Pat71

The pictures by Colonel Waite are really something special. If Colonel Waite's family put him the Alps over Thanksgiving 1971, then that's enough for me. Sorry to have bothered you and your family Stephanie, and I'm glad brave men like your father were around to fight for us all.

My question is genuine, what is the reason for skepticism? Do you have a suspect that fits better based on similar criteria?

1 This man looks very much like the sketch 2 He's a paratrooper 3 He lived all most directly under the flight path 4 He lived in Belgium at one time (Dan Cooper comics) 5 He spoke French 6 His height and weight match 7 He has brown eyes. I'm sorry but when we got to number three on that list it just eliminated a whole lot folks. As far as motivation, money has always been a big one for any crime.

I appreciate the advice. But someone was on that plane, gotta start somewhere. Take care!

As far as calling the daughter, how could she help? She was very young at the time. Let me read a quote from the daughter that was a caption to a picture of her father on his 71st birthday. this was the night that my father pretty much told me that he worked at one point for the cia or something close to it, in viet nam. i, as i did in the last convo i had with him on the subject, had one too many glasses of wine that evening and don't remember the exact conversation. and i flog myself for that. a lot.

This is a well known and public figure So had you ever heard of him? I disagree about the likeness. The hairline, the part in the hair, the eyebrows, the thickness of the lips, the size of the neck, the mustache line, slight double chin, all these things are close. The jowls are slightly off, but the picture of the major is over 3 years younger than the sketch. The eyelids are different. The creases just to the outside of each nostril are almost exactly the same!

Can't answer the question about motivation for pulling off the crime. Debt, greed, a girlfriend? If you look through the photos he does seem to have a taste for the high life. Bottom line the crime was committed, someone did want that money, the person that did it has not been caught, and if the person died they were not missed. Do you have any photos of former suspects that look as close as the Colonel that you could post?

This is the link to his photo stream. I am quite sure he is South Vietnamese. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nguyen_ngoc_chinh/

The Money? If the Colonel jumped out of the plane and obviously lived, where is the money. One possibility is he sent it back to Vietnam with the Vietnamese Lt. to be laundered or to fund some covert operation. Maybe the Colonel took the money to Europe with him and was able to launder it there. Still, hard to believe the serial numbers never popped up.

The name of the Viet officer is Lt. Nguyen Ngoc Chinh. He was a South Viet language officer.

What is the question?

In all honesty, I couldn't call someone like that. It's just the way I am, I couldn't get through a conversation like that. I contacted Bruce Smith because he looked like someone in the know, and would be able to tell me if the Colonel had already been vetted and this was old news. I came here in hopes that others would look through the photos and tell me what they think. I was surprised that Bruce said he'd never heard of this gentleman before. In my opinion the pictures look very much like the drawings, and all the physical descriptions match perfectly.

Colonel Waite retired in 1992, there was a ceremony held for him at in San Francisco at the Presidio. So yes, he was on active duty in 1971. He lived as a boy in Villard, Minnesota. A very small town 2 hours west of Minneapolis. He graduated from high School in Albany, Oregon. Albany is just south of Salem and about an hours drive to Portland. Don't know where he went to college. It appears that Salem Oregon was his families home base while he was overseas. As I said he is buried in Portland. As I said, I randomly came across the South Viet officers photos on Flickr and that eventually lead me to the Colonel.

Thanks Robert. And please if you get a chance check out the pictures from Colonel Waite's daughters web site. This is the main page, you have to page down to get the categories. http://misssnep.smugmug.com This page is his military career http://misssnep.smugmug.com/Military This page is more his personal life http://misssnep.smugmug.com/Family/My-Father You'll notice that at his funeral there was a picture of him displayed with Alexander Haig.

Let me add a couple of things about me. I'm an absolute nobody from Omaha Nebraska. I've never been in the military or worked for any government. I have had an interest in the Cooper case for a long time, and the other night at work came across Bruce Smith's Mountain News website. I've exchanged some emails with Bruce and he told me about this forum.

Colonel Waite's daughter has thousands of photos at her SMUGHUB site. I have spent the last 3 days going through them trying to find one that would put him in Portland in '71 but could not. But I also could not put him anywhere else at that time. From the time he came home from Vietnam in late '68 until about '72 I don't see anything. It looks like in '72 he went back to Europe for an extended stay? Salem Oregon looks to have been his home when he died.

I think you're asking if the photos are fake. Go to the Colonel Waite's daughters website for all the photos you can handle. Below is the link. I don't think the Colonel would have ever shared these photos taken by him for the whole world to see. But after he died his daughter put them on the web in 2008. Please go through the pictures. http://misssnep.smugmug.com/Military

It is my understanding that he died on Thanksgiving day 2002 and is buried in the Willmete National Cemetery in Portland Oregon. As I said the photo looks to be taken in about 1969 or so and I think the photo was taken in Asia.

1 From what I gather the suit picture was taken in 1969 or 1970. 2 I was looking through FLICKR one night about 4 years ago and came across some photos of a South Vietnamese army/air force officer that was traveling across the United States for several months in 1971. That in and of itself interested me, but then I noticed the some of the styles of suits, and photos of this gentlemen with sunglasses on looked like D B Cooper. I will post that link below. This Viet officer is about 5' 8" and only about 25 years old, and obviously Asian, so I started thinking Cooper might be more than one guy. This Viet officer was traveling with 3 other men, all young, 1 white and 2 Asian, so I started thinking along the lines of a stowaway was all ready on board, but kept coming back to the police sketch and physical descriptions. Well last week I was going through this Viet officers FLICKR pictures again looking for a someone in the pictures that might pass for Cooper. The Viet officer had linked to some photos by the Colonel's daughter that she put up in 2008. When I ran across that photo of the Colonel I was startled to say the least. Here are the links that were the beginning of my interest in the Colonel. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nguyen_ngoc_chinh/sets/72157601268364121/

Well I can not put the Colonel in Portland on Nov 24th, 1971, but I can't put him anywhere else either. I know that's not a good analysis. Some facts about the Colonel He was 6' about 180 lbs, brown eyes. He was a smoker, pipe and cigs. He graduated high school from Albany, OR that looks to be close to where he jumped out. He was an para-trooper. He spoke French and lived in Belgium in the 50s Another photo is attached.

I'm new to the site, but came across some interesting photos and details recently. The man in this picture is Colonel Hugh Gordon Waite, 1930 - 2003. He was a paratrooper trained at Fort Bragg and was a native of Albany, Oregon. Below is a link to many photos of the Colonel throughout his career. Thanks http://misssnep.smugmug.com/Military