MIA Vietnam War vet found? An elderly man found living in south-central Vietnam has claimed to be a U.S. war veteran who was presumed dead after his helicopter was shot down during a special ops mission over Laos in 1968.
But despite the potentially astonishing discovery, the man's two daughters - whom he has never contacted since disappearing - have refused to take a DNA test to prove his identity.
The wife and daughters of Sgt. John Hartley Robertson, a one-time Green Beret, initially agreed to participate in DNA testing, before changing their minds last year, according to a filmmaker behind a new documentary asking whether the man is indeed who he says he is.
But despite the potentially astonishing discovery, the man's two daughters - whom he has never contacted since disappearing - have refused to take a DNA test to prove his identity.
The wife and daughters of Sgt. John Hartley Robertson, a one-time Green Beret, initially agreed to participate in DNA testing, before changing their minds last year, according to a filmmaker behind a new documentary asking whether the man is indeed who he says he is.
'Somebody suggested to me maybe that's (because) the daughters don't want to know if it's him,' said Jorgensen. 'It's kind of like, "That was an ugly war. It was a long time ago. We just want it to go away".
'I don’t know. What would compel you not to want to know if this person is your biological father?'
Sgt. Robertson's name is etched along with 60,000 others onto Washington D.C.'s poignant Vietnam memorial, but now the documentary questions whether he is actually alive and well.
The filmmakers claim to have tracked him down to south-central Vietnam - where the 76-year-old is unable to remember his birthday, his American children’s names, or how to speak English.
The makers of 'Unclaimed' say that the wiry, forgetful man could very well be a missing POW from the distressing conflict, and that fellow servicemen could 'lose their minds' when they hear the story of how he never returned home.
'Sgt. Robertson' told Emmy-award winning filmmaker Michael Jorgensen that when his flaming helicopter crashed to the ground during a firefight on a Laos mountaintop, he was captured immediately by North Vietnamese soldiers.
'They locked me up, high in the forest, in a cage,' he said. 'I was in and out of consciousness from torture and starvation. The North Vietnamese soldier hit me on the head with a stick, shouting, "American!"
'Then he would hit me even harder; I thought I would die. I never said anything, though they beat and tortured me.'
Mr Robertson said he escaped after four years, hid in the woods and was found in a field by a woman who nursed him back to health and then became his wife.
He said he borrowed her late husband’s surname and birth date and was registered as a French-Vietnamese resident named Dan Tan Ngoc.
The couple then had children but no recorded attempt was made to contact his wife or children back home in America.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316937/John-Hartley-Robertson-US-Army-veteran-living-Vietnam-village-44-YEARS-shot-down.html#ixzz2RzWTedNj
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