LONGMONT — Some stray clues have been thrown to Jim Hamm’s family over the past 40 years, but not enough to piece together his fate.
There was his wristwatch, found at a market not far from where he was shot down about 18 miles southwest of the city of Hue on March 14, 1968. His family pored over a grainy photograph released by the North Vietnamese of some basketball players at a POW camp, almost convincing themselves that one of them was Hamm.
After that, the Hamms were left with wisps of rumors and a memory of a good-natured brother and son who loved flying and wanted to be a writer.
“Basically, we just never knew what happened to him,” said Hamm’s older sister, Katharine Oliver.
The U.S. military also wants to solve the mystery surrounding Hamm and other soldiers and pilots deemed missing in action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Officials in March announced they need to locate more than 6,300 families to collect DNA samples to identify missing military personnel.
The DNA samples are needed to help identify missing soldiers’ remains unearthed in jungles, rice paddies and other fields of battle so they can be returned to the families.
Teams of anthropologists and forensic analysts are used by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command to uncover skeletal remains and extract mitochondrial DNA, according to the Army Past Conflict Repatriation Branch.
The latest push is to locate families of MIA personnel from the Korean and Vietnam wars. Specifically, the effort is aimed at the mother’s side of the family, because mitochondrial DNA is passed only through the maternal side of the family, officials said.
However, the clock is ticking because the potential sources for the DNA match are tougher to track down.
“A lot of the families have moved on or are getting older,” said Warren Tellgren, past VFW state commander.
At every state and national meeting of the VFW, finding and asking the families to step forward is emphasized, Tellgren said.
“Most of these family members want and need closure,” he said.
The 68-year-old Oliver has not yet been contacted for a DNA sample. But she would gladly supply it just for a chance at knowing exactly happened to her brother and to bring a piece of him back to Longmont.
“The other day I placed flowers at his gravestone, but he wasn’t there,” Oliver said.
Hamm was trying to to assist in a helicopter evacuation when he was shot down. He continued to direct airstrikes against enemy troops and reported that his leg was hurt.
Later, radio contact was lost and the Hamm family began a lonely vigil.
They decided to direct their emotions and energy to something Hamm would appreciate: They donated land and a pond they owned on the outskirts of Longmont to the city for use as a nature park.
They figured that was the best way to remember him, Oliver said.
“We wanted to find a way to keep his memory and still make things better for everyone,” she said. “Even this kind of experience can be used for good.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
