THE WALL OF FACES

Dear Major Charles Elbert Finney, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, and the best salute a civilian can muster for you, Sir

Curt Carter

I wore a MIA bracelet for Maj Chuck Finney for many years (high school and college). When I visited the wall, I looked him up and felt a personal sense of connection and loss. We prayed for him and his family so often. It is with sweet sadness that I see him pictured on this page and it is fitting that he finally made it home so many years later. Vietnam remains such a sorrowful part of our history and to all who served - you are my heroes.

If I should die, and leave you here awhile, be not like others, sore undone, who keep long vigils by the siloent dust, and weep...for MY sake, turn again to life, and smile....Nerving thy heart, and trembling hand to do something to comfort other hearts than thine...Complete these dear, unfinished tasks of mine...and I, perchance, may therein comfort you.

I just got an e-mail from a good friend of yours that served with you in Vietnam. He told me your remains were found approx. 5 years ago so I wanted to welcome you back to The World. I am the sister of a Marine still missing in Vietnam so I may have met your family at some of the meetings in Washington, D.C. with the National League of Families. Now you can rest in peace. Semper Fi Marine. From the proud sister of a Marine.

MAJOR

CHARLES ELBERT FINNEY

and

CAPTAIN

STEVEN RAY ARMITSTEAD


VMA 533

MARINE AIR GROUP 12

1st MARINE AIR WING


REMAINS RETURNED - 15 MARCH 2000


The Grumman A6 INTRUDER is a two-man all weather, low-altitude, carrier based attack plane, with versions adapted as aerial tanker and electronic warfare platform.

The A6A primarily flew close-air-support, all weather and night attacks on enemy troop concentrations, and night interdiction missions.

Its advanced navigation and attack system, known as DIANE (Digital Integrated Attack navigation Equipment) allowed small precision targets, such as bridges, barracks and fuel depots to be located and attacked in all weather conditions, day or night.

The planes were credited with some of the most difficult single-plane strikes in the war, including the destruction of the Hai Duong bridge between Hanoi and Haiphong by a single A6.

Their missions were tough, but their crews among the most talented and most courageous to serve the United States.

1st Lieutenant STEVEN RAY ARMITSTEAD was the pilot and Captain CHARLES ELBERT FINNEY was the bombardier/navigator on board an A6A INTRUDER aircraft sent on a night mission over Laos on 17 March 1969. The mission was in support of air activity being conducted by the 7th Air Force.

When the aircraft had completed its target strike, it was hit by enemy fire and went down near the city of Muong Nong, located southwest of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), in Savannakhet Province, Laos.

Air searches proved unsuccessful, and both men were listed as Missing In Action.

The Defense Intelligence Agency further expanded Armitstead's and Finney's classifications to include an enemy knowledge ranking of 2.

Finney and Armitstead are among nearly 600 Americans lost in the country of Laos during the Vietnam War.

Although the number of men actually termed "prisoner of war" are quite low, this can be explained in understanding the blanket of security surrounding the "secret war" the U.S. waged in Laos.

To protect the public perception that we "were not in Laos," details of many loss incidents were "rearranged" to show a loss or casualty in South Vietnam.

Only a handful of publicly-exposed cases were ever acknowledged POW, even though scores of pilots and ground personnel were known to have been alive and well at last contact ( thus increasing the chance they were captured alive ).

The Lao communist faction, the Pathet Lao, stated on several occasions they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, but the Pathet Lao were not included in the Paris Peace agreements ending American involvement in the war.

Consequently, no American POWs held in Laos were negotiated for.

Not one American held in Laos has ever been released.

They were abandoned to the enemy.

Charles Finney attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, and had been named first, to the Marine Corps Honor Guard, and later to the Marine Corps Silent Drill Team.

He was promoted to the rank of Major during the period he was maintained as missing.

Steven Armitstead was promoted to the rank of Captain during the period he was missing.



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No. 125-00

Department of Defense

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

14 March 2000

VIETNAM WAR REMAINS IDENTIFIED

Two servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been accounted for and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States.

They are identified as

Navy Commander JAMES WAYNE HALL, Los Angeles, California

and

Marine Corps Major CHARLES ELBERT FINNEY, Saltillo, Mississippi.

On 28 October 1972, Hall took off from the carrier USS America in his A-7C Corsair on a surface-to-air missile suppression mission.

Over the target area in Nghe An province, North Vietnam, Hall was heard to radio to his wingman, " Two SAMs ( surface-to-air missiles ) lifting at 12 o'clock."

No other radio messages were heard.

The first missile missed his wingman, but the second struck Hall's aircraft.

No parachute was observed, and no emergency radio beepers were heard.

In 1989, Vietnam repatriated to the United States 15 boxes allegedly containing the remains of U.S. servicemen.

One was believed to be Hall, but forensic science at the time could not confirm an identification.

His case was placed in a hold status pending the receipt of new evidence or the development of new forensic techniques that would assist in the identification.

Joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, conducted investigations and excavations at suspected crash sites in 1993 and 1994.

They found no remains, but did recover several pilot-related items.

Mitochondrial DNA testing assisted in confirming the identity of the remains recovered in 1989.

On 17 March 1969, Finney was flying in an A-6A aircraft on a night armed reconnaissance mission over Laos.

Crewmen from other aircraft in the area observed an explosion in the vicinity of the target, then a second explosion nearby which was believed to be that of Finney's aircraft.

There were no parachutes sighted and no emergency beepers were heard.

Search and rescue efforts were terminated several days later when no signs of survivors were found.

In 1995 and 1999, joint U.S.-Lao teams interviewed local villagers in the area of the crash, then conducted an excavation in Savannakhet province.

A local worker turned over a military identification tag relating to Finney's fellow crewmember.

The team also recovered numerous pieces of aircraft wreckage, personal effects and possible human remains.

This evidence aided in the final identification.

With the accounting of Hall and Finney, 2,029 servicemen remain missing in action from the Vietnam War.

Another 554 have been identified and returned to their families since the end of the war.

Analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii confirmed the identification of these two men.





YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

NOR SHALL YOU EVER BE