Posted on 07/30/2009 4:02:58 PM PDT by naturalman1975
MIKE Herbert was a nice guy who never minded doing a favour for a mate.
On November 3, 1970, the 24-year-old pilot agreed to take his friend Dave's rostered flying shift in the RAAF Canberra bomber plane with the callsign Magpie 91.
The reason? Dave had met a girl, an entertainer flown over to entertain the troops in Vietnam.
Herbert and navigator Robert Carver instead took Magpie 91 up over Quang Nam province, a rugged and remote jungle region near the Laotian border.
Poor weather was reported over the target, a Viet Cong bunker complex, when the bomber took off from Phang Ran base in former South Vietnam.
The bomber had completed its mission and was returning to base when it disappeared from the radar controller's screen while over hostile country.
An initial search failed to find any trace of the aircraft, although suspicions remained that it had fallen victim to a Soviet-made SAM-2 surface-to-air missile.
Herbert and Carver eventually became the final two Australian Defence Force personnel missing in Vietnam. This April, searchers found the bomber's wreckage. Remains were later located in the vicinity of the crash.
Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science Greg Combet yesterday announced the remains had been identified by Vietnamese and Australian forensic specialists in Hanoi as Herbert and Carver.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Welcome home mate.
Welcome home.
Welcome home, Warrior! Yours was a gallant and righteous quest.
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