Category: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs
Remains of C-130 crew recovered - Closure for 14 families
The remains of 4 U.S. servicemen, crewmen of a C-130 Spectre gunship missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified. But that is only the tip of the iceberg for this story about the loss of 14 different men in 1972. Hundreds of families believed their loved ones survived the war in captivity. This AC-130 was shot down over Laos. The men aboard are some of those who were thought to have survived the crash and the war and would rank among those left behind by the Nixon Administration which reneged on a $2.2 billion war reparation payment to North Vietnam.
by salem-news :: 2008-05-31 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs
Authorities find mass grave of Vietnamese communist commandos
Authorities in central Vietnam have discovered a mass grave containing the remains of 17 people believed to have been communist soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. The excavation work is continuing and authorities believe as many as several hundred former communist commandos might be buried at the site in Vinh Dien town, in Quang Nam province. Local authorities were told about the site by several former communist soldiers. Authorities interviewed a former communist soldier who told them about the site and said he had been forced to bury the bodies there by U.S.-backed South Vietnamese troops in 1971.
by iht :: 2007-06-30 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs
Soldier returns from Vietnam
It was an emotional homecoming for an Oklahoma soldier who fought valiantly in an unpopular war. It's been 39 agonizing years for family and friends of Major Fredrick Ransbottom, who mysteriously disappeared in 1968 while fighting in Vietnam. Major Ransbottom's platoon was overrun on Mother's Day 1968. His parents never surrendered efforts to locate their eldest son. "He begged everyone, let me go and I'll find him. He always thought he could. That was just a father looking for his son."
by kfor :: 2007-01-15 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs
Operation Aussie Home - OAH: Team to search for lost diggers
A small team of Australians plans to use ground penetrating radar to find the bodies of two diggers missing in action. In Operation Aussie Home (OAH), the group leaves for Vietnam for a search for the bodies of Peter Gillson and Richard Parker. Armed with info gleaned from Viet Cong soldiers, the team will focus on a 2.4 hectare zone. OAH hope to find the unmarked graves of the infantrymen, who were buried where they fell in the battle of Nui Gan Toi, on Nov 8, 1965. "The equipment can locate an object the size of a cricket ball two metres below the surface." Metal detectors would be of little use as in 1965 the only metal on uniform were two small belt buckles.
by theaustralian :: 2007-01-12 :: Australia
Legendary pilot Earthquake McGoon heads home
More than a half century after James B. McGovern Jr, "Earthquake McGoon", died in the crash of a CIA-owned cargo plane and became one of the first two Americans to die in combat in Vietnam, a legendary soldier is coming home. McGovern died May 6, 1954, when his C-119 Flying Boxcar cargo plane was hit by ground fire while parachuting a howitzer to the besieged French garrison at Dien Bien Phu. Ho Chi Minh's communist forces captured Dien Bien Phu the next day, ending the famous 57-day siege. It signaled the end of French colonial power in Indochina, and set the stage for the 15-year "American war" that ended with the fall of the U.S.-backed South Vietnam in 1975.
by cnn :: 2006-10-22 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs
Remains of American MIAs from Laos
The remains of several Americans killed in Laos during the Vietnam War have been handed over to US authorities. The remains were found in two different sites in the southern provinces of Savannakhet and Sekong. A plane crashed at one of the sites and several MIAs could be potentially identified from the remains. Since the two countries established a join committee to search for MIA remains in 1985, Laos has handed over 205 sets of MIA remains to the US.
by afp :: 2006-08-05 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs
87 Vietnamese soldier remains unearthed
The Vietnamese military headquarters discovered 87 remains of Vietnamese soldiers, who were captured and killed by U.S. servicemen and local soldiers of the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government in the Vietnam War. Graves were located in a prisoner of war camp established to torture and kill Vietnamese liberation soldiers they captured during their raids in the central highlands region before 1975. Many remains had dozens of 10-cm nails in the skull, arm and leg joints.
by pd :: 2006-06-21 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs
Center archive yields clues to missing Vietnam War soldiers
Article no longer available from the original source.
The trail to finding soldiers still missing from the Vietnam War is beginning. An Internet archive of decades-old documents has provided Defense Department researchers dozens of leads in the cases of 1,805 American soldiers who never returned. The growing online collection, launched in 2004, has uncovered 41 leads from the archive. And many more new clues are likely on the way: of the 2.3 million documents the center purchased from the National Archives, only about 5% is online so far. After long being out of sight, North Vietnamese intelligence documents have been featured on the center's Virtual Vietnam Archive.
by kristv :: 2006-05-26 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs