{"id":84838,"date":"2018-12-02T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=84838"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:35:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:35:50","slug":"serial-249","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=84838","title":{"rendered":"Serial 249"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>[<strong>Editor\u2019s note<\/strong>: This document was released both as a <u><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=95757\"> State Department cable<\/a><\/u> as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as <u><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=84838\">Serial 249<\/a><\/u> of the FBI\u2019s RYMUR release. <\/p>\n<p>[The text for this document was released in 2014 by <a href=\"https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/plusd\/cables\/1978GEORGE03900_d.html\">Wikileaks<\/a>. It is also available through the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260412224625\/https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/plusd\/cables\/1978GEORGE03900_d.html\">Internet Archive<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<\/p>\n<p>[Listing of agencies receiving informational copies on pdf]<\/p>\n<p>0 240300Z NOV 78<br \/>\nFM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN<br \/>\nTO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8178<br \/>\nLIMITED OFFICIAL USE GEORGETOWN 3900<br \/>\nE.O. 11652: NA<br \/>\nTAGS: CASC, (PEOPLE\u2019S TEMPLE)<br \/>\nSUBJECT: Search and rescue<\/p>\n<p>There follows an outline of search and rescue activities conducted by the GOG [Government of Guyana] and US military units.<\/p>\n<p>1. Since Tuesday Nov 21 when it became certain there was a significant difference between the approximately 475 PT who could be accounted for (alive or dead) and reported PT membership of 800-1200, the Guyanese Defense Force (GDF) has been conducting ground searches along jungle trails in the neighborhood of Jonestown.<\/p>\n<p>2. Starting Wednesday, Nov 22 the GDF began using Amerindian guides and trackers to support its ground troops.<\/p>\n<p>3. Reconnaissance sweeps by USAF helicopters whose primary mission was to support removal of the dead were authorized from the outset of US military air operations.<\/p>\n<p>4. On Thursday morning November 23 a USAF OH-53 with a joint<\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nLIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nPAGE 02 GEORGETOWN 3900 240322Z<\/p>\n<p>US\/GDF crew was committed to full time search and rescue operation.<\/p>\n<p>5. It is expected that additional helicopters support utilizing bull horns will augment the DH-53 on Friday Nov 24 as the doby [body] removal project nears completion. We intend to continue an expanded search operation, including communications, medical and other support, until all reasonable efforts to locate stragglers have been made.<\/p>\n<p>6. We will be discussing with the GOG offering of rewards to the Amerindians for finding American citizens in the jungle.<\/p>\n<p>7. We will continue to compare passport and immigration records against lists of known dead and known survivors to establish a valid list of unaccounted for persons.<\/p>\n<p>Burke [John Burke, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Editor\u2019s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 249 of the FBI\u2019s RYMUR release. [The text for this document was released in 2014 by Wikileaks. It is also available through the Internet Archive.] LIMITED OFFICIAL USE [Listing of agencies receiving informational [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":84739,"menu_order":42,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-84838","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84838"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137101,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84838\/revisions\/137101"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}