MORLEY, CHARLES FRANK
REMAINS IDENTIFIED 08/05/99
Name: Charles Frank Morley
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Cam Ranh Bay, SV
Date of Birth: 12 February 1942
Home City of Record: Warrensburg MO
Date of Loss: 18 February 1970
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 170600N 1060700E (XD070912)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C
Refno:
Other Personnel In Incident: Thomas C. Daffron (Missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 31 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: When North Vietnam began to increase their military strength in
South Vietnam, NVA and Viet Cong troops again intruded on neutral Laos for
sanctuary, as the Viet Minh had done during the war with the French some
years before. The border road, termed the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" was used for
transporting weapons, supplies and troops. Hundreds of American pilots were
shot down trying to stop this communist traffic to South Vietnam.
Fortunately, search and rescue teams in Vietnam were extremely successful
and the recovery rate was high.
Still there were nearly 600 who were not rescued. Many of them went down
along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the passes through the border mountains
between Laos and Vietnam. Many were alive on the ground and in radio contact
with search and rescue and other planes; some were known to have been
captured. Hanoi's communist allies in Laos, the Pathet Lao, publicly spoke
of American prisoners they held, but when peace agreements were negotiated,
Laos was not included, and not a single American was released that had been
held in Laos.
The Phantom, used by Air Force, Marine and Navy air wings, served a
multitude of functions including fighter-bomber and interceptor, photo and
electronic surveillance. The two man aircraft was extremely fast (Mach 2),
and had a long range (900 - 2300 miles, depending on stores and mission
type). The F4 was also extremely maneuverable and handled well at low and
high altitudes. The F4 was selected for a number of state-of-the-art
electronics conversions, which improved radar intercept and computer bombing
capabilities enormously. Most pilots considered it one of the "hottest"
planes around.
Capt. Thomas C. Daffron and 1Lt. Charles F. Morley were pilots attached to
the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cam Ranh Bah, South Vietnam. On
February 18, 1970, they were assigned an operational mission over the Ho Chi
Minh Trail in Laos. Daffron served as the pilot, while Morley flew as
navigator - the "guy in back."
During the mission, a fireball was seen on the ground which was presumed to
be the downed aircraft of Daffron and Morley. Observers saw no parachutes
and heard no emergency radio beepers. There was no clear evidence that the
crew had safely ejected, but it was not known that they did not. Daffron and
Morley were declared Missing in Action.
Morley once wrote his wife of 5 years, "May you always wait for me, may I
never keep you waiting again." Yet, over 15 years later, both wait. Morley
is one of nearly 2500 in Southeast Asia, and nearly 600 in Laos who did not
return from the war. Unlike "MIAs" from other wars, most of these men can be
accounted for. Further, and even more significant, mounting evidence
indicates that there are hundreds of them still alive in captivity.
Refugees fleeing Southeast Asia have come with reports of Americans still
held in captivity. There are many such reports that withstand the closest
scrutiny the U.S. Government can give, yet official policy admits only to
the "possibility" that Americans remain as captives in Southeast Asia.
Until serious negotiations begin on Americans held in Southeast Asia, the
families of nearly 2500 Americans will wonder, "Where are they?" And the
families of many, many more future fighting men will wonder, "Will our sons
be abandoned, too?"
Thomas C. Daffron graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1965.
During the period he was maintained missing, Charles F. Morley was promoted
to the rank of Major.
-----------------------------------------------
No. 128-M
MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS August 5, 1999
The remains of three Americans have been identified from the war in
Southeast Asia and are being returned to their families for burial in the
United States.
They are identified as Maj. Charles F. Morley of Warrensburg, Mo. and Capt.
Thomas C. Daffron of Pinckneyville, Ill., both of the U.S. Air Force. A
third Air Force officer, once missing in action from North Vietnam, was also
identified but at the request of his family his name will not be released.
On Feb. 18, 1970 Morley and Daffron were flying a night strike mission over
Khammouan Province, Laos, when their F-4C Phantom was struck by enemy
anti-aircraft fire. The crew of the other aircraft in the flight reported
seeing a large fireball erupt approximately one mile east of the target
area. There were no responses to the search and rescue radio calls and no
emergency beeper signals were detected. Four days of additional search and
rescue operations met with negative results.
