A letter from the Air Force

Above is the response my grandmother received from the Air Force on January 6, 1975.  She had written the Air Force 30 years after the death of her brother-in-law, Robert A. Dempster, Jr..  

I suppose with the war in Vietnam ending in 1975 that the war department had bigger fish to fry than to be chasing after 30 year old MIA's.  Not to mention a pilot who flew one of the dozens of B-24's named the Pistol Pakin Mamma (Even our guys spelled it differently than it actually was. Not an uncommon thing).  To be fair; for the most part, the Air Force did give just about all the pertinent information anyone ever had at the time...BUT now, through the magic of internet wizardry (and I'm sure the Freedom of Information act [1966] and the Open Government Act [2007]) we have the ability to not only research original government records, but also use those records to track leads.   And look at where we're at today.  With a tiny bit of information I found in the government archives (MACR on Footnote.com now Fold3) I was able to contact one family, who contacted another family, and it has slowly snowballed.  Yup, 70 years is a long time to wait for the story, but hey, we're still digging up million year old bones looking for their story. 

I do find it sad that when my grandma requested information, someone couldn't have gone to the archives and made a simple copy of the MACR (Missing Air Crew Report) for her. Then at least my grandparents maybe could have had most of what we have here today.

What am I saying?

I guess what I'm saying is thanks.  Thanks to all the folks who've taken the time and effort to add their pieces of information to the puzzle.  Thanks to the historians, photographers, archivists - professional and amateur who genuinely take pride in their work.   I can't change history. I can only tell the story.