WADLEIGH, CARL D.
REMAINS RETURNED - SEE NEWS ARTICLE

Name: Carl D. Wadleigh
Rank/Branch: US Army
Unit: IN BN 03 CO A
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record:
Date of Loss: 21 June 1968 (680529 USAEREC LIST)
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates:
Status (in 1973): AWOL
Status in 2004 - Killed in Action Body not Recovered
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project  from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 2004.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: In Vietnam, military experts devised a system to try to relieve
the battle fatigue experienced in earlier wars by those who served long
tours with their units intact. In Vietnam, soldiers were rotated after
roughly one-year tours. The practice had noble intent, but it served to
isolate the soldier and interrupted continuity. Virtually as soon as a man
learned the ropes, he was shipped home and a green replacement arrived to
fill the gap. Some were quite literally, in the jungles one day and at
home the next. The emotional impact was terrific and thousands of veterans
are dealing with it two decades later.

Vietnam was also a limited political war, and had peculiar problems: a
vague enemy, restrictive rules of engagement, an uncertain objective,
non-military State Department minds directing many aspects of the war. In
certain periods of the war, military morale was lower than perhaps any
other time in our history.

Adding to these factors was the extremely young age of the average soldier
shipped to Vietnam. For example, the average combatant's age in World War
II was 25 years, while Vietnam soldiers were 19. The young fighters became
jaded -- or old -- or died -- long before their time.

For various reasons, some soldiers deserted or even defected to the enemy.
Their counterparts in the U.S. fled to Canada, manufactured physical or
mental problems, or extended college careers to escape the draft.

There are only a handful of American deserters or AWOL (Absent Without
Leave) maintained on missing lists. At least one of these was known to have
fallen in love with a woman whom he later learned was a communist. Another
fled because he had scrapped with a superior and feared the consequences.
This man was ultimately declared dead, and his AWOL record expunged. Most
are on the list of missing because there is some doubt that their AWOL
status is valid.

There is little information regarding those listed as AWOL on the missing
lists. For instance, the Army does not maintain a missing file of Carl D.
Wadleigh, who was reported AWOL on June 21, 1968. Although his name appeared
as AWOL through on lists through 1982, by 1984, it had been removed without
explanation. His story and his fate are unknown.

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The Jersey Journal
Top News

HE'S 'AWOL' NO LONGER

Army now admits decades-old error Hudson GI will get burial with honors

Saturday, March 06, 2004

By Ken Thorbourne
Journal staff writer

It's been nearly four decades since Army Spc. 4th Class Carl Wadleigh of
Jersey City went missing during the war in Vietnam.

Unlike other soldiers in his company, judged to have fought bravely and died
for their country, the former student of Jefferson Elementary School in
North Bergen - his twin sister, Margaret, likens him to Matt Dillon, the
handsome sheriff on TV's "Gunsmoke" - was branded a deserter......