Category: No Longer Missing

The remains of two more US service members from the Vietnam War have been located, returned, and identified.

The remains of CPT James J. Johnstone and MAJ James L Whited, US Army, were recently recovered and returned to US control.  The two had  been missing and presumed dead since their OV-1A crashed during a daytime surveillance mission over Laos on 19 November 1966.

After the crash, the site was looted by locals.  However, it was apparently the turn-in of CPT Johnstone’s American Express card to local Laotian authorities 40+ years after the crash that prompted a new investigation of the crash site.  That investigation resulted in the recovery and positive identification of the crew’s remains.

CPT Johnstone will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 12 December 2012.

A belated welcome home, my elder brothers in arms.

I previously wrote about the return and burial of Pfc John A. Donovan, USMC.  He and six fellow Marines were lost when their aircraft crashed on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, on 23 April 1944.

The Department of Defense today announced that the identification and return of remains for the crew is now complete.  A group burial will be held at Arlington National Ceremony on Thursday, 4 October 2012.

The individuals in that ill-fated flight crew were Marine Corps 1st Lt. Laverne A. Lallathin of Raymond, Wash.; 2nd Lt. Dwight D. Ekstam of Moline, IL; 2nd Lt. Walter B. Vincent, Jr. of Tulsa, OK; Tech. Sgt. James A. Sisney of Redwood City, CA; Cpl. Wayne R. Erickson of Minneapolis, MN; Cpl. John D. Yeager of Pittsburgh, PA; and Pfc. John A. Donovan of Plymouth, MI.  All but 1st Lt Lallathin have been previously identified and interred in individual ceremonies.  1st Lt Lallathin’s remains will be also interred individually in a separate ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on 4 October 2012.

In separate announcements last week, the Department of Defense announced that the remains of Army Air Forces 2LT Samuel E. Lunday, of Marianna, FL, and USMC Pfc. Richard S. Gzik, of Toledo, OH, have been identified.  Their remains will also be returned to their families for burial with military honors.

2LT Lunday and four others were lost on 24 April 1943 when their C-87 aircraft did not return to its home base in Chabua, India, from an “Over the Hump” resupply mission to China.  In 2003 the aircraft’s crash site was located near the Burmese border approximately 100 miles away from Chabua.  Several artifacts from the aircraft, along with some human remains, were recovered and turned over to US authorities at that time.  The remains returned were identified as Lunday’s through mitochondrial DNA testing from maternal-line relatives.  Negotiations are underway with the government of India to allow excavation of the crash site.

Pfc. Gzik was KIA west of the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, on 2 December 1950.  His remains were buried alongside the road leading to Hagaru-ri.  However, the US retreat from the Chosin Reservoir later that month made recovery of his remains impossible at the time.  Gzik’s remains were returned to US control in 1954 during an exchange of war dead with North Korea, but could not be definitively identified using then-current technology.  They were reburied as Unknown at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii (the “Punchbowl”).  Subsequent advances in technology led to subsequent reexamination and identification of Pfc. Gzik’s remains earlier this year.

A belated welcome home, my elder brothers-in-arms.  Rest now in peace – at home.

Modern DNA forensic analysis techniques are powerful. And they’re useful for more than law enforcement or medicine.

Modern DNA analysis was used recently to identify the remains of SFC William T. Brown of La Habra, California,SFC Donald M. Shue of Kannapolis, NC, and SFC Gunther H. Wald, of Palisades Park, NJ.  The three US soldiers disappeared after an ambush in South Vietnam in 1969 – 43 years ago.

All three were reported to have been injured/wounded at the time. However, they could not be extracted during the ambush.  A combination of enemy presence and weather precluded US forces from searching the site for 8 days after their disappearance.  When US forces returned they located no bodies.

In any case: the MIA list from Vietnam is now three names shorter. That’s a good thing.

Rest in peace, my elder brothers-in-arms.  Rest in peace.

