Eleanor Ardel Vietti (November 5, 1927 – disappeared May 30, 1962) was an American physician and missionary. She worked at the

Buôn Ma Thuột Buôn Ma Thuột () (formerly Lac Giao) or sometimes Buôn Mê Thuột or Ban Mê Thuột, is the capital city of Đắk Lắk Province in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Its population was 420,000 in 2016, and grew to 502,170 by 2018. The c ...

leper colony where she was taken as a prisoner of war on May 30, 1962. She is currently the only American woman unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.

Biography

Vietti was born in Fort Worth, Texas and had a twin sister, Teresa J. Vietti and a younger brother, Victor. Vietti and her sister were both interested in science and medicine early on. The family lived in Bogota, Colombia until she was around fourteen. Vietti then contracted a bad

strep The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...

infection and had surgery in Houston, Texas. Because of her illness, she became more religious, but also was a year behind her twin sister in school. Vietti attended San Jacinto High School (Houston, Texas). After graduation, Vietti attended

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universitie ...

and studied for a summer at Nyack Missionary College. Then she went to medical school at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

from 1950 to 1954. She interned at the South Shore Hospital in Chicago and then did a year's

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

at the General Hospital of

Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan area, Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of ...

, finishing in 1956. Vietti entered missionary work around 1957 and the next year, went to South Vietnam. She worked in

at a

Christian and Missionary Alliance The Alliance World Fellowship is the international governing body of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (The Alliance, also C&MA and CMA). The Alliance is an evangelical Protestant denomination within the Higher Life movement of Christiani ...

leper colony. There was a high rate of

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria '' Mycobacterium leprae'' or '' Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve dam ...

among the Montagnard people and Vietti both treated those with leprosy and worked to prevent the disease. She made house calls to people in the villages. In 1961, her sister Teresa visited the leper colony.

Disappearance

In April 1962, Vietti came back to the United States and visited with her family in Houston and St. Louis. She also took a course in cleft-palate repair in St. Louis. Her family wanted her to stay in the United States. The Department of State also warned Vietti about returning to the leper colony. However, Vietti chose to return to Vietnam. On May 30, 1962, Vietti, Archie E. Mitchell and Daniel A. Gerber were

kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping Literature * ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson * ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Cam ...

by 12

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

guerillas. Vietti's ankle was injured, so it was reported that she was not tied up by the soldiers and was

limp A limp is a type of asymmetric abnormality of the gait. Limping may be caused by pain, weakness, neuromuscular imbalance, or a skeletal deformity. The most common underlying cause of a painful limp is physical trauma; however, in the absence ...

ing. Vietti, Mitchell and Gerber were taken to the nurses' house, where the Viet Cong members lectured them, and also promised that Dr. Vietti would not be harmed. The three captives were taken away by car. The other nine Americans in the leper colony were left behind. It was suspected that she was taken in order to work in a Viet Cong hospital. A captured Viet Cong soldier told interrogators later in 1962 that Vietti was treating the Viet Cong wounded. It was believed that she was being moved from village to village and was still believed alive in 1965. A report of a white woman asking for a Bible in a village came through in 1967. In 1968, the Christian and Missionary Alliance announced at their General Council that Vietti and the other 2 missionaries captured were still alive. Reports of seeing Vietti and the other two missionaries among the Montagnard villages continued into the 1970s. However, by 1991, she was listed as "presumed dead" on the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action list.

Legacy

In 1998,

Maggie O'Kane Maggie O'Kane is an Irish journalist and documentary film maker. She has been most associated with ''The Guardian'' newspaper where she was a foreign correspondent who filed graphic stories from Sarajevo while it was under siege between 1992 and ...

reported about Vietti and her capture on a radio special called ''The Only Woman Left Behind''. In the show, she discussed Vietti's capture, aired memories of families and friends and speculated on what had happened to Vietti. In 2008,

Nyack College Alliance University (formerly Nyack College ()) is a private Christian college affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and located in New York, New York. Enrolling just over 1,000 students, the school is organized in three academic ...

honored her and other alumni who were lost in Vietnam, adding their names to a special stone bench on campus.

References

External links

Find_a_Grave_memorial {{DEFAULTSORT:Vietti,_Eleanor_Ardel 1927_births
1960s_missing_person_cases.html" ;"title="1927 births">Find a Grave memorial {{DEFAULTSORT:Vietti, Eleanor Ardel 1927 births
1960s missing person cases">1927 births">Find a Grave memorial {{DEFAULTSORT:Vietti, Eleanor Ardel 1927 births
1960s missing person cases 1962 in Vietnam American people of the Vietnam War American women in the Vietnam War American women physicians Members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance [ ategory:Missing person cases in Vietnam People declared dead in absentia] People from Fort Worth, Texas People from Houston Protestant missionaries in Vietnam Rice University alumni San Jacinto High School alumni University of Texas Medical Branch alumni Vietnam War prisoners of war

Biography

Disappearance

Legacy

See also

References

External links