Big Ugly Fellows: Part 2 of the No One Left Behind Series

By Barbara X. Crittendon

Big Ugly Fellows is a real-life story of Barbara X. Crittendon, a novice Army Forensic Anthropologist, who is on only her second mission to search for and recovery Missing in Action servicemens’ remains from the Vietnam War. In this operation, she must work with her military team — active duty soldiers, airmen, and marines all — to formulate and execute a plan to find evidence of two B-52 crew who had been lost in Operation Rolling Thunder back in December 1972. When she and her team arrive in 1996, the only observable sign of a crash is an odd-shaped fish pond in the middle of a vast expanse of agricultural fields. What they find below the still and placid water’s surface shocks them all and changes lives forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728385082

Barbara X. Crittendon

Barbara X. Crittendon is a forensic anthropologist and a college professor. She holds a PhD in anthropology; she worked on archaeological sites in the Near East and South America to attain her degree. Along with holding academic positions, Dr. Crittendon worked for the US Army as a civilian forensic anthropologist in the 1990s and early 2000s. In this position she participated in search and recovery missions in Southeast Asia and other remote locations. With a team of active-duty service members, she investigated numerous places of interest for the remains of missing-in-action service men and women from the Vietnam War and prior conflicts. These actual adventures serve as the basis for this story.

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© 2019 Barbara X. Crittendon. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/11/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8506-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8507-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8508-2 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter 2   Off to Thailand

Chapter 3   Return to Pattaya and The Banana Lady as Rite of Passage

Chapter 4   Into the ’Nam 2.0

Chapter 5   The Peaceful (B-52) Fish Pond

Chapter 6   Early Days in the Sun

Chapter 7   The First Finds

Chapter 8   The Snake Restaurant – Venom and Blood du jour

Chapter 9   Lunch Breaks and other off-duty moments – Snap, Crackle, Pop!

Chapter 10   Dog and Pony Show: Keos Good, Wet Socks Bad

Chapter 11   Depth and Stress Increase

Chapter 12   Bottoming Out in the Bottomless Pit

Chapter 13   Breakthrough at Seven Meters

Chapter 14   Hero’s Story Continues

Chapter 15   Home at Last

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If we haven’t already met, let me introduce myself. My name is Barbara, and I work for the United States Army as a forensic anthropologist. My role is to assist in the mission of the Department of Defense, namely – and I think I’ve got this memorized now – to search for, recover, and identify any missing service members or civilians from past conflicts. It rolls off the tongue now since I’ve heard some senior forensic anthropologists give the lab tour where I work about fifty times since I joined the unit a few months ago. I’m not exactly senior myself…I’ve been on the grand total of one mission so far. If you’re interested in that one, read my first adventure (South China Sea Rats). I won’t spoil it for you but let it be known that things did not turn out as I had thought they would during that expedition.

I had been almost three weeks back at the lab, working on finalizing my Search and Recovery (S&R) report for that first site that I’d just finished on my initial recovery mission with Recovery Element 6 in Phu Yen, Vietnam. The military unit for which I work calls our assignments recovery missions since we are clearly looking for a remains and not a missing living person from a war that happened three decades prior. The teams that were sent out are called Recovery Elements (REs for short) and each had a number. I had been assigned to number 6.

After returning home, along with finishing my S&R Report, I began to work at the lab. I had managed to get some time on the lab floor with a case that had come in from Papua New Guinea, dating to World War II. It had not been a complete skeleton or anything like that, just a few scattered fragmentary long bones pulled from a crash crater by an amateur archaeologist. It looked like one of our teams was going to have to go back and try to recover more of the skeleton and some corroborating evidence in order to establish an identification for the remains. So my report was an interim one, just describing what evidence we had until more remains or other evidence were found.

It had been nice to practice my laboratory trade of human osteology for a stint. That is why I took the job in the first place! Another perk was that I had taken a couple days of leave time and weekends to explore the beautiful island of Oahu. I went to the beach every chance I got…Waimea, Pipeline, Waimanalo, even Waikiki --that iconic beach that turned out to be a narrow strip of imported sand that could hardly fit all the tourist bodies, lined up like soldiers on a C-130. My island-touring had revealed some amazing places to relax, catch rays, read, and just rest after my first deployment.

