Name: Walter T. Robinson
Rank/Branch: Civilian
Unit: Glomar Java Sea
Date of Birth: 7 Jul 1952
Home City of Record: Prescott AZ
Date of Loss: 25 October 1983
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates:
Status (in 1973):
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground:

Personnel in Incident: Herman Arms; Jerald T. Battiste; Sebe M. Bracey;
Patrick B. Cates; Wei Chen; Xiong Chen; Shu Guo Cheng; Jacob K. J. Chong;
David P. Clifton; James F. Cusick; Thomas J. Dixon; Shao Jien Feng; Jerald J.
Flanagan; Nigel Furness; Leonard E. Ganzinotti; La Juan A. Gilmore; Henry M.
Gittings; James K. Gittings; Terance C. Green; Jun Tian Guan; David Higgins, Jr.;
Tyronne Higgins; Hong Xi Huang; Rui Wen Huang; Yong Liang Huang; Timothy Jarvis;
John W. Jennings Jr.; Thomas J. Kofahl; Fan Xiang Kong; Guo Zhen Lai; John W.
Lawrence; Tong L. T. Lee; Chong Chang Li; Xuan Qiu Li; Zhan Jun Liang; Jie Feng
Lin; Bing Guang Liu; Edgar S. Lim; Gary Looke; Robert M. McCurry; Jerry L.
Manfrida; Raymond D. Miller; Xie Yi Mo; Tian Xue Mo; Kenneth W. Myers; Larry K.
Myers; Donald J. Ouellet; John D. Pierce; Peter Popiel; Clarence Reed;
Jewell J. Reynolds; E.J. Russell Reynolds; Walter T. Robinson; Kenneth B. Rogers;
Lawrence M. Salzwedel; William R. Schug; Richard E. Shoff; Christopher J.
Sleeman; Delmar A. Spencer; George G. Sullivan; Chong Jian Sun; Gustaf F. Swanson;
Kevin C. Swanson; Guo Dong Tang; Michael W. Thomas; Jiang Wang; Yu Fang Wang;
Dong Cai Wang; Guo Rong Wu; jing Sheng Xia; Xing Xing; Hui Xu; Ming Rui Xu; Mua
Guang Yuan; Xing Zhen Zhang; Yi Hua Zhang; Ji Chang Zhen; Shu Rong Zhou; Yao
Wu Zhou; Jie Fang Zhou; Da Huai Zhu.

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 10 December 1990 from one or
more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: The 5,930-ton American drilling ship, "Glomar Java Sea" was
owned by Global Marine of Houston, Texas, and leased to Atlantic Richfield
Company (ARCO). In the fall of 1983, the vessel was on duty about 200 miles east
of the Vietnamese coast. The ship was drilling for oil in the South China Sea
in a joint venture of ARCO and China Naitonal Offshore Oil Corporation, a
state-owned concern.

The "Glomar Java Sea" is a sister ship of the "Glomar Explorer," which,
under the guise of being utilized by the late Howard Hughes in a deep sea
mining operation in the Paficic, was really being used by the CIA and Navy in a
$350 million project to retrieve a sunken Soviet Golf-class submarine. A
large part of the submarine was in fact recovered in 1974 before details of the
project were publicly revealed.

The Glomar Java Sea, with its crew of 81, began drilling operations on
January 9, 1983 and was the first American wildcat operaton off the Chinese
coast. On October 25, 1983, the vessel was sunk during Typhoon Lex.

Documents removed from the ship by a crewman before the disaster
indicate that the vessel was being shadowed by armed Vietnamese naval craft and that
there were submarine mines beneath the "Glomar Java Sea," placed there and
retrievable by its crew. Another document indicates that the ship was damaged prior
ot the typhoon when a Chinese supply boat rammed into its side, causing some
$320,000 damage to the vessel. The Glomar Java Sea did not leave its post for
repairs.

Communications between ARCO and Global Marine, as well as telegraphic
and radio communications of the U.S. Western Pacific Rescue Coordination Center
(WESTPAC) reveal information about the search for the crew of the Glomar Java Sea.

The documents indicate that a number of survivors from the stricken
vessel were floundering in the water off the coast of Vietnam for hours after the
disaster.  There is also indication that the men were picked up by Vietnamese
coastal patrols and are held captive of the Hanoi regime.

The crew of the Glomar Java Sea included 37 Americans, 35 Chinese, four
British, two Singaporeans, one Filipino, one Australian, and one Canadian.

From a transcript of a radio communicaton between WESTPAC and Global
Marine on October 28, three days after the sinking, WESTPAC was told: "We are
informed that the SOS transmission could not have been transmitted except by
human operators..." There were two 64-man lifeboats aboard the drilling ship,
plus smaller lifeboats.

In an October 29 communicaton from WESTPAC to Global Marine, it is
clearly stated that five strobe lights were sighted by rescue aircraft in the
vicinity of 17-30 North 107-45 East. The aircraft were dispatched to the area
because strobe lights had been previously sighted. Lifejackets from the Glomar
Java Sea were equipped with strobe lights to signal rescuers.

Another October 29 communication between ARCO and Global Marine states
that ARCO's search aircraft had spotted survivors in the water at 17.27 North
107.54 East, and had attempted to divert surface vessels to this location. The
communication expressed the urgency to rescue the men before dark.

At 8:01 a.m. on October 29, ARCO had dropped a rescue raft to survivors.
Pickup would be delayed for several hours, but the "Salvanquish," a
Singapore-based salvage ship, was within one half-mile of the site.

At 8:38 a.m search aircraft reported pinpointing the survivors'
positions by dye markers released by the survivors into the water. Two survivors were
confirmed with a possible third some distance away. Plans were also made to return
to the downed vessell to offlift survivors.

Another document shows that on nine different occasions radio
transmissions were picked up from a lifeboat. They ranged from "very strong" to "weak" with
most being described as "strong."

Inexplicably, despite the successful search, no rescue was made of the
survivors. Later that day, the Chinese Navy picked up a Vietnamese
broadcast reporting that the Vietnamese had sighted a lifeboat near their coast.
The location of the lifeboat was not confirmed by friendly search parties.

ARCO-Global Marine determined that this sighting was in the vicinity of
Hon Gio Island, located about 80 miles up the Vietnamese coast from the old U.S.
base at Da Nang and about 14 miles offshore, which placed it in Vietnamese
territorial waters. It appears that rescue craft were hampered in fully
investigating the report due to its location and the hint of possible interference by the
Vietnamese military.

It is likely that survivors would have been picked up by the Vietnamese
if they had in fact drifted within Vietnam's territory.

In the years following the loss of the Glomar Java Sea, a number of
reports, all unconfirmed by the U.S., indicate that survivors were seen in captivity
in Vietnam. It is known that the Vietnamese had shown a hostile interest in
the vessel, and the Glomar Java Sea had standing orders to be alert for
Vietnamese vessels in the area. The Chinese Navy served as protection for the
vessel and stood ready to take action should Vietnamese craft wander too close. The
waters below the vessel were mined.

A month after the Glomar Java Sea went down, Chinese divers went down to
the wreckage and went through the ship with a video cameras.

In March 1984, American divers were able to retrieve 31 bodies from the
sunken vessel. Fifteen of the bodies were identified as Americans. In addition,
three British and one Singaporean were identified. The bodies of another
American and two Chinese were tentatively identified. Divers photographed two bodies
they were unable to retrieve. They also found one of the Chinese divers that
had explored the wreckage in November 1983, lashed to the deck of the ship.

The American divers determined that one of the ship's large lifeboats
was launched and that an attempt had been made to launch another. Their film
was seen by the mother of one of the lost crewmen. She reported that the
crack in the hull of the ship at one point was a hole 48 inches across, which was
punctured inward, "as though the rig had been hit by something that
exploded."  This fueled additional speculation that the vessel had, in fact, been
attacked rather that simply mortally damaged by the typhoon.

