Vietnam Veteran Found Alive 44 Years After Being Shot Down And Presumed Dead
A Vietnam war veteran who was believed to have been killed in combat over 44 years ago has reportedly been found alive in Laos.
Sgt. John Hartley Robertson was thought to have been killed during a special ops mission in 1968, with military records confirming his demise.
But a new documentary is now questioning if the one-time Green Beret actually survived the ordeal in Vietnam. A 76 year-old man has been found, but he is unable to speak English, remember his birthday, or his American children’s names.
Robertson had an American wife and two children before his supposed death, and they have each mourned his passing for over four decades now.
The documentary film, which is entitled Unclaimed, says that the individual they have located resembles the missing POW.
Michael Jorgenson, the Emmy award winning filmmaker behind the piece, states that when Robertson’s helicopter crashed he was immediately captured by enemy soliders.
Robertson remarked about his capture, “They locked me up, high in the forest, in a cage. I was in and out of consciousness from torture and starvation. The North Vietnamese solider hit me on the head with a stick, shouting, ‘American!'”
He then continued, “Then he would hit me even harder, I thought I would die. I never said anything, though they beat and tortured me.”
Robertson then said he managed to escape after four years, before he was found by a nurse who helped to return him to full health. They then ultimately got married and created their own family, but he never looked to contact his American wife and children.
Jorgenson, who was skeptical about the project at first, was convinced to create the film after meeting Tom Faunce, another veteran, who was adamant that this man was the Vietnam soldier.
Do you think that this man is Sgt. John Hartley Robertson?
