Westmoreland Research

12/24/2023

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Westmoreland Research

05/29/2023

SSG John Boronski - CCC Kontum - MIA 03-24-1970

Traditionally, I honor my family members who are interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. Today, I would like to honor a Vietnam era Green Beret (5th SFG) who was listed MIA for more than thirty years.
SSG John Boronski was the Asst Team Leader (1-1) of RT Pennsylvania (MACV-SOG FOB2-Kontum) on a long-range reconnaissance patrol when after three days of engaging and evading PAVN trackers in Cambodia, Boronski, his two American team-mates and their six man Montagnard team, all wounded, were extracted under heavy fire on March 24, 1970 by a UH-1H of the 170th Assault Helicopter Company (Bikinis) piloted by CW3 John Hoskins. While departing the EZ the Huey was hit by a B-40 rocket and was seen by orbiting A/C to suffer an internal explosion and crash. Due to the remoteness of the location, heavy PAVN presence, and the complete destruction of the A/C, a Bright Light recovery operation was not mounted. Without physical proof of death, Boronksi, his team, and the Huey aircrew were all listed as MIA until 1978 when Boronski’s status was changed to KIA-PFOD (Presumptive Finding of Death).
In 1995, a joint DPAA – Vietnamese team located the helicopter crash site and recovered human remains and in 2001, a US forensic team associated some of the recovered remains as belonging to SSG Boronski. He, along with his US teammates and the UH-1H aircrew are memorialized at Arlington National Cemetery. I am honored to have worked on a RT Pennsylvania research project in the late 90’s and I am in possession of a POW-MIA bracelet from Boronksi’s CCC teammate who gifted it to me.

01/24/2023

This story gained national and international attention early this month and has sparked a frenzy of illegal and ill-advised prospecting activity. Overnight we received the first, and probably not the last, request to provide supporting documentation to authenticate the story. While this is precisely the type of research we conduct, please respect property rights and leave this project to the local investigative authorities.

01/22/2023

This is an audacious and fascinating concept to retrieve significant airframes from the Lexington and is worth a look.

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10/12/2022

A significant, if slightly unknown, resource. Knowledgeable and helpful staff!

11/13/2021

NARA Update - We are happy to inform you that the US National Archives (NARA) Washington, DC (A1) and College Park, MD (A2) will be reopening for research next week. We will be reaching out to current clients over the next few days and we encourage you to contact our office about current and new projects. Thank you.

08/07/2021

National Purple Heart Recognition Day. Bravo Zulu!

07/02/2021

I was interviewed for this news article. What remains unstated is the essential work private researchers do because NARA has neither the manpower nor the will. We do pro bono VA work for veterans and several have passed away during the 15 months NARA-NPRC has been closed.

The partial shutdown of the National Personnel Records Center, an agency of the National Archives, has led to a backlog of approximately 500,000 requests.

05/31/2021

04/22/2021

The UK National Archives is allowing researcher access.

Merchant Navy shipwrecks, Trials podcast and other news from The National Archives