5/29/16 Report - MIA/POW Memorial Bracelet Found. Remains of Raft Washed Up On Beach. Bonnie Now Tropical Storm.

Written by the treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

James Rozo Bracelet Find

Below is the email from Paul B. concerning the bracelet.

I found this memorial bracelet on April 30^th on one of the Vero beaches. It was about 8 inches down next to the surf. These bracelets have names of POWs and MIAs. Haven’t been able to locate a web site for finding owners of these bracelets, and I don’t use social media. It’s a bracelet with the name James Rozo. It is of particular interest to me since his home town was Buffalo NY, and my son now resides there, and this soldier went missing and presumed captured after leaving his base camp, Lai Khe, Vietnam in June of 1970. This was my base camp 1967/68 with the 1^st Infantry Division ( though I was seldom there).

I will keep the bracelet if I cannot find the owner. James Rozo and all the others that gave all will be in my thoughts this memorial day.

Paul B

Wearing a bracelet bearing the name of a POW or MIA began in the 1970s.  The person named was not someone that was necessarily personally known but the bracelet represented the hope that POWs and MIAs would someday return home.  The bracelet was worn as a symbol of hope and honor.

To make it a little more personal, here is a bit of the bio of Sgt. Rozo.

SYNOPSIS: At about 1100 hours on June 23, 1970, SFC Joe P. Pederson, supply sergeant; SP4 James M. Rozo, armorer; and Pvt. Robert P. Phillips, unit supply specialists, all from the 595th Signal Company, left their base at the Lai Khe Signal site for the Phuoc Vinh Signal site in a GMC 2 1/2 ton vehicle on a supply mission. These men were updating clothing records, retrieving excess equipment, adjusting receipts and inventorying weapons of two outlying subunits of the 595th Signal Company. Before leaving the Lai Khe site, Sgt. Pederson was told by three separate individuals to go down to the "new Phuoc Vinh road", because the "cutoff to Ben Cat" was closed to traffic. The cutoff had been reported to be mined, and had a high probability of ambush. At 1530 hours on the same day, the truck used by SFC Pederson and the two enlisted men was discovered by ARVN and U.S. Mobile Assistance Team 33 elements in a ditch along provincial highway 7B in Binh Duong Province, South Vietnam. The truck's engine was still running. Initial reports indicated that the vehicle had no major damage other than a blown tire, and both front windshields shattered. Assorted signal equipment and supply records were found, but there was no sign of any of the personnel in the area. A search party found one dead Viet Cong and the three Americans' rifles jammed, and they surmised that the men had been ambushed and surrendered to the enemy. In September 1970, a Viet Cong was captured who said he was part of the ambush and he claimed that one of the men (Pederson) had been killed and buried near the location of the incident, but that the other two had been captured. The following day, the company commander of the 595th inspected the vehicle and found 12 small calibre bullet holes, the left front tire shattered, a small hole in the canvas top, and small metal objects in the cab. However, there were no indications of blood. Initially, the three men were listed Missing In Action while the government took 15 months to determine the validity of the Viet Cong's story. Then, in November 1971, a captured Viet Cong told interrogators he had seen two POWs being evacuated from South Vietnam into Cambodia. His description of the men fit Phillips and Rozo, whom he described as tired but healthy. Their status was quickly changed to POW. Pederson was maintained as Missing. In 1973, 591 American prisoners were returned home. Rozo, Phillips and Pederson were not among them. The Vietnamese deny any knowledge of the three. Follow up reports on these three men remain classified in 1989, although they have been officially declared "presumed dead". In October, 1985, Rozo's parents were informed that their son escaped prison in 1973 and was not recaptured. His whereabouts are unknown. Rozo's parents are understandably disturbed that it took the U.S. Government 12 years to tell them this, and wonder what additional information remains hidden from them under the blanket of "classified". They wonder if their son is one of the many said to be still alive in captivity in Southeast Asia.

Here is the link.

https://web.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=156281&part=3

We remember those that served and those that lost their lives.

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Warren D. sent these picture of a raft that washed up on a Treasure Coast beach.  It was constructed using a lot of Styrofoam and  an old car or truck engine.

