to perpetuate the memory and history of our dead

VN AAF grp 3.6.6

There is a persistent rumor detailed in:
http://www.usaaf-in-cbi.com/308th_web/msn_19p1.htm
that there were other members of the AAF who were sent from Hanoi FIC to the TBR after being shot down during a raid on Haiphong harbor.
While it does appear as if 6 AAF crewmen who fit this description were liberated from Changi in 1945, there is no indication that they were ever sent to the TBR. The dates and places involved would suggest that they would have had to have been part of the Hintok US contingent, but there are no records that support this. Just how the rumor originated that they were TBR workers is unclear.
It appears as though these men were:
O-734953  MANELLA JOSEPH R    2LT
O-676114  POWERS ROBERT F      2LT
O-707390  QUARANT JACK D        2LT
13081374  TRACHTENBERG ABE    S Sgt
34305606  VANN EARL S                T Sgt
12082018  HAWE JAY N                 S Sgt

That same on-line entry includes the following: “ In March 1942, four airmen and an army engineer reached Tourane, now Do Nang, by launch from the Philippines. The four were turned over to the Japanese on the orders of Indochina’s governor general, Vice Admiral Jean Decoux. Four of these men toiled for the rest of the war on the “Railroad of Death” in Thailand”.
Again, there are no records to suggest who these 4 were nor that they ever were sent to the TBR.

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