Posted on 02/25/2005 3:32:45 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON - Closing a curious chapter of Korean War history, the Pentagon announced Friday it had identified the remains of an Air Force pilot whose jet crashed on Chinese territory after being shot down during a dogfight with a Russian flying for North Korea.
The case puts a spotlight on a Russian role in the 1950-53 Korean War that was kept quiet for decades and helped feed speculation inside the American government that the Russians had attempted - and perhaps managed - to capture U.S. pilots to exploit them for intelligence purposes.
Capt. Troy "Gordie" Cope, of Norfork, Ark., was piloting what was then the Air Force's best fighter, the F-86 Sabre, on Sept. 16, 1952, when he encountered MiG-15 fighters - purportedly North Korean but flown by Russians - over the Yalu River that separates North Korea from China.
Cope, 28, was shot down and never seen again.
One of the Soviet Union's highest intelligence collection priorities at the time was U.S. Air Force technology.
Cope was among 31 F-86 pilots lost and unaccounted for during the Korean War whom the Pentagon had suspected may have been captured alive and secretly smuggled into the Soviet Union. Not all of those cases have been resolved, and Cope's may not have been if not for a string of unusual fortune.
In 1995, a U.S. businessman spotted Cope's name on a U.S. dog tag on display in a military museum in the Yalu River city of Dandong, China.
In 1999, during a search by Pentagon analysts of Russia's Podolsk military archives, documents describing Cope's shootdown were discovered. They included statements and drawings by Russian pilots who had flown the MiG-15s for the North Koreans in combat against the U.S. Air Force.
Also in the Russian documents were detailed reports on a search of the crash site by Russian and Chinese officials. That gave the Pentagon enough detail about the site to ask the Chinese government for permission to send a a team of U.S. specialists to investigate. The site was excavated by U.S. officials last May, recovering aircraft debris and human remains.
The remains were identified in October. In announcing the identification Friday, the Pentagon did not explain the delay in making it public. It is the first time remains of a U.S. military pilot from the Korean War have been recovered from Chinese territory, although there have been other recent cases involving World War II and CIA missions.
Chinese soldiers fought on the North Koreans' side against the U.S. and South Korean forces, and the communist government in Beijing has balked at U.S. inquiries about the fate of missing U.S. servicemen.
Chris Cope, a nephew of the deceased pilot, said in a telephone interview Friday that his uncle will be buried with full military honors on May 31 at a veterans' cemetery in Plano, Texas.
"It's been a long, hard road," he said. "I'm elated that we were able to get closure."
In 1988, the surviving relatives held a memorial service for Troy Cope in his hometown of Norfork "not knowing that we would ever be able to recover his remains," Chris Cope said.
The Pentagon official in charge of POW/MIA affairs, Jerry Jennings, traveled to China this week to thank the Chinese for their cooperation in the case.
So his dog tag was spotted in a military museum but his remains were excavated from the crash site?... Sounds like they just left him where he crashed.
So his dog tag was spotted in a military museum but his remains were excavated from the crash site?... Sounds like they just left him where he crashed.
There must be some good reason why we are thanking the Chinese. What is it?
When Kim Jong il meets his just demise (and if we haven't flattened them up there) and their system comes down, going through the North Korean archives covering this time period is also going to be very very interesting. We are probably in for some heart-breaking news about downed POWs and captured ground troops.
Welcome home...
And do not forget the secret burial site of some 250 Marines of the 1MarDiv, who were carefully concealed before the Marines began their famous breakout and march from the Chosin resevoir..some day, God willing soon, they will all be returned back home.
Ping!
SALUTE! WELCOME HOME, CAPT. COPE!
My family and I would appreciate your kind thoughts and prayers for Capt. Merco Verrant, USMC 1 Mag, 12 Maw, 212 Lancers, who is missing in action over North Korea, 30 miles east of Chodo Island, May, 1953. He and his many, many MIA/KIA comrades have left a world hollowed and darkened by their absence. "It is rather for us, the living, to be consecrated to the great task remaining before us."
Another beloved son/father/brother/husband returns home! **PING**
Thank God for this hero and his loved ones!
And will they bringing this man back to this country with a UN flag drapped over his casket?
Rest in Peace, Sir!
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Thanks for that. My cousin would have liked it. Navy. Korea.
I hope he rests in peace also.
And will they bringing this man back to this country with a UN flag drapped over his casket?
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Good grief, Howlin!!! You are exposing yourself! - again!
Welcome home, Capt. Troy Cope!
Are you unfamiliar with the joint tast force concerning this under the cover of the UN?
If so, you must have missed the pictures; remains most certainly ARE returned with UN flags drapped over them; we've all seen the pictures.
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