KANE, BRUCE EDWARD

Name: Bruce Edward Kane
Rank/Branch: E4/US Marine Corps
Unit: VMCJ 1; MAG 11
Date of Birth: 07 July 1949
Home City of Record: Deer Park NY
Date of Loss: 09 August 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 163819N 1064643E (XD960180)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1E
Other Personnel in Incident: Ronald J. Janousek (missing)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: When U.S. military personnel were in Vietnam, they were frequently
asked to participate in classified missions. Some of these missions were secret
because wide-spread knowledge of them might possibly give the enemy information
we did not wish them to have. Others were classified to conceal the fact that
the U.S. was conducting warfare in denied areas.

The most notorious denied area was, of course, Laos. Prevented by Geneva
Accords from having a large military presence in Laos, the U.S. first
established a CIA cover for anti-communist covert actions. One activity, begun
in 1958, used Meo tribesmen for a small pilot guerrilla program, which grew to
over 40,000 guerrillas within 10 years. The CIA's covert airline, known as "Air
America" supported the Meo as well as numerous other CIA-backed clandestine
guerrilla armies.

When ground operations were indicated or intelligence needed, the U.S. used the
CIA-directed armies, sent U.S. troops in covert MACV-SOG teams, or airlifted in
indigenous troops, often using the air capabilities of the U.S. Army and Marine
Corps. Pilots were asked to alter flight records to reflect a mission in
allowed territory. If they were lost, families were misinformed about the
location of loss. As a result, several case files of men missing are a tangle
of inconsistencies - some records reflecting the "doctored" loss information,
while other records are accurate.

1Lt. Ronald J. Janousek and Cpl. Bruce E. Kane were U.S. Marines attached to
units of the 36th and 11th Marine Aircraft Groups, respectively. On August 9,
1969, the two were killed in the crash of a UH1E helicopter. Theirs is one of
the cases in which reliable factual public information ends with this data.

Defense Department records indicate that Janousek and Kane were lost at Khe
Sanh, in Quang Tri Province. The U.S. Marines state that Janousek's helicopter
was hit by heavy enemy fire and crashed and burned. The U.S. Marines state that
Kane's helicopter disappeared on a night reconnaissance mission. Joint Casualty
Resolution Center records (considered by some analysts to be the most accurate
of all records), indicate that the loss occurred in central South Vietnam.

Information obtained from family and other sources indicate that Kane and
Janousek's aircraft crashed and burned in the Se Kong River near the border of
Laos and South Vietnam north of the A Shau Valley, and that they had been on a
secret mission in Laos. The U.S. State Department lists both men as killed in a
hostile action, and further lists Kane as drowned and Janousek as a crew member
of the aircraft. No public records indicate the fates of the rest of the crew,
including the pilot and any passengers aboard.

Given the inconsistencies of the information available, it is impossible to
determine exactly what happened to Kane and Janousek. All sources indicate that
they were killed in the crash. As thousands of reports mount that Americans are
still alive in captivity, families of men like Kane and Janousek are asking for
the complete truth about what happened to their men. Unfortunately, many cases
are still classified, and will be for decades.

The official U.S. position regarding Americans still missing is that there is
no "actionable evidence" to suggest that any are alive. If there are no
soldiers' lives to protect by secrecy, why can the truth not be told? If any
are alive, why are they not home?

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