Operation Just Cause
I cannot remember how I came across Gunny's site and found out about adopting a
MIA soldier, but the experience has touched my heart. When I sent the e-mail to adopt my
soldier, I never imagined that he would be someone from so near to my own home. Robert's
home town is Charleston, SC and mine is Walterboro, SC--about an hour's drive apart.
I was only two years old when Robert disappeared, and I honestly
don't remember much about the Vietnam Era. I remember, as a kid, seeing the fighting on
the news and wishing that there were cartoons on instead. I remember my Uncle James, who
was in the Navy during this time. I don't think he was in Vietnam, and it isn't something
we really talk about, but I do remember crying my heart out because we had to take Uncle
James to the airport. I didn't know where he was going that day, but that little girl
thought she would never see her favorite uncle again. Thank God, my uncle is still alive
and well today. Maybe Robert has a niece like me. I can't imagine the pain his family must
have felt when they learned that he was missing, or the pain that must come from not
knowing what really happened to him.
| As an adult, I have visited The Wall in Washington, DC and
touched the names carved there. I worked with someone who's dad's name is on the wall. He
wasn't on duty that particular day, but my friend's dad went up in a helicopter with some
buddies on a routine mission. They were shot down and died in the crash. This is just one
of the tragic stories held in that Wall. Anyone who can visit there and not be moved must
not be conscious. Looking at the mementos left there by families of the deceased makes the
names more human There are letters there from children to their dads and from survivors to
their former troop members. There are flowers, pieces of uniforms, and other tokens of
love. |
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Robert Lenwood Platt Jr.
Name: Robert Lenwood Platt Jr. Rank/Branch: E3/US Army
Unit: Company B, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division
Date of Birth: 01 September 1947
Home City of Record: Charleston SC
Date of Loss: 10 June 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 145228N 1084623E (BS605455)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing) |
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Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project, 30 June 1990, from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S.Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews.
SYNOPSIS: PFC Robert L. Platt Jr. was a member of Company B, 2nd
Battalion, 502nd Infantry in Vietnam. On June 10, 1967, he was a member of a ten-man
patrol on a search and destroy mission operating about five miles southwest of the city of
Mo Duc in Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam.
During the patrol, the team was ambushed and Platt was reportedly
wounded in the shoulder. When the patrol withdrew under fire, Platt was carried a short
distance when the man carrying him was wounded and Platt was again wounded in the back. At
this point, Platt was left behind.
After the patrol regrouped, search operations were begun and
continued until June 16. During the search, items were found that were believed to belong
to Platt, but he was not found. A captured enemy document indicated that an individual
whose first name was Robert had been captured and died the next day from wounds. This
report was not specific enough to classify Platt as a prisoner of war. He was classified
Missing in Action.
In 1973, 591 Americans were released from POW camps in Vietnam,
and the communist governments released a list of those who had died in captivity. Platt
did not return, nor was his name on any list provided by the Vietnamese. He was one of
about 2500 who remained prisoner, missing or unaccounted for at the end of the war.
Mounting evidence indicates that some Americans are still alive
being held prisoner of war in Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese pledged to return all
prisoners of war and provide the fullest possible accounting of the missing in the peace
accords signed in 1973. They have done neither, and the U.S. has not compelled them to do
so.
The United States government pledged that the POW/MIA issue is of
"highest national priority" but has not achieved results indicative of a
priority. Platt and the nearly 2500 Americans who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia
deserve our best efforts to bring them home, not empty rhetoric.
Robert L. Platt Jr. was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant
during the period he was maintained missing.
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