All that was going to end soon, I thought as I sat at my office desk and re-opened the blue folder that had been provided to me by the Casualty Data section of the Central Recovery Lab where I worked. It contained a treasure trove of historical information on my next assigned case. I was about to embark on another deployment, starting Saturday – two wake-ups from now -- and this one would not be a site like the last one. That one had been a purported single burial of an airman whose plane had gone down right along the coast of the South China Sea. No, this upcoming site, if the team actually did get access to it, was a plane crash site just outside of Hanoi. Two of the crew were missing, four made it out alive. The scene was now apparently a fish pond in the middle of a large expanse of agricultural fields. So there would be a lot more logistical and possibly political hoops to jump through this time around. Time would tell. The Casualty Data (Cas Dat, pronounced cazh dat) folks had informed me that a few prior REs had tried to begin work on this particular site and had failed due to land comp negotiations breaking down. Land comp – short for land compensation – was the term for the U.S. dollars that were to be paid to the home government for the damage done to the land while searching for remains. The price varied widely from site to site, depending on factors such as impact to water sources, affected agricultural land, deforestation, etc. Apparently this site had such an exorbitant land comp expectation from the Vietnamese that the prior teams were not authorized to approve the asking price.

Anyway, I had tomorrow off to get my act together prepping for this trip. I had just about finished up my food shopping for my foot locker stash. Team members were permitted to bring one container of our own food. I recalled how my Marine commo guy on my first RE had actually forgotten (or not known) to bring his footlocker of food…that made for some interesting issues during that last mission! He ended up living on moon pies and never lived it down.

Besides food, which I was not about to forget, I needed to buy a pair of mud boots and a bandana or two. After that, it was just time to go beach(as the Hawaiian locals would say) and relax until zero dark thirty Saturday morning when we were wheels up for the ’Nam again.

I was enjoying this new job for the most part. The travel part had been something I was not really keen on right away but the first deployment had been, overall, a positive experience so I had gained some confidence in my own abilities and also an awareness of what to expect. That made things so much easier. It was not that easy adjusting from academia to the Army culture – that was for sure. I had to shift gears in a variety of ways in order to function on RE6. First, the soldiers were not trained in archaeological excavation methods. So that took some time and patience. Second, a PhD to these guys meant piled high and deep! The authority of a PhD Anthro was pretty much nil until he or she demonstrated that respect was deserved. It was something that had to be earned.

My fellow newby anthro – Rob Pasmont, or Pas as we nicknamed him – had had a horrible time establishing his authority during his first deployment. For one, he demanded to be called Doctor. After that he had been so exacting on setting up his grid on the former cesspool site, that he had asked his team members to use a transit to lay the grid lines and stakes for a one by one meter test pit. This was not typical since one meter lines tend not to veer off direction and required only a hand compass to set. These and all other screws ups were mentally recorded by his team members and used as needed to keep Dr. Pasmont humble.

I paged through the archived records on REFNO 1965 (the official case number for the MIA loss), for the fifth or sixth time – I had lost count. This upcoming site, its description, and the logistical challenges that it might present were really daunting if I dwelled on the what ifs too much. The site itself would likely prove to be the main challenge this time, since I felt the Army subculture and group dynamics might be something I at least had a bit of a handle on at this point.

As I reviewed the background information, again, thoughts crept into my mind, like: what if we actually do negotiate an acceptable land comp price with the Vietnamese Officials (VNO) this time around? In the back of my mind I sort of wished that it would stay non-negotiable. I had perused the follow-up sites that we could go to if the first one did not work out. They looked more straightforward. One was an isolated burial of an Army sergeant that had been on patrol and was purportedly captured and taken away by Viet Cong (VC) before dying from his injuries and later interred near the VC encampment. An isolated grave was much less complicated than a huge plane crash in a pond! I had experience with isolated graves, having at least searched thoroughly and extensively for one in my prior assignment just a few weeks ago – see South China Sea Rats for details!

Oh well, I might as well wait and see what happens, I thought as I closed the information packet back up. It was nearing 4 PM (1600 hours) and I had been in since 7 AM (0700 hours). I’m ready to hit the gym and chill! I began to shut my computer down and Bob (one of the senior anthropologists) looked through the office window as he passed by down the hall.

Heading out? he asked.

Yeah, I’m outta here, I answered. I’m taking leave tomorrow so I won’t see you for a few weeks!

Okay, well you finished your S&R and your draft report on those PNG remains, right? Bob asked.

That’s right!

Good – have a safe trip then, he smiled and stuck his hand out to shake mine.

I shook his hand firmly – I was a hater of the limp handshake from anyone – man or woman.

Bob smiled and patted me on the arm. Maybe you’ll hit the jackpot this time, he suggested.

Maybe. This site is 180 degrees from the last one, I offered.

Anyway, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do…, he warned with a grin and turned to head down the hall again.

Don’t you worry, I promised,