircraft. This explosion caused damage to Meehan's aircraft. He was able to regain control of the damaged plane, flew out to sea, ejected safely and was picked up by a search and rescue helicopter.

LTJG Stevens had been flying close formation when the flash and explosions were experienced. No transmissions were heard from Stevens at that time and no further voice contact was established. About one minute after the explosion, his aircraft was seen by the FAC and the crew of the A6 aircraft to impact the ground. Initial reports indicated that there might have been a mid-air collision between the two aircraft, but this was later discounted.

Stevens made no radio transmission after his plane was hit, nor was there any sighting of a parachute. However, a few minutes after his plane crashed, a five to ten second beeper signal was picked up by the other planes and was assumed to come from Stevens. Subsequent visual and electronic sweeps of the area failed to pick up any sign of him or his plane. Hostile threat in this area, near Tchepone, Laos, precluded any further search and rescue efforts. In his official report of the incident, Steven's squadron commander advanced the strong possibility that he could well have survived the crash, in which case he would almost certainly been captured. There has been no further word of Larry Stevens received by his family.

Larry Steven's parents are very active in the effort to resolve the POW/MIA problem. They say, "How long can our POWs endure what they are now, and have been undergoing for from twelve to twenty years in captivity? The governments of Vietnam and Laos have positive knowledge of many of our men. Progress is extremely slow. Please write your Congressman and Senators asking them to become involved in the cause of our POW/MIAs."

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s145.htm


ALSO SEE:

Senate Select Committee Testimony & Depositions

Testimony of Albro Lundy III
Submitted On Behalf of His Father Major Albro L. Lundy Jr.
November 7, 1991


Clinton's visit offers hope to MIAs' families
November 18, 2000




CONTINUE TO PAGE 14- President Bush to POW/MIA Families: "Shut Up and Sit Down!"

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