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Update:  the Army Times article omitted the fact that remains of all three MIA soldiers have been recovered – not only SFC Brown’s – as well as the names of the other two MIAs.  These other individuals were SFC Donald M. Shue of Kannapolis, NC, and SFC Gunther H. Wald of Palisades Park, NJ.  It also omitted the fact that a group burial of remains was scheduled in Arlington National Ceremony for the three on August 30, 2012.   I’ve edited the article to account for this new information.  Hat tip to 2-17 AirCav for the reference to the additional information.

In August, 1966, a US F-4C crashed.  There were no parachutes observed at the time of the crash, and the crew was presumed lost.

The crash occurred in Song Me province, South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  Efforts were made to recover the crew’s remains. Unfortunately those initial efforts were not successful.

The crash and the missing crew were not forgotten.  But for years it wasn’t feasible to revisit the area.  This remained true even long after the Vietnam War had ended.

However, eventually relations between the US and Vietnam warmed.  In 1992 a joint US-Vietnamese team was able to revisit the crash site.  Two years later ID tags were recovered – but still no remains.

Efforts continued, however.  And in 2010 human remains were finally recovered from the site.  Modern technology confirmed the identification of the remains somewhat over a year.  They were indeed the remains of the missing flight crew.

Earlier this week Lt. Col. Charles M. Walling, of Phoenix, AZ, and Maj. Aado Kommendant, of Lakewood, NJ, US Air Force, were honored at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.  The ceremony was held on August 8 – the 46th anniversary of their deaths.

Welcome home, my elder brothers-in-arms.  Rest now in peace – at home.

 

Notes:  the ranks given in the linked Military Times articles apparently include two posthumous promotions for each individual.  Their ranks at the time of their loss were Captain and 1st Lieutenant.  Also, the Military Times story incorrectly identifies Kommendant’s home of record.  His home of record was Lakewood, NJ.

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/w/w005.htm

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/k/k036.htm

One day in 1950, in a foxhole some distance north of Pyongyang, North Korea, a US Army soldier died. He was with the 503rd Field Artillery, 2nd Infantry division.

While tragic, such an occurrence was regrettably common. For the last half of 1950, the US was fighting a war in Korea – a war that would last 3 years, 1 month, and 3 days and would claim (including MIAs), nearly 42,700 American lives.

The young soldier was one of those MIAs. His body was not returned at the end of hostilities.

His remains lay buried approximately 50 miles north of Pyongyang. His remains were isolated – that is, they were not buried in any military cemetery or mass grave.

In 2000, a joint US-North Korean team was investigating old Korean War fighting positions. While doing so, they discovered the skeleton of a 5’ 10” tall male, apparently of African-American ancestry. These remains were returned to the US.

After roughly 50 years in the earth, the remains were predictably in poor shape. In past years these remains would likely never have been positively identified.

However, modern technology sometimes works wonders. Through DNA matching with living relatives, the remains were finally positively identified.

Yesterday – 31 July 2012 – SGT Thomas Jefferson Barksdale was returned to his hometown of Macon, GA. His casket was flown from Hawaii to Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta. It was escorted from there to Macon by elements of the Georgia State Patrol, the Bibb County Sheriff’s office, the Macon Police Department, and 87 Georgia Patriot Guard Riders. Seven GA ARNG soldiers carried his casket from its hearse into a local funeral home, where it will remain until his funeral on Friday. He will be interred with full military honors at the Georgia Veteran’s Cemetery in Milledgville, GA.

Welcome home, SGT Barksdale – my elder brother in arms. Rest now in peace.

Can’t add much to Jonn’s excellent prior post here.  Except to say we’ve brought another home.

Captain Clyde W. Campbell, USAF, was lost in Laos on 1 March 1969.  His remains were found by a Joint US-Lao recovery team in 1997.  Additional personal equipment, including his pistol, was recovered on a later trip 2009-10.  His remains were finally positively identified.

Captain Campbell was buried in Arlington National Cemetery yesterday.

Welcome home, Captain.  We wish we’d been able to bring you back to rest among your brothers in arms sooner.  But you’re home now.  Rest in peace.