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Air Force Master Sgt. James Henry Calfee, was declared missing in action in March 1968.
Episode 3177 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the plight of a Vietnam War MIA family. The featured story is titled: Oahu-based teams search for remains of missing troops from ‘Secret War’ in Laos. It appeared on the Garden Island website and was submitted by Kevin Knodell a writer for the Star-Advertiser.
Knodell reported that Debra Morris’s lifelong search for answers about her uncle, Air Force Master Sgt. James Henry Calfee, began with a haunting farewell. While home on leave from secret missions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, Calfee told his family they might never see him again. In March 1968, he was declared missing in action after communist forces overran Lima Site 85, a clandestine U.S. and CIA base in Laos. The Air Force provided few details, instructing the family to remain silent, fueling decades of grief, frustration, and rumors about his fate.
For years, Calfee’s relatives pieced together fragments of information while questioning why the government withheld the truth. In August, scientists with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified a bone recovered from Laos as Calfee’s, finally confirming his death. Family members traveled to Hawaii to meet the team and see the remains, gaining a measure of closure, though many questions remain unanswered. Morris, who promised her grandmother she would uncover the truth, called the identification an important step after 57 years of searching.
The story of Calfee is tied to the “Secret War” in Laos, where U.S. forces covertly operated despite the country’s official neutrality. Lima Site 85 played a critical role in radar and rescue coordination before it was overrun in a brutal two-day battle. DPAA teams have spent decades navigating dangerous terrain and limited records to recover remains from the site, where erosion and secrecy complicate investigations.
Calfee’s family still seeks details about his mission and his vaguely worded Silver Star citation. Efforts to access records have been blocked by classification, a challenge even for DPAA historians. A newly introduced bipartisan bill, the Bring Our Heroes Home Act, aims to improve access to MIA records and accelerate declassification. For Morris, the fight is about dignity and truth: after decades of silence, having even one bone is proof her uncle has not been forgotten.
Listen to Episode 3177 and discover more about the plight of a Vietnam War MIA family.
