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- NATION, Page 31American NotesMIASUncandid Camera
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- The grainy photo of a smiling middle-aged man bore a striking
- resemblance to Army Captain Donald G. Carr, who was shot down
- over Laos in 1971. So much so that his relatives, like those of
- many of the 2,273 U.S. servicemen listed as missing in action,
- dared to believe that their loved one was still alive in
- Southeast Asia. But the Carr family was the victim of a cruel
- fraud.
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- The photo, purporting to show the missing soldier in a
- Laotian prison camp, turned out to be that of a German national
- named Gunther Dittrich. The man's identity, first reported by
- ABC News, was confirmed by Defense Department investigators who
- interviewed him in a German prison, where he is serving time for
- illegally exporting exotic Asian birds.
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- The photo was sent to the Carr family by retired Air Force
- pilot Jack Bailey, whose Operation Rescue group has raised more
- than $3 million from MIA families over the past decade. Bailey
- claims he was duped by an unidentified hoaxer and did not
- knowingly mislead anyone. Nevertheless, the Justice Department
- is investigating Bailey's enterprise to determine whether he is
- responsible for other fake MIA documents and photos.
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