Marine’s disappearance in Vietnam remains a mystery. Family deserves closure.
In 1983 I promised an Atlanta mother I would uncover the truth about what happened to her youngest son, who disappeared in Vietnam 56 years ago.
Now, more than 42 years after that promise, I may be closer than ever to keeping it as we approach this year’s National POW/MIA Recognition Day.
According to U.S. Marine Corps records, Lance Cpl. James W. “Jimmy” Jackson Jr. walked into a U.S. Navy hospital shortly after 2 p.m. on Sept. 21, 1969, for treatment of a minor back wound suffered in an accidental explosion. Then, he vanished like a wisp of smoke in a strong wind.
That was the conclusion an investigative board reached after a somewhat cursory examination of what were believed to be the facts about 21-year-old Jackson’s disappearance. It also is the story the Marine Corps told his stunned parents, Rudeen and James W. Jackson Sr.
No one knew Jackson was missing for weeks
Jackson is among 1,566 American servicemen — 28 from Georgia — still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. The uncertainty of the fates of those missing men will forever be a hole in the history of their families; Jackson’s in particular because of its unusual nature.
The accidental explosion that supposedly wounded Jackson occurred at a remote hilltop base that was being abandoned. It had been rigged with explosives to demolish it and the Marines assigned there were scheduled to leave that day. Official records show two Marines were killed and 10 wounded in the explosion.
Several eyewitnesses claimed they either saw Jackson on — or helped onto — a medical evacuation helicopter that took him to the hospital. But neither that hospital nor any other hospital in Vietnam had a record of him being admitted or treated.
Two days after the explosion, a unit was sent to the base to finish the demolition. Two sets of badly burned remains were found but were not recovered because it was assumed they were the two Vietnamese scouts assigned to Jackson’s unit.
At that time, no one knew Jackson was missing. In fact, four weeks passed before it was discovered no one could account for him and an investigation began to determine his whereabouts. Only then did Marines in Jackson’s unit begin reconstructing the events of Sept. 21 to try to figure out what had happened to him.
When investigators sought to visit the base to retrieve the unidentified remains, they were told it was too dangerous and would upset the unit’s timetable for leaving Vietnam. At that point, efforts to find Jackson in Vietnam virtually ended.
Marine Corps prides itself on never leaving fallen fighters
I first learned of the Jackson case while writing for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1983 about Georgians unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. Jimmy’s story had been featured regularly in the newspaper since late 1969.
“The Marine Corps lost my son,” Rudeen Jackson bluntly told me.
“That doesn’t happen,” I said. “The Marine Corps has an ethos of never leaving a fallen Marine behind.”
I spent 14 months of my Marine Corps service (1965-68) working in the Casualty Section at Headquarters Marine Corps. I knew of extraordinary efforts Marines made in Vietnam, often at the risk of their own lives, to rescue dead and wounded comrades. It is something instilled in Marines from the moment they begin training.
After my promise to Jimmy’s mother, I began investigating on my own. No matter what other assignments I had, I could not stop thinking about Jimmy Jackson.
Government should authorize a recovery mission
Over the years, I have uncovered numerous documents detailing the inconsistencies in the government’s version of events. Recently, one document surfaced that showed one of the Vietnamese scouts thought to have been killed was instead medically evacuated. This discovery raises a significant question about the true identity of the abandoned remains.
Jimmy was listed as Missing in Action for 14 years but was declared dead in 1980 when his parents could not prove to the government he was alive. He is now memorialized with a white marble headstone that sits atop an empty grave in Marietta National Cemetery.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is responsible for bringing home remains of missing American servicemen, now believes Jackson was killed in the explosion and his remains left behind.
Whether the DPAA authorizes a recovery mission depends on whether it considers the expenditure of time, money and personnel worth it to bring home one missing Marine.
For Jimmy’s family, and for me, it is.
I made a promise to his mother. I intend to keep it. No matter how long it takes.
Ron Martz is a Marine Corps veteran, former reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and co-author of six books on military history. He is working on a book about the Jackson case.