The National Transportaton Safety Board officially determined in
November 1984 that an "unexplained crack" in the hull of the Glomar Java Sea was
responsible for its sinking during the typhoon. Apparently, the crack in the hull
allowed two storage tanks to fill with water, causing the vessel to become
off-balanced, making it vulnerable to the forces of the typhoon. Officials believed it
was possible that survivors may have been able to abandon the ship before it
sank.  It was determined that the ship had been improperly prepared for the
storm.

During 1984, there were reports from Southeast Asia that between six and
twelve survivors of the Glomar Java Sea were being held in prisoner of war
camps in Vietnam. One of the survivors was identified by a Vietnamese refugee as
American crewman John Pierce.

Douglas F. Pierce, father of John Pierce, reported that the refugee had
seen his son, five other Americans and eight Chinese when they were brought into
a prison in Da Nang, where the refugee was being held. John Pierce gave the
refugee his father's business card and two sticks of gum.

Mr. Pierce gave the information to Defense Intelligence Agency who
determined that the refugee had not been in the camp at all, but had received the
business card by mail from a friend, not directly from Pierce. DIA further
determined that the incident had occurred in late October 1983 (shortly after the
Glomar Java Sea went down). The refugee gave Mr. Pierce the original letter,
which contained the names and addresses of two mutual Vietnamese friends.

No followup was conducted on the two names in the letter by DIA, and DIA

discounted the information provided by the refugee. It was not until
1990 that it became apparent that the Defense Department felt no responsibility
for the Americans lost on the Glomar Java Sea. At that time, DIA reported that
the responsibility for these civilians belonged to the U.S. State
Department.

Mr. Pierce did not stop there. He uncovered a U.S. State Department
document that revealed that Cheng Quihong, the secretary and wife of the Director
of China's Visa Office, was overheard telling her companion at a Hong Kong
dinner that survivors from the Glomar had been picked up and were held by the
Vietnamese.

Pierce also learned that a JCRC report sent to DIA dated November 6,
1984, reported that a former prisoner from Pleiku prison had been held with a
Chinese man who claimed to have been off the Glomar. The man said he was one of
three men who were captured, and that the other two were Americans.

Pierce adds that to his knowledge, neither of these reports were
followed up by U.S. officials, and Pierce has received no reply to his queries
regarding them.

In 1989 a Japanese monk named Yoshida was released from prison after
being held for years by the Vietnamese. Yoshida was shown a photograph of John
Pierce and stated that Pierce looked very familiar, and that he had either seen him
or someone who looked very much like him.

In November, 1990, Vietamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach traveled
to the U.S. and spoke with U.S. officials on a variety of matters. At this
time, he announced that there was a black American named Walter T. Robinson
living illegally in Vietnam, and invited U.S. representatives to come and help
find him. Thach provided a social security number and two photographs.

The Pentagon told "The Washington Times" that the two photographs of
Robinson provided by Thach are of a black man. However, the Pentagon has since
admitted that the photos "are not very well developed" and appear to be of either
a black man or a dark Asian. Photocopies of old newspaper articles concerning
Robinson, obtained by Homecoming II, show a dark-haired man of relatively dark
complexion.

The Pentagon has not released the photographs to the press.

The Defense Department determined that Walter T. Robinson had never been
listed as missing in Vietnam. Thach had provided a social security number, and
according to DOD, this information correlated to a white American living
in the Midwest. They concluded that the Thach information, therefore, was in
error.

Later information indicated that a Walter T. Robinson was listed on the
crew roster of the Glomar Java Sea. When queried, the Defense Department
reported that they were aware of this Robinson, but that civilians were the
responsibility of the State Department.

It seems apparent that the U.S. is not vigorously looking for the men
missing from the Glomar Java Sea, and that like the missing and prisoners who
served in military and civilian capacities during the Vietnam war, they have been
abandoned.

Return to POW/MIA Index to read about another missing American.