The new documentary "Unclaimed" purports to introduce the world to former Army Sergeant John Robertson, lost over in Vietnam in 1968 and left behind for over four decades.
The Toronto Star reports Edmonton filmmaker Michael Jorgenson found Robertson, 76, living in a rural Vietnam village stooped with age, unable to speak English, remember his birthday or names of the children he left behind in the U.S.
It's a story difficult to believe considering the U.S. military places such a priority on bringing every service member home, whenever possible.
Jorgenson told The Star he was also skeptical when Vietnam vet Tom Faunce came to him and explained a man he'd found in Vietnam was a former "Army brother" listed as killed in action and forgotten. He says he became convinced only after going to Vietnam and meeting Robertson himself.
What he found was revealed to filmgoers in an invitation-only screening of "Unclaimed" at a Toronto theater earlier this month.
From The Star:
There is physical proof of Robertson’s birthplace, collected in dramatic fashion onscreen; a tearful meeting in Vietnam with a soldier who was trained by Robertson in 1960 and said he knew him on sight; and a heart-wrenching reunion with his only surviving sister — 80-year-old Jean Robertson-Holly — in Edmonton in December 2012 that left the audience at the Toronto screening wiping away tears.
Jorgenson encountered so much resistance from the U.S. military making his film that he says he's convinced one "high-placed government source" was telling the truth when he said, “It’s not that the Vietnamese won’t let him (Robertson) go; it’s that our government doesn’t want him.”
Wringing out the details and talking to Robertson's American family seems to have been a gut-wrenching affair. The children whose names he couldn't recall declined DNA testing at the last minute with no explanation.
None of that mattered to Robertson who says he fulfilled his wish of seeing his American kids one more time before he dies.
Robertson is now back in Vietnam, with no desire to leave. "Unclaimed" opens in the U.S. May 12, at the G.I. Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
Apparently not everyone believes Robertson is who claims, and there's a movement among ex-Special Forces troops to prove it. The web page here was forwarded to us by someone claiming to be a 21-year Special Forces vet. We'll dig into it a bit more to see what else we can find out.
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