POW/MIA John M. Leaver, Jr.

Name: John Murray Leaver, Jr.
Rank/Branch: O5/US Navy
Unit: Commander Cruiser Destroyer Group, 7th Fleet
Date of Birth: 17 August 1933 (Boston MA)
Home City of Record: Arlington MA
Date of Loss: 08 May 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 182105N 1075959E (AL170315)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: SH3G
Other Personnel in Incident: Edmund B. Taylor (missing)

SYNOPSIS: Commander John M. Leaver was assigned as a staff officer to Commander Cruiser Destroyer Group 7th Fleet. On May 8, 1972, he and Captain Edmund B. Taylor were passengers aboard a helicopter attempting to make a night landing on the fantail of the USS PROVIDENCE (CLG-6). The helicopter crashed and fell overboard.

Leaver and Taylor were both lost in the crash and their remains were never located. They are listed with honor among the missing because no remains were found. Their cases seem quite clear.
For others who are listed missing, however, resolution is not as simple. Many were known to have survived their loss incident. Quite a few were in radio contact with search teams and describing an advancing enemy. Some were photographed or recorded in captivity. Others simply vanished without a trace.
Nearly 2500 Americans remain missing or otherwise unaccounted for in Vietnam. Since the war ended, over 10,000 reports concerning Americans still prisoner, missing or otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government. Many experts are completely convinced that hundreds of Americans are now held captive.
One set of critics say that the U.S. has done little to address the issue of live POWs, preferring the politically safer issue of remains return. Others place the blame on the Vietnamese, for using the issue of POW/MIA to their political advantage. Regardless of blame, no living American has returned through the efforts of negotiations between the countries, and the reports continue to pour in. Are we doing enough to bring these men home?