Unclaimed
Unclaimed is a 2013 Canadian documentary film about a man who claims to be former Special Forces Green Beret Master Sgt. John Hartley Robertson, who was declared dead after being shot down over Laos on a classified mission on 20 May 1968. The documentary is written, directed, and produced by Michael Jorgensen. It follows Tom Faunce, a veteran of the Vietnam War, in tracking down the man who claimed to be Robertson. Faunce was skeptical of Robertson's identity but eventually became convinced. He convinced Jorgensen to make a documentary about Robertson's story as a way to unite the man with his American family. Leading up to the film's release, the validity of Robertson's identity was challenged by groups of Vietnam War veterans and groups that advocate the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. Jean Robertson-Holley, Robertson's surviving sister, was convinced the man was her brother but initially declined DNA testing as unnecessary. Eventually she and her daughter (Robertson's niece) Gail Metcalf expressed openness to going through with testing. The documentary was screened at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on , 2013. A day later, The Independent reported the contents of a memo from a 2009 report by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office that the man who claimed to be Robertson was actually Dang Tan Ngoc, "a 76-year-old Vietnamese citizen of French origin who has a history of pretending to be US army veterans". Synopsis Vietnam veteran Tom Faunce works as a missionary in Vietnam, where he hears of an elderly man claiming to be Robertson. Faunce's meeting with the man spurs him to try to repatriate him, against the wishes of the US government. The man claiming to be Robertson states in the film that he was kept in a bamboo cage in the jungle by the North Vietnamese and tortured for a year. Then, confused and badly injured, he was released and married a Vietnamese woman who had helped to care for him, assuming the name of her dead husband. Aged 76 , he lives in a remote village in south central Vietnam and is unable to remember his birthday or his American children's names and is now only able to speak Vietnamese. Scenes include a meeting with a veteran who was trained by Robertson back in 1960 and who recognized him on sight. Production Unclaimed is written, directed, and produced by Michael Jorgensen. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Tom Faunce, had been on a humanitarian mission in southeast Asia in 2008 when he learned about John Hartley Robertson, a fellow soldier who was reported killed in action in the war, still alive in Vietnam. Faunce was skeptical when meeting Robertson but was eventually convinced of his identity. Faunce then contacted Jorgensen in 2012 to appeal to him to make a documentary as a way to help Robertson reunite with his family. Jorgensen was also skeptical but became convinced to make the documentary about Robertson. The filmmaker said he experienced difficulty with the U.S. military in