Posted on 01/17/2016 11:04:07 AM PST by KeyLargo
Remains of Illinois soldier, missing since 1969, coming home
By Len Wells
Evansville Courier & Press, Ind. (Tribune News Service) Published: January 9, 2016
ALBION, Ill. The remains of an airman listed as "missing in action" during the Vietnam War have been recovered.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed the remains of Pfc. Kenneth Leroy Cunningham of Ellery, Illinois.
He had been missing since Oct. 3, 1969. He was 21 at the time.
Cunningham's remains will be flown back to the United States later this month, arriving at the airport in Louisville, Kentucky on Jan 19. His remains will be escorted back to Albion, Illinois for funeral services and burial at the Little Prairie Christian Church on Jan. 21.
On Oct. 3, 1969, First Lt. Paul L. Graffe, a pilot, and Cunningham departed from Phu Hiep, South Vietnam during the early evening for a nighttime surveillance mission of targets located in the tri-border area of Cambodia, Laos and South Vietnam.
The aircraft, an OV1C Mohawk plane, was equipped with surveillance equipment, but was not armed. The aircraft failed to return at its scheduled time. Two days later, search-and-rescue aircraft located the wreckage of an aircraft atop a 7,000-foot peak in a mountain range north of the city of Kontum. The wreckage was positively identified as that of Graffe and Cunningham's aircraft. Efforts were made to insert a ground team at the site on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6, but bad weather prevented the mission.
A later effort was scrubbed for fear that enemy troops had a set a trap at the crash site.
Dave Cunningham of Fairfield, Illinois was 12 when his brother's plane went missing.
"The news is sort of bittersweet," Dave said. "We now know that he died at the crash site and not in a concentration camp. What we still don't know is if his plane was shot down. It was very foggy and rainy the night his plane disappeared. They may have just flown into the side of the mountain. What we know now closes a chapter, but not the book."
"I still remember the last thing that Kenneth asked me to do at the airport before he left for Vietnam," Dave said. "He asked me to take care of mom and dad."
Cunningham's father, Arthur Neal Cunningham died in 1988. His mother, Margaret Cunningham, died in April of last year at the age of 96.
"Mom never gave up hope," Dave said. "Growing up, we lived in a very small house and slept in the same bed. We had a lot of nighttime talks. He was nine years older than me, so I remember him taking me places when he was home on leave. He took me places like a big brother would – places I normally would not have been able to go."
21 years old - and he was flying surveillance airplanes over 3 borders and mountain peaks, at night, at a major NVA exit on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Welcome home Private Cunningham.
Dress greens, short haircut, posed just that way.
Welcome home fellow vet.
As Reagan said, “A noble cause”: the war that never ends.
All gave some...some gave all.
Some of us (during that era at least) looked much less composed than Pfc Cunningham does.I,for example,was soiling my underwear a dozen times a day for the first couple of weeks I was at Ft Knox.
Nice.
Thanks for the link.
Aviation Ping
Welcome home Soldier.
It's sobering to think I was four months old when he went missing, and have now been blessed to live more than twice as long as he did. It makes me reflect and think about how precious our time is, and how much of it I have squandered.
Would scare the piss out of you first time they came overhead during a night mission and popped those strobe flashes.
Welcome home and RIP to Cunningham.
Yep, and fatique pants and combat boots below!
I remember it well, not quite 51 years ago!
RIP, soldier.
Amen.
I was a just weeks from turning 21 and already out of the U. S. Army. You may find that the older you get, the more of that reflection you’ll do...at least I sure have.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.