Posted on 05/27/2003 1:18:30 PM PDT by NFOShekky
Subject: Missing Navy Crewmembers Found And Identified
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense
No. 370-03 (703)695-0192(media) IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 27, 2003 (703)428-0711(public/industry)
MISSING NAVY CREWMEMBERS FOUND AND IDENTIFIED
The remains of nine U.S. Navy crewmembers, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and their remains are being returned to their families for burial.
The nine are identified as Cmdr. Delbert A. Olson, Casselton, N.D.; Lt. j.g.'s Denis L. Anderson, Hope, Kan.;Arthur C. Buck, Sandusky, Ohio; and Philip P. Stevens, Twin Lake, Mich.; Petty Officers 2nd class Richard M. Mancini, Amsterdam, N.Y.; Michael L. Roberts, Purvis, Miss., Donald N.Thoresen and Kenneth H. Widon, Detroit and Petty Officer 3rd class Gale R. Siow, Huntington Park, Calif.
A group burial will be held at Arlington National Cemetery on June 18, 2003.
The nine departed Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base on Jan.11, 1968 onboard a Navy OP-2E Neptune aircraft for a mission over Laos to drop sensors which detected enemy movements. During its last radio contact, the crew reported they were descending through dense clouds. When they did not return to their home base, a search was initiated but found no evidence of a crash. Two weeks later, an Air Force aircrew photographed what appeared to be the crash site, but enemy activity in the area prevented a recovery operation.
Between 1993 and 2002, six U.S.-Lao investigation teams led by the Joint Task Force Full Accounting interviewed villagers in the surrounding area, gathered aircraft debris and surveyed the purported crash site scattered on two ledges of Phou Louang Mountain in Khammouan Province. During a 1996 visit, team members also recovered identification cards for several crewmembers, as well as human remains.
Full-scale recovery missions by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) in both 2001 and 2002 yielded additional remains, as well as identification of other crewmembers. More than 1,900 Americans are missing in action from the Vietnam War, with another 86,000 MIA from the Cold War,the Korean War and WWII.
[Web version: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2003/b05272003_bt370-03.html]
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"Beyond the Tomb of the Unknowns, in Section 60 of Arlington Cemetery, we have laid to rest Americans who fell in the battle of Iraq. One of the funerals was for Marine Second Lieutenant Frederick Pokorney Junior, of Jacksonville, North Carolina. His wife, Carolyn, received a folded flag. His two year old daughter, Taylor, knelt beside her mother at the casket to say a final goodbye.An uncle later said of this fine lieutenant, "He was proud of what he was doing and proud of his family, a hard working guy -- the best guy you can ever know. I hope the American people don't forget." This nation does not forget.
Last month, in Section 60, First Lieutenant Rob Jenkins was buried, along with five other members of a bomber crew. They were lost when their plane was shot down over North Africa in 1942. Rob Jenkins had joined the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor, and he was 20 years old on his final mission.
Six decades later, his plane was found and the remains of the crew were carefully identified, returned home and buried with military honors. Rob's sister, Helen, said, "We were very proud that the government would care that much. After all, it was such a long time ago." This nation does not forget."
George W. Bush, May 26th, 2003
Your homecoming should have come long before this ....Welcome Home.
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