I had a good conversation last week with members of JPAC. They had a table setup in Crystal City at the hotel Rolling Thunder was working out of.

I spoke to a CW(3?) and told him what I knew about 297 and the location it went down. Based on his experience, he seemed confident that as long as there were no villages around that area with people that would have scavenged the wreckage, the Helicopter should still be there.

They had two tables setup with artifacts that had been recovered from Vietnam in the last several years. They were in amazing condition. Straps and other material on the equipment were still in pretty good condition.

So.... the question now is how to get in to that area. I told JPAC it was in the Central Highlands near the Cambodian border, Kontum province. He said that they (JPAC) did not have permission right now to go into Kontum. He did not elaborate why, and I didn't ask. It didn't seem like anything that I was talking about was unreasonable and I left feeling like this was something that could definitely be accomplished.