In May of 1993 a joint U.S./Laos team, led by the Joint Task Force-Full
Accounting, interviewed several villagers in Khammouan Province who provided
details about a nearby aircraft crash. Following the interview, the team
was led to the crash site where they found wreckage and pilot-related items
consistent with an F-4 crash.
In July and August of 1995 a second joint team excavated the crash site
surveyed in 1993. The team recovered human remains and crew-related items.
A third joint team completed the excavation in October of 1995 recovering
additional human remains and crew-related items.
Anthropological analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army
Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii confirmed the identification of
these servicemen. With the accounting of these three, there are now 2,057
Americans unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. Since the release of
American POWs in 1973, the remains of 526 MIAs from Southeast Asia have been
accounted-for and returned to their families for burial with full military
honors.
The U.S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the
governments of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam that resulted in the accounting of these servicemen. We
hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future.
Achieving the fullest possible accounting for these Americans is of the
highest national priority. -END-
---------------------------
Memories, pain still fresh for families of missing Vietnam officers
Related Sites:
- Advocacy and Intelligence on POWs, MIAs
- Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office
- Missing Brothers: Dedicated to those missing in Southeast Asia
- The P.O.W. Network
By OSCAR AVILA - The Kansas City Star
Date: 09/26/99 22:15
WHEELING, Mo. -- It's unclear whether Maj. Charles Morley and Capt. John
Seuell knew each other. But in many ways, they lived the same life.
Both grew up in small Missouri towns, graduated from Central Missouri State
University, joined the Air Force and trained in Texas.
Both were navigators in the Vietnam War.
Both fell from the sky and were lost in alien jungles.
For decades -- through Watergate, disco, Reagan, the fall of the Berlin Wall
and the Gulf War -- their families mourned. In different ways.
In a Warrensburg apartment, Josephine Morley still sheds tears as she sits
in a rocking chair and her son's memory invades her mind.
In a farm home near Wheeling, Austin and Maxine Seuell plan new ways to
create a positive legacy for their fallen son.
The families never allowed themselves to forget. And they never built too
much hope that their sons' remains would be found.
Meanwhile, the Defense Department searched for Morley, Seuell and others
missing in action.
Researchers with the Joint Task Force -- Full Accounting have interviewed
residents in Asia, studied incident reports and dug through crash sites.
They toil in the hope of giving families a peaceful final chapter.
The task force has identified 529 sets of remains, but more than 2,000 men
and women are unaccounted for. Forensic scientists are working to identify
about 100 sets of remains.
"This country happens to place a high value on the serviceman or woman. The
government feels an obligation to ensure that this commitment is upheld,"
said Larry Greer of the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office.
"As long as it takes," he said.
Surrounded by pictures
Josephine Morley owns more pictures than her shelves and tables can hold.
More than 30 framed photos stand on the floor, sprouting like flowers.
Her eyes move past those pictures to one on a corner table.
She looks into the eyes of her son, Charles.
Her hair has grayed, but Charles is a son frozen in time. "I look at that
picture and think, `What a handsome young man,' " she said.
He was a sports star at Warrensburg High School and played football at
Central Missouri State, where he married his high school sweetheart.
He enlisted in the Air Force and soon was sent overseas.
Morley says she created a world where Vietnam didn't exist.
She avoided television reports and newspaper articles about the subject.
When Charles wrote, he never mentioned the fighting.
"He wrote me like he was off at school and nothing else," Morley said. "I
think he wanted to keep that part of his life from me."
Then came the news that her son's aircraft had been shot down, two days
before he was scheduled to return home.
According to Pentagon files, Morley and his pilot left a South Vietnamese
base on Feb. 18, 1970, for a night bombing mission over Laos.
Anti-aircraft fire hit their plane. Witnesses reported seeing a large
fireball on the ground about a mile east of the target.
Josephine Morley has erased nearly all memories of the day she was told of
her son's disappearance. She doesn't remember how many Air Force men came to
her family's home, what they said or who was with her.
She doesn't even recall whether it was day or night.
