The Honorable Eni
Faleomavaega
2422 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
29 July 2000
Representative
Faleomavaega,
Good day. I am writing to you in regards to Eleanor Ardel Vietti,
a Vietnam POW whom I have adopted. Ms. Vietti was a civilian
surgeon with the Christian and Missionary Alliance when she,
Reverend Archie E Mitchell, and Daniel A Gerber were taken
captive on 30 May 1962. As a Vietnam Veteran and as a member of
the House International Relations subcommittees on International
Operations and Human Rights and Asian and Pacific Affairs, you
should understand what all went on in Vietnam during the War, and
what still goes on there years later. Vietnam was hell for those
who served there, and it is undoubtedly still hell for those
Americans who remain behind. Ms. Vietti was nearly thirty-five
years of age when she went missing, but being the tough woman she
was, she very well may still be alive. Old, yes, but still alive,
probably. Just think about it ... when you were graduating from
high school, not yet on your way to serve in Vietnam, Ms. Vietti
was already over there, saving the lives of other men, and
serving her country proudly, and then, in an instance, the lives
of her, the other captives, and their families were changed
forever. We owe it to ourselves, to the families, and most of
all, to those who dared to fight a war no one quite understood to
get an accounting for those left behind. I thank you for reading
this letter, I thank you for daring to serve, and I hope that you
too will never forget the ultimate sacrifice many a person made
in Vietnam, particularly the only female Vietnam Prisoner Of War,
Ms. Eleanor Ardel Vietti.
Respectfully,
Stacey N. Jones
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