Not Forgotten

September 15, 2000 is POW/MIA Recognition Day I adopted an American hero. This candle burns in his honor.


WILLIAMS, JAMES RANDALL Name: James Randall Williams Rank/Branch: E4/US Air Force Unit: 314th Tactical Airlift Wing, Nha Trang Airbase, South Vietnam Date of Birth: 28 March 1945 Home City of Record: Charlotte NC Date of Loss: 29 December 1967 Country of Loss: North Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 220900N 1032200E (UK315501) Status (in 1973): Missing In Action Category: 4 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: C130E Other Personnel In Incident: Edward J. Darcy; Gean P. Clapper; Charles P. Claxton; Wayne A. Eckley; Donald E. Fisher; Edwin N. Osborne; Frank C. Parker; Gerald G. VanBuren; Gordon J. Wenaas; Jack McCrary; (all missing) REMARKS: RADIO CONTACT LOST SYNOPSIS: On December 29, 1967, a C130E aircraft departed Nha Trang Airbase shortly after midnight on an operational mission over North Vietnam. The eleven man crew aboard the aircraft included Maj. Charles P. Claxton; Capt. Edwin N. Osborne Jr., and Capt. Gerald G. Van Buren (all listed as pilots); and crewmen SSgt. Edward J. Darcy; SSgt. Gean P. Clapper; SSgt. Wayne A. Eckley; LtCol. Donald E. Fisher; TSgt. Jack McCrary; Capt. Frank C. Parker III; Capt. Gordon J. Wenaas; and Sgt. James R. Williams. At 4:30 a.m., the pilot made radio contact with Nha Trang and said the mission was progressing as scheduled. No further contact was made. The aircraft's last known position was in extreme northwest North Vietnam, in mountainous Lai Chau Province. The eleven Americans aboard the aircraft were declared Missing in Action. When the war ended, and 591 Americans were released from Vietnamese prison camps, the crew of the C130 was not among them. Although the Vietnamese pledged, as part of the Paris Peace Accords, to release all prisoners and make the fullest possible accounting of the missing, they have done neither. The Vietnamese deny any knowledge of the crew of the C130. Alarmingly, evidence continues to mount that Americans were left as prisoners in Southeast Asia and continue to be held today. Unlike "MIAs" from other wars, most of the nearly 2500 men and women who remain missing in Southeast Asia can be accounted for. If even one was left alive (and many authorities estimate the numbers to be in the hundreds), we have failed as a nation until and unless we do everything possible to secure his freedom and bring him home.

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

(click here to read this text in its entirety)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.