As Morley discussed her son, she held his picture. Occasionally, she stroked
the surface like a mother caressing a baby.
She tries, as much as she can, to keep Charles out of her mind. Another son,
who lives in Belton, and Charles' widow dealt with the Pentagon.
"I just try not to think about him," she said, shaking her head. "I try not
to think. That's what I've always done."
Over the years, Morley avoided movies and documentaries about Vietnam. She
assumed that the government had stopped searching for her son. Meanwhile,
the local high school built a memorial and dedicated a scholarship to him.
"When he left, I told him to trust in the Lord and we'd have to do what He
said," Morley said. "It didn't make much of a difference if they found him.
It really didn't matter. I knew where he was. He was in heaven."
Two brothers left
Austin and Maxine Seuell's memories of Vietnam are painful, too.
But they confront them, embrace them and try to preserve them.
John, their oldest son, was a quiet, polite boy. His parents trace his love
of airplanes to a childhood trip to Downtown Airport.
Seuell went to Central Methodist College before transferring to Central
Missouri State. He graduated with a degree in business and got married.
Seuell and his younger brother, Gordon, both went to Vietnam.
"Any mother would be concerned for their children," Maxine Seuell said. "But
we just took for granted that they would make it home."
It was Gordon who called his parents from Vietnam to tell them that his
brother had been shot down. By the time the men from the Air Force traversed
Livingston County's gravel roads to the Seuell home, most of the town knew.
The Pentagon report says that Seuell and his pilot were flying in a
four-aircraft formation over North Vietnam on June 6, 1972. When one plane
became low on fuel the pilots started to leave the area.
Suddenly, Seuell's plane encountered MiG fighters and surface-to-air
missiles. A missile detonated and the plane went down in flames.
Enemy forces made a detailed search impossible.
There is no memorial to Seuell near Wheeling, 75 miles northeast of Kansas
City. But his parents have created living tributes.
Through a church group, they have sponsored children in Seuell's name all
over the world. Their first child lived in Vietnam.
They've affirmed their religious faith, too. Several times a month, they
minister to female inmates in nearby Chillicothe.
And they have kept Vietnam in mind, too.
They found their son's name on the traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial that stopped in Unionville. They also heard a former prisoner of
war speak at an area high school.
"I know his body is gone, but his spirit is in heaven," Maxine Seuell said.
"That's the part of him I want to keep alive, the memory."
Morley found
After months of analysis, the Defense Department in August officially
identified a set of human remains as Charles Frank Morley.
His Pentagon files show the clues that led to the answer: interviews with a
village chief in Laos, maps of crash sites, the recovery of survival kits,
several excavations in the countryside.
Josephine Morley always said it didn't matter whether they found her son.
But when she heard the news, she was surprised at how she felt.
"It's easier now," she said. "I don't know why, but it is. It helps to know
what happened to him and why. It's closure."
In a few weeks, Morley and other relatives will attend a ceremony at
Arlington National Cemetery.
The Seuells were encouraged to hear that Morley was found. Maybe, just
maybe, researchers might find a path to their son too.
Bob Necci, chairman of the National POW/MIA Committee for the Vietnam
Veterans of America, says the Joint Task Force's efforts have given hope to
thousands of families.
Necci credits the task force's persistence and the cooperation of Vietnam,
Laos and other nations.
But the work won't be easy. Necci says U.S. and foreign governments lack the
staffing and money to expand their efforts. Meanwhile, terrain changes,
vegetation grows and witnesses die.
So thousands of families continue to wait.
The Morleys and Seuells shared a tragedy. They dealt with it in different
ways. As Necci talks with families around the nation, he hears hundreds of
different tales. But, he says, the families share one sentiment.
"A lot of the families I work with are activists. They're very
well-informed. Other families have purposely closed those years and moved
on," Necci said. "They've accepted in their own minds that their son was
lost and that he'll never be found.
"Outwardly, it might seem that they've put it aside," he said. "In truth,
they probably haven't. It's never really over with."
To reach Oscar Avila, Missouri correspondent, call (816) 234-4902 or send
e-mail to oavila@kcstar.com
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