The Bone Collectors

To those left behind, that kind of resolution can end years of family turmoil. Jim Jefferson was the back-seat pilot in an F-4 fighter plane that crashed just outside Hanoi in 1967. Though the front-seat pilot was captured and later returned home, Jefferson disappeared. It wasn't until Joint Task Force searchers found Jim's remains in 1998 that the family could finally rest. "You have this little thought in the back of your mind--if he's alive, what are we doing to help him?" his brother Wayne, also a vet, says. "That's a burden for you until you get this final resolution." Though most families are relieved and grateful when a missing relative is identified, the Pentagon has found that in some cases relatives don't want to know. "There are families who say, 'I don't want any contact--I put closure to that years ago'," says James Russell, chief of the missing-persons branch of the U.S. Air Force. He maintains two lists in his database on MIAs: families who want updates and those who want to be left alone.

Cory and his team of investigators have now joined the tally of those shipped back to Hawaii in flag-draped cases. The crash is still under investigation, though it seems likely the foul weather is to blame. Pentagon officials say the crash has not derailed the program or lowered its life expectancy. A recent military review endorsed the mission through at least 2007. A new group of searchers is scheduled to replace Cory's fallen team this week. New rules will keep them on the ground--no helicopter flights allowed. After one disaster, the Pentagon isn't about to risk losing still more men in uniform to the Source of Darkness.

© 2001