Joint Indo-US recovery mission of WWII MIA's at Arunachal soon..

'Where there is a will, there is a way' goes the age-old adage and this could not have been exemplified better than by sheer will shown by Gary Zaetz, nephew of 1^st Lt. Irwin 'Zipper' Zaetz who disappeared along with the entire crew of B-24 Bomber somewhere over the 'hump' during the year 1944, to recover the mortal remains of crew members of that ill-fated aircraft. It was for his will and effort that finally an agreement between India and US was reached to extend cooperation in recovering the remains of the missing US personnel in India's North-East (read Arunachal).

I was more than happy for Gary and the families of crew members of "Hot as Hell" when he wrote in to tell that preliminary work of identifying the crash sites and helipads for operations (slated for April May this year) has already begun as reported in the 1^st February issue of India Today.

I wanted to let you know that Shri Sandeep Unnithan, the Assistant Editor of India Today, interviewed me over the phone about the "Hot as Hell" case about a week ago, and has written a superb article about it in the February 1 issue of that publication. The name of the article is "Ghosts of War." Along with the article is an outstanding graphic, done by Shri Ram Chamdran.

The article's central theme is the new agreement between the US and India for recovery of the remains of American military service personnel in India's Northeast.

I was indeed very happy to read in Mr. Unnithan's article that "IAF helicopters flying out of Assam have already begun preliminary work in identifying crash sites and helipads for the operations which are slated to begin between April and May this year."

-Gary Zaetz
Nephew of 1st Lt. Irwin G. Zaetz, navigator of the "Hot as Hell"

Hoping that finally after over five decades, the crew members of "Hot as Hell" would get a 'proper resting place'.