STATEMENT BY: ANN HOLLAND, wife of
STAFF SGT. MELVIN HOLLAND, USAF LOSS: 3-11-68 "SITE 85" LAOS
RE: Letter from TIM CASTLE PH.D. to LT. COL. MAN, Plans and Policy, DPMO
The Families of the men missing in action in Southeast Asia have claimed for years that our Government has not been do enough to bring them home or determine honestly what happened to. We have claimed for years that our government does not want to bring those men home, dead or alive. We have always said "our government" because we have never had the names of the people who work behind the scenes, the people who make the determination of fate for our missing loved ones.
It didn't matter how information the family may have that their loved one may have survived and been captured, if "our government" determined they died at the scene or in a POW camp, or even if the Vietnamese Government told them that man died, we had to accept whatever they decided to tell us and the case d be closed. Is it any wonder that so many of the families have lost faith with "our Government" when they have had anyone a determination of fate shoved down their throats and told they had to accept it. We never had anyone to blame for the sloppy analysis, incomplete records, missing records, and untruthful information "our Government" has presented in their fate determination on a loved one. Dr. Tim Castle has lifted the veil of secrecy on two of the people hiding behind the label "our Government" and has made specific allegations against Lt.Col. Schiff and Mr. Destatte and their work in DPMO.
As the allegations deal with their involvement with Refno 2052, the Lima Site 85 Case, and as the wife of one the eleven men missing at the site, I owe Dr. Castle many thanks for having the courage to speak out about these two individuals. What Lt.Col. Schiff and Mr. Destatte tried to do to the Site 85 case, in closing down and hoping the "problem would go away," makes me wonder how many other cases have they done the same to and gotten away with it?
I had to start legal action against "my Government" once before to try and get the truth about what happened to my husband. I never had specific names of the people in "my Government" who lied, falsified records, or caused me so much pain and suffering, as well the unspeakable horror my husband may have been suffering all these 29 years because someone never had the courage to tell the truth.
Every case that Lt.Col. Schiff and Mr. Destatte have ever worked on while they have been at DPMO should be re-opened and re-examined. If the Site 85 case is the only case they went to such lengths to have closed, then I want to know why? What did they have to gain by getting Refno 2052 closed without the truth ever being told? I believe Lt.Col. Schiff and Mr. Destatte have caused undo pain and suffering to many, many families with their lies and deceit and should be made to answer for it. THEY OWN US AN APOLOGY. May God have on mercy on their souls.