CALFEE, JAMES HENRY

Name: James Henry Calfee
Rank/Branch: E7/US Air Force
Unit: TDY-Civilian/Lockheed, Lima Site 85, Phou Pha Thi, Laos
Date of Birth: 05 January 1932
Home City of Record: Newgulf TX
Date of Loss: 11 March 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 202600N 1034400E (UH680600)
Status (in 1973): Killed In Action/Body Not Recovered
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 2052

Other Personnel In Incident: Clarence Blanton; James Davis; Henry Gish;
Willis Hall; Melvin Holland; Herbert Kirk; David Price; Patrick Shannon;
Donald Springsteadah; Don Worley (all missing from Lima 85); Donald
Westbrook (missing from SAR 13 March)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 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. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: When James Calfee volunteered for a sensitive assignment called
Project Heavy Green, his wife had to sign a secrecy agreement too. Calfee,
an Air Force man, was to be temporarily relieved of duty to take a civilian
job with Lockheed Aircraft. He would be helping operate Lima 85, a radar
base in Laos, whose neutrality prohibited U.S. military presence. The radar
site would direct U.S. air traffic from Thailand over the hostile territory
of Laos and into North Vietnam. No one was to know.

Lima 85 was on a peak in the Annam Highlands near the village of Sam Neua on
a 5860 ft. mountain called Phou Pha Thi. The mountain was protected by sheer
cliffs on three sides, and guarded by 300 tribesmen working for CIA. Unarmed
US "civilians" operated the radar which swept across the Tonkin Delta to
Hanoi.

For three months in early 1968, a steady stream of intelligence was received
which indicated that communist troops were about to launch a major attack on
Lima 85. Intelligence watched as enemy troops even built a road to the area
to facilitate moving heavy weapons, but the site was so important that
William H. Sullivan, U.S. Ambassador to Laos, made the decision to leave the
men in place.

When the attack finally came March 11, some were rescued by helicopter, but
eleven men were missing. The President announced a halt in the bombing of
North Vietnam.

Donald Westbrook was flying one of four A1Es orbiting on stand-by to search
for survivors of the attack at Phou Pha Thi when his plane was shot down
March 13. Westbrook was never found. Finding no survivors, the Air Force
destroyed Lima 85 to prevent the equipment from falling into the hands of
the enemy.

In mid-March, Edna Calfee was notified that Lima Site 85 had been overrun by
enemy forces, and that her husband and the others who had not escaped had
been killed. Many years later, she learned that was not the whole truth.

Two separate reports indicate that all the men missing at Phou Pha Thi did
not die. One report suggests that at least one of the 11 was captured, and
another indicates that 3 were captured; another that 6 were captured.
Information has been hard to get. The fact that Lima Site 85 existed was
only declassified in 1983, and finally the wives could be believed when they
said their husbands were missing in Laos. Some of the men's files were shown
to their families for the first time in 1985.

Edna Calfee and the other wives have talked and compared notes. They still
feel there is a lot of information to be had. They believe someone survived
the attack on Lima Site 85 that day in March 1968. They wonder if their
country will ever bring those men home.

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