Where They Lay: Searching for America's Lost Soldiers

Rating:
Summary: Close to the source
Review: By Kristen De Deyn Kirk

Michael Barker, 34, stood at the makeshift podium at Prince Books in Norfolk the week of Nov. 17, 2003 and looked around at the packed house.
His eyes were squinting, holding back tears -- ones of either pride or love. He had come to hear Virginian-Pilot writer Earl Swift read from his new book, Where They Lay: Searching for America's Lost Soldiers. But instead of listening Barker was speaking about how wonderful it was to finally learn about his father, Major Jack Barker, who died in Laos during the Vietnam War in an attempt to rescue under-attack soldiers.
Michael's mother had remarried, and rarely mentioned Jack. Because of Swift, the first writer to tell the story of the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CILHI), which conducts recovery missions for soldiers' remains, Son Barker now knows Dad Barker.
Jack is the hero of Swift's story, which weaves together the events of 32 years ago with a firsthand account of a recent CILHI recovery mission for the senior Barker's remains. Michael has learned so much about his father because of Where They Lay that he jokes with the Prince crowd that when his wife asks him a question concerning his father and he doesn't know the answer, he simply says, "I'll have to ask Earl."
(That'll be even easier to do now: Before the two could only communicate long distance between Michael's South Carolina home and Swift's Norfolk home. As of four weeks ago when Michael moved to Norfolk, the men can talk in person.)
Such a strong connection between writer and source is not surprising in this case: Fans of the award-winning journalist know that Swift puts himself out there for a good story. With Where They Lay, Swift does so to the extent that he risked his life to tell the untold.
"Sure, absolutely," the writer says when asked if he felt his life was in danger while in Laos. "It's a bit of a high wire act doing anything in Laos."
Flying in rickety helicopters over wickedly rugged terrain, Swift found himself "looking for flat areas" good for emergency landings. Once on ground, he didn't worry about its lack of flatness but its capability to violently erupt. With embedded mines underfoot, a wrong step could have been a last step.
Swift doesn't dwell on the danger he faced, though, saying he felt "well looked after." Good thing the CILHI officials are confident in their work and existence - otherwise they may not have been so generous to Swift. He was not out to write a puff piece praising their work. True to his journalism background, Swift more than tells the CILHI story: He questions it and the $100 million the forensics lab spends annually.
Looking at Michael's eyes as he expressed his gratitude to Swift, and seeing his wife's smile at she looked at him smiling, an observer can reach only one conclusion: Honoring our fallen soldiers by finding them isn't a choice. It's a moral commitment.

Rating:
Summary: Anticlimactic !
Review: Earl Swift's prose was polished and his story based on original research. He succeeded in building narrative tension (something many nonfiction authors fail to do). I became enthralled in the search for Major Barker and his three comrades, who died when their helicopter went down over Laos in 1971. Swift vividly described a multitude of archeological techniques, and he did so in accurate detail. He also described the search-team members at considerable length. But halfway through the book, I became weary of those descriptions. I began to wonder if the author was just filling space. Swift then inserted a chapter about World War II recoveries on Makin Island. That chapter was tangential material, which distracted from the narrative thread of the search for Barker and his fellow crewmembers. Why did the author insert such material? I understood why when I finished reading the book. Makin Island was a success story, whereas the quest for Barker's crew turned out to be a complete bust. The search team found no human remains. What a letdown! The author obviously had no control over what the team found, but the failure to find remains was nevertheless anticlimactic. That led to a significant weakness in Swift's book. And the success on Makin Island did not compensate for that shortcoming. The author created an expectation of closure but was unable to deliver. Barker and his crew are still missing, and nobody knows WHERE THEY LAY.

BTW: Swift was not "the first writer to tell the story of the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CILHI)." The first author to detail the work of CILHI was Sue Sheehan in her book, A MISSING PLANE. I've read that book more than once over the years. I doubt I'll read Swift's book again.

Rating:
Summary: A travel narrative, a war story and a CSI episode all in one
Review: It's a shame the reviewer below felt compelled to reveal the ending of this fine book. The real world doesn't always have happy endings. The Vietnam War certainly didn't, and the Army's own battlefield "CSI" teams don't always either. These composite units roam America's far-flung battlefields and attempt to bring closure to families who lost loved ones, sometimes more than half a century ago.
Swift is a gifted writer who does an outstanding job of weaving several compelling storylines together into a entertaining, exciting and moving narrative.
Far from being annoyed by side trips to the South Pacific and Europe (as the reviewer below was) I found them very interesting and wished Swift had spent more time following these cases and others like them in addition to the case of Major Barker's ill-fated Huey and his crew (which is the central focus of the story).
I highly recommend this book. It's a great read and does a tremendous service to those servicemen who gave their lives for their country and the dedicated soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who seek them out today.


Rating:
Summary: Quite a groundbreaking book
Review: Many Americans are unaware of the U.S. military's ongoing efforts to recover the bodies of missing soldiers from World War II and the Vietnam War. Swift put in some hard time researching this book, and it pays off--he has written a very insightful account that is not afraid to ask some tough questions about whether the risks of these recovery missions are worth the end results. Swift rightly leaves that judgment up to the reader. Fascinating and compelling right to the very end.

Rating:
Summary: Quite a groundbreaking book
Review: Many Americans are unaware of the U.S. military's ongoing efforts to recover the bodies of missing soldiers from World War II and the Vietnam War. Swift put in some hard time researching this book, and it pays off--he has written a very insightful account that is not afraid to ask some tough questions about whether the risks of these recovery missions are worth the end results. Swift rightly leaves that judgment up to the reader. Fascinating and compelling right to the very end.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read...
Review: This book tells a wonderful story that is little known and frequently mentioned in the press. This mission is the quest by the US Military to recover the remains of soldiers who have been lost in combat in the nation's wars. Specifically, this book tells the story of a particular mission to recover the crewmen of a helicopter that was lost over Laos in 1971. The book tells the story eloquently, and weaves it into the life histories of the men who were lost in the chopper crash. If you are interested in the histories of people who served their country in uniform, and those who seek to bring them home, buy this book. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read...
Review: This book tells a wonderful story that is little known and frequently mentioned in the press. This mission is the quest by the US Military to recover the remains of soldiers who have been lost in combat in the nation's wars. Specifically, this book tells the story of a particular mission to recover the crewmen of a helicopter that was lost over Laos in 1971. The book tells the story eloquently, and weaves it into the life histories of the men who were lost in the chopper crash. If you are interested in the histories of people who served their country in uniform, and those who seek to bring them home, buy this book. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading on our lost heroes
Review: This is an excellent, essential account of Americas missing POWS. For more then a generation the black flag of POW/MIS has flown over many a house and VFW post in America. Many hundreds if not thousands of men went missing in Vietnam and never returned. It is believed that many were never released from POW camps in Cambodia and Laos. This book chronicles the investigation and sightings of Americans POWs who were left behind. Like rumors of the holocaust, rumors of POW sightings in Laos have been commonplace but many investigations have turned up little.

This is a wonderful book. It goes into great detail surrounding the mystery of the lost men of Vietnam. An essential read, interesting, informative and tragic. It reminds us why we must never leave a man behind. Anyone interested in the military, Vietnam, east Asia, or in need of good winter reading will enjoy this book. It would make a great gift as well for an avid military buff.