Remains of Raft Found on Beach.

Styrofoam From Found Raft.

Thanks to Warren and Paul for their submissions!

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Bonnie became a tropical storm and is going ashore at South Carolina.

Predicted Path of Bonnie
Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Bonnie isn't affecting us.  The Treasure Coast surf is predicted to be about two feet for a week or two.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/28/16 Report - Tropical Storm Bonnie Forming. Has It All Been Found? Fisher Airlift Video. 14.000 Year Old Discovery.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Diver Using Airlift.
Source: Fisher YouTube Video.  See link below.

You might not think this story has anything to do with you, but read on a little and you'll find that it does.

A series of prehistoric cave paintings has been uncovered in the Basque Country, northern Spain, in a discovery experts have called a "once in a generation" find.

The paintings, which include those of bison, horses and goats, were discovered by archeologist Diego Garate at a depth of 300m in the Atxurra caves, around 50km from Bilbao.

The paintings are between 12,000 and 14,000 years old and depict traditional hunting scenes, including a bison pierced "with over 20 spears" - which marks the cave painting of a bison with the most spear marks in all of Europe...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

http://www.thelocal.es/20160526/ancient-art-gallery-discovered-in-basque-country-atxurra-cave-paintings

The reason I mention this article is that the paintings were there for 12,000 to 14,000 years and were just discovered.  They were there thousands of years before being discovered.

There are some people that think that there is not very much left to find.  They believe that it has all been found.  This article shows that you just don't know what might be under your feet or around the next bend.  There is always more, you just don't know what is still there.

The amazing gold coin finds north of Vero last year is a good example.  All of those gold coins were in shallow water just yards off of the beach and buried under just a few feet of sand.  Detectorists walked within yards of those gold coins hundreds of times never knowing the gold coins were there or how close they were.

That is the thing about detecting.  You never know what is there until you detect it.  When the detector beeps and you dig up what was causing the signal and see it for the first time, it can be a surprising discovery.  Of course, that also means it can be a bit of a disappointment too.  It is a little like unwrapping a gift on Christmas morning.   When you actually see whatever it was, it is a discovery, and sometimes it is a surprising and wonderful discovery.

In Alan Craig's book on the silver coins in the Florida Collection, James Miller, the State Archaeologist at the time, wrote, "The law of diminishing returns has had its way with the increasingly expensive search for the finite remains of the treasure fleets.  Each year more people try a little harder to recover that which is more difficult to find."

He goes on to say, "Between 1975 and 1982, ten separate salvage contracts resulted in a little more than five hundred coins being added to the collection."   That is just over 70 coins per year.  There were ten separate salvage contracts at the time, and Dr. Miller tells us that only four of those "added more than five coins to the collection."

Craig's book was copyrighted in 2000.  If the finite supply of treasure was diminishing to a trickle before the turn of the millennium, surely after another decade and a half, the flow of treasure on the Treasure Coast would now be down to almost nothing.  But that is not what we saw.  Despite Dr. Millers outlook, the 2015 salvage season produced amazing discoveries, both in terms of quantity and quality.

It is easy enough to accept the law of diminishing returns.  It is easy enough to accept the idea that it is getting harder and harder, and maybe it isn't even worth going out there any more.  If you've accepted all of that, you probably won't be the one to make the next big find.  What is in you is as important as what is out there.

It might not seem easy.  It might not come quickly.  I don't know that it should.  If it did, there wouldn't be so much joy in the success.

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Here is a recent video of a diver from the Dare using an airlift to uncover deeply buried barrel hoops from the site of the Atocha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-W-rylDTpU&mc_cid=ab461745d0&mc_eid=e9c86e5425

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Early Saturday the Treasure Coast will have northeast winds and up to a four or five foot surf as topical depression Two heads towards South Carolina. Tropical depression two is expected to become Tropical Storm Bonnie on Saturday night. Bonnie will bring bad beach weather to the coastal Carolinas and Georgia for the Memorial Day weekend, including rip currents, potentially heavy rain, and battering waves.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net