Curt Borton Jr.

[rusty spike]

If Curt was dangerous, then what was the family doing on UM? Wouldn't that create more problems?

I would hope that common sense would rule in believing soldiers captured and detained as POW would make good candidates for secret covert missions for the US Govt. The other two cases involving Vietnam vets who returned home with physical and mental injuries really struggled to put their lives in order (and they had supporting families). War was tremendously traumatizing and I don't believe that a secret spy program with new identities and firm rules of no contact with your former family makes any sense.

[TheCars1986]

They positively identified his remains a few months after this segment first aired. If his family could not accept that then they are still living in denial to this day. Due to the family not going on other various forms of media with their "evidence' that Curt was still alive, I have to think that at some point they accepted that he was killed in action.

[infinityluxe]

I just don't see myself avoiding making contact with my brother due to what someone whom I don't even know tells me. She could have told her kids to remain where they were and approached him.

I dunno this segment was very fat fetched and seemed like the family just wanted to be on TV.

[Allierain]

I had UM running in the background today and this segment was on. I got curious- has there ever been a verified case of a soldier returning from the military with a new identity and being told never to contact family and let them think you are dead? I searched and I couldn’t find one. The term “secret returnee” seems to refer to soldiers coming back after the Peace Accords without confirmation from the US government, not necessarily to this specific case. Sorry if I missed a post like this way back in the thread. Anyone got an opinion or background info on something like this? This isn’t the first story like this featured on UM either, another was Ray Hickingbotham. But I cannot find confirmation.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by sgath92

The government's story about grave robbing is probably accurate. There has been a very long running, widespread problem in Vietnam with mortuary fraud due to the myth over there that anyone who turns in the remains of a US soldier would be compensated for it. So many graves have been repeatedly disturbed by people trying to steal remains, thinking they can sell them to the US government or to fraudulently sell them to civilians by telling them its worth money & the US will buy it off them. This article talks about it: https://www.historynet.com/bone-dealers-in-vietnam.htm

The cousin's story about the social security number probably arose from either him or his supervisor misinterpreting the computer's results. It was probably not that the number came back as "was never issued" so much as, it belonged to someone legally deceased.

See, for decades the Social Security Administration has maintained a Social Security Death Registry, containing the social security numbers of people who have died, when they died (roughly), and where they last lived (roughly). The whole point of this database is so that lenders when screening people for credit can see if the applicant's number belongs to a deceased person, because deceased persons should not be given lines of credit (for obvious reasons). The cousin was trying to monitor Curt's social security number via a loan application (per the segment) and even in the early 90s, the computers would have immediately bounced that back due to the fact that Curt was legally dead. Depending on how the program was written, I could see it returning an error of "invalid social security number" or similar, but that wouldn't have to mean it was "never issued" like the cousin seems to believe.

Underrated post.

[infinityluxe]

Apparently someone found this...

[tvscript124]

Originally Posted by infinityluxe

Apparently someone found this...

That raises all kinds of questions, doesn't it?

[EighthStreet]

Originally Posted by tvscript124

That raises all kinds of questions, doesn't it?

Went and found the original facebook post, in the comments someone mentions that it's more than likely a commemorative fundraising item
https://thewall-usa.com/bracelet.asp
"We also made copper ones for adults who believed they helped their "tennis elbow." Again, according to our logic adults could pay more, so we would request $3.00 for the copper bracelets."

[TheCars1986]

I can't believe UM made this segment and used these photos as "proof" that Curt could still be alive. Neither man looks anything like him.