On the 2nd hour of the November 25, 2009 POWER HOUR RADIO SHOW, Joyce Riley interviewed WWII Pilot and Father JOSEPH MILLINER as he shared his heartbreaking life-journey to free his beloved Viet Nam War Pilot and Son William Patrick Milliner - "Billy". Joseph Milliner had also been captured and held prisoner of war during WWII.William "Billy" Milliner, a 1968 graduate of Trinity High School who attended Western Kentucky University for a year, joined the Army at the height of the Vietnam War because he wanted to be a pilot, his father said. He was 20 when he was reported missing over Laos on March 6, 1971.
According to the best accounts, Joe Milliner said, four Cobra helicopters, all low on fuel, had flown through a heavy barrage of North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire and were on their way back to their base in South Vietnam. William Milliner's helicopter never made it. The Army still lists him as missing in action.
Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Defense Department's POW-Missing Personnel Office in Washington, appeared skeptical of the Milliner's claims. He said the department has "no knowledge of anyone being alive and held against their will" in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam era. "The evidence we have" would not support the Milliners' belief that their son is alive. Greer said. There are about 2,100 service members listed as missing from the Vietnam War, he said, and no soldier held prisoner has been found alive in nearly 20 years. Greer said some families of POWs have been the victim of scams, and he urged the Milliners to share any information they may have with his office.
But Joe Milliner said he has asked the military for help for many years and has been greeted with skepticism.
"We gave up on (getting help from the military) four years ago," he said.
Milliner said the family has been working primarily outside government channels to find his son. He referred to them as "private, mercenary types" but was reluctant to be more specific for fear that might jeopardize the effort. He said there had been at least one unsuccessful attempt to rescue William Milliner.
Joe Milliner said the family has received independent reports of people seeing his son as recently as 1992. He believes his son has injuries including a "missing or useless" left arm and permanent damage to his left side and left ear which is partly missing. He also said he is trying to raise money to travel to Laos to search for his son.
JOYCE RILEY'S THE POWER HOUR ARCHIVES
November 25, 2009 (hour 1) mp3
November 25, 2009 (hour 2)mp3
November 25, 2009 (hour 3)mp3
Related articles:
SHOCKING REVELATION: U.S. POWS STILL IN LAOS
AFP & others have said it for years; now proof emerges U.S. soldiers still held in Southeast Asian camps
By Christopher J. Petherick
There is new evidence that American GIs are being held against their will in Southeast Asia more than three decades after the Vietnam War officially ended.
A letter recently received by the father of a U.S. pilot, who went missing in action in 1971, could provide a key piece of information that proves American prisoners of war are alive and imprisoned in remote areas of South Vietnam.
Over the years, historians, researchers and independent journalists have made a compelling case that, during the Cold War, thousands of U.S. POWs were moved among Soviet, Chinese and North Korean labor camps, where they toiled and died under the worst conditions. Families of POWs and MIAs say the U.S. government has turned a blind eye to the plight of these men, even going so far as to sabotage their efforts at finding out what exactly happened to their loved ones.*
But Joe Milliner’s incredible story of his son, told at the June 20 meeting of the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families in Crystal City, Va., could change all of that. Documentation compiled by Milliner could finally force the country to come to terms with the fact that thousands of Americans were abandoned by the U.S. .... Full Article
AFP & others have said it for years; now proof emerges U.S. soldiers still held in Southeast Asian camps
By Christopher J. Petherick
There is new evidence that American GIs are being held against their will in Southeast Asia more than three decades after the Vietnam War officially ended.
A letter recently received by the father of a U.S. pilot, who went missing in action in 1971, could provide a key piece of information that proves American prisoners of war are alive and imprisoned in remote areas of South Vietnam.
Over the years, historians, researchers and independent journalists have made a compelling case that, during the Cold War, thousands of U.S. POWs were moved among Soviet, Chinese and North Korean labor camps, where they toiled and died under the worst conditions. Families of POWs and MIAs say the U.S. government has turned a blind eye to the plight of these men, even going so far as to sabotage their efforts at finding out what exactly happened to their loved ones.*
But Joe Milliner’s incredible story of his son, told at the June 20 meeting of the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families in Crystal City, Va., could change all of that. Documentation compiled by Milliner could finally force the country to come to terms with the fact that thousands of Americans were abandoned by the U.S. .... Full Article
Source:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/pows_still_in_laos_142.html
BIO: MILLINER, WILLIAM P.
Source:http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/m/m152.htm
