Good Afternoon Patriots!

Before I begin, I would like to thank Rolling Thunder National for inviting me here to speak today.  Also a special thank you to Reggie Lord from Rolling Thunder Ch. 1 of Florida for being my escort today on behalf of RT National.  He gave me this awesome hat as well to wear during my speech today – Thank you, Reggie.

I am here this afternoon to share with you the story of Marine Cpl. Gregory Harris, HQ Battery 3^rd Battalion, 11^th Marines.  On 12 June, 1966, while a radio operator on an ARVN operation in the Mo Duc region of Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam, the Command Group was ambushed by the Viet Cong and Greg was last seen by two South Vietnamese Marines who later reported witnessing Greg being dragged away into the jungle by the enemy.  

Greg’s case has been hampered by investigative errors, poor analysis, refusals to follow plausible leads and a case analyst who refuses to accept the fact that Greg was captured.  Our case analyst, Carol Bates Brown, insists that Greg was killed and then buried on a sandbar and over time his body has conveniently been washed away and is unrecoverable. Yet, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. 

Our case analyst has lied to us, withheld reports, manipulated and watered down information in Greg’s case file, and continues to do all she can to keep this case from moving forward.  This is the reality of a POW/MIA Family. 

 We are constantly reminded on military remembrance days of claims to “keep the promise” and told that the POW/MIA Issue is “our nation’s highest priority”.  How can all of this be?  The answer is simple; these agencies have no one to answer to but the POW/MIA families.  There are no federal agencies that oversee them – they are, for all extensive purposes, judge, jury and executioner.  There is no oversight; they often make decisions based on the whim of a case analyst and it would appear, anything BUT the facts.  And who do POW/MIA Families have to turn to when we know we are being misled? – NO ONE!

Just last year when we found a major error in a DoD investigative report that involved map grid coordinates, do you know what we were told?  “Coordinates don’t matter” – Now, folks, are there any artillerymen out there?  Do coordinates matter, Gentlemen?  You bet they do!  

One of Greg’s dog tags was on display as a spoil of war in a Museum in Da Nang.  With it was a report that completely contradicts the DoD’s official story.  Has that report been investigated? NO!  Have we asked it to be? YES!    

Last year we found a new Department of Defense report in which a former Viet Cong Officer who was there the day Greg was captured wrote in his memoirs that he and his men captured an American that day.  Our case analyst refused to find and interview this man. Why?  Because she felt, he didn’t know anything.  That’s right, she didn’t *think* he knew anything.  Imagine if there were a missing member of your family and the police refused to follow a lead because they didn’t *think* it would amount to anything.  This report was written as a firsthand report of Greg’s capture and she tried to pass it off as hearsay, attempting to make it less credible.  But she messed with the wrong Marine.  We caught her red handed in a lie that would have cost just about any other government employee their career.  Yet nothing was done.  Why? … Because they answer to no one. 

In 1976 the Joint Casualty Resolution Center, who proceeded JPAC, conducted a study, referred to as Project X, to evaluate the possibility of POWs surviving in Vietnam.  After reviewing the records of over 2100 unaccounted servicemen, it was concluded that the possibility of survival existed for only 57 men.  Among those 57 men was Greg Harris.   Not surprisingly, there is no mention of this study’s findings in his case file and when we questioned the DoD they claimed to have no knowledge of any such study.  How can they make informed decisions on cases like ours when all the case information is not being evaluated?  …Because they answer to no one.

Greg is also included in the Vessey/119 Discrepancy Cases.  In 1991, the Chairman of the POW/MIA Interagency Group said that these cases (quote) “represent the greatest possibility that the men involved might still be alive” and “had evidence that they were alive after the incident occurred.”  Folks, that is to say the DoD has evidence that Greg Harris was alive after capture.  Additionally, according to a 1992 memo written by an investigator for the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, Greg was among nine servicemen Vietnam acknowledged were captured alive.   A second memo, referred to Greg and 18 other servicemen as “survived into captivity.”   In spite of Vietnam’s own admission the DoD want us to believe that he died in battle and was never held into captivity?

Patriots, let me emphasize that what you’ve just heard is not an exceptional case.  This is the norm.  Any POW/MIA family whose case was part of the infamous Last Known Alive List will tell you, this is our odyssey.

In closing, now, it is time to give back to those like Greg Harris who wait on foreign shores to be brought home either proudly waving our nation’s flag or peacefully laying under it. These men deserve to be welcomed home by the country they so willingly served or gave their lives for. We dream of the day when we can once again stand with Greg, alive or dead and fulfill the promise made to his mom in 1974 before she died – to bring him home!

A warm I love you to my family for being so steadfast in our struggle for answers - to Ron and Claudette from RT of Ohio Ch. 1 – THANK YOU for keeping me strong!  To Steve Golding, a POW/MIA Activist and my mentor, I owe you so much – I hope you are watching from Above. And most importantly – to Lynn O’Shea of the National ALLIANCE of Families for all she does to research and investigate, not just in our case but in the name of all of our missing men – If the POW/MIA Issue ever had a guardian angel – Lynn is it!

Thank you Everyone - for coming from all corners of this great nation to be here today to be a voice for those who have none – God Bless you all!  Thank you!

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