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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 19 May 2022
Thai archival find may resolve fate of missing WWII U.S. flyer

By JERRY HARMER and TAS- That’s how he found himself
SANEE VEJPONGSA looking at a faded docu-
Associated Press ment from a musty, dusty
U-TAPAO, Thailand (AP) — folder. It was a handwrit-
The remains of an Ameri- ten police officer’s report
can airman who went miss- dated November 1944. It
ing in action in World War II detailed the crash of a U.S.
may finally be on their way P-38 plane, reported to
home, thanks to a chance have been struck by light-
discovery of records in ning during a storm.
flood-threatened archives It sparked a “Eureka!” re-
in Thailand. action for the history buff
U.S. and local authorities who’d heard rumors of a
held a solemn ceremony World War II plane crash
Wednesday at an air base in Lampang province but
in eastern Thailand to hon- had never found any re-
or and repatriate remains cord of it.
recently recovered from a “This is a great moment
rice field in the north of the in life, that we find such a
country. thing just in front of you pop
At the U-Tapao naval air up!” he told The Associ-
base on Thailand’s eastern ated Press. “You imagine,
seaboard, military person- you look for something, you
nel along with Thai and A U.S. Army soldier carries the possible remains of a WWII U.S. airman found in northern Thailand, like to see it and there’s
American officials paid during a repatriation ceremony Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at the U-Tapao Air Base in Rayong no hope, almost no hope
province, eastern Thailand.
their respects. A casket Associated Press to find it. Just open page,
containing the discovered page and then whoop! in
remains was draped in the leave a person behind. the war missing. happens. front of your eyes.
U.S. flag before being taken Anybody’s who’s served in Thailand was officially al- In 2011, massive floods that Wow! This is what I am look-
to the United States aboard combat in any way, who’s lied to Japan in World War hit the country inundated ing for,” he enthused, smil-
a C-17 transport plane. fought alongside some- II and occupied by its mili- Thailand’s Air Force Mu- ing broadly.
Tests at a special laborato- body, regardless of country tary, making it a target for seum in Bangkok. There “He may know that I am
ry in Hawaii will determine or nation, there’s a bond British and U.S. bombers. was concern its archives looking for him, searching
if the remains are human that’s built. We owe it to Inevitably, aircrew from the might be damaged by for him for a long time,” said
and possibly identify the the families to find those Allied side were lost in ac- mold. Retired Thai Air Chief Sakpinit, suggesting that
person. But circumstantial answers, to bring those tion. Marshal Sakpinit Promthep, just maybe, the pilot’s spirit
evidence has raised ex- people home,” said Marine Today, just a few American who indulged his passion put those pages in front of
pectation the casket holds Col. Matt Brannen, who flyers who disappeared for Second World War his- him, in that file. “Otherwise,
a long-lost service member heads up the Indo-Pacific over Thailand are still unac- tory by working part-time in if there was no flood, the
from the U.S. Army Air Forc- directorate of the Defense counted for. As time pass- the archival section, spent document’s going to be
es. POW/MIA Accounting es, the chances of finding months afterward going hidden for maybe another
“You know, it’s keeping Agency, or DPAA, the U.S. them all but vanish unless through its files one by one year or many, .... maybe a
the promise that we never body tasked with finding something extraordinary to check their condition. long time.” q

Mozambique declares polio outbreak linked to Pakistan

Associated Press cording to a statement is- 2019, similar to the case re- the continent have report- million children were vacci-
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — sued by the World Health ported in Malawi earlier this ed outbreaks linked to the nated against the disease,
Health authorities in Mo- Organization. year. vaccine in recent years. said WHO.
zambique declared a polio Sequencing indicates that WHO declared Africa free There is no difference be- Disease surveillance is be-
outbreak Wednesday after the case in Mozambique of the wild polio virus in tween the disease caused ing strengthened in five
confirming that a child in is linked to a strain of po- August 2020 even though by the wild virus or the mu- countries: Malawi, Mozam-
the country’s northeastern lio spreading in Pakistan in numerous countries across tated virus from the vac- bique, Tanzania, Zambia
Tete province had been cine. and Zimbabwe. Vacci-
paralyzed by the disease. “The detection of another nation campaigns in the
The case in Mozambique is case of wild poliovirus in coming weeks are planned
the second imported case Africa is greatly concern- to reach 23 million children
of polio in southern Africa ing, even if it’s unsurprising aged five years and below.
this year, following a case given the recent outbreak Polio is highly infectious,
discovered in Malawi in in Malawi. spread mostly via water
mid-February. It’s the first However, it shows how dan- and largely affects children
case of wild polio in Mo- gerous this virus is and how younger than five years.
zambique since 1992, al- quickly it can spread,” said There is no cure for polio,
though cases linked to a Matshidiso Moeti, the World and it can only be prevent-
mutated virus from the oral Health Organization’s Af- ed by immunization.
vaccine were detected in rica director. WHO and its partners be-
2019. In response to the case in gan an effort to eradicate
The latest case in Mozam- A baby receives a polio vaccine during the Malawi Polio neighboring Malawi, Mo- polio globally in 1988 and
bique was found in a child Vaccination Campaign Launch in Lilongwe, Malawi, on March zambique recently carried have missed numerous
who experienced signs of 20, 2022. out two mass vaccination deadlines to wipe out the
paralysis in late March, ac- Associated Press campaigns in which 4.2 disease.q