Airmen missing from Vietnam War identified

  • Published
WASHINGTON (AFNS) --  Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office officials announced June 11 that the remains of nine servicemembers, missing in action from the Vietnam War have been accounted for and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Col. William H. Mason, Camden, Ark.; Lt. Col. Jerry L. Chambers, Muskogee, Okla.; Maj. William T. McPhail, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Maj. Thomas B. Mitchell, Littleton, Colo.; Chief Master Sgt. John Q. Adam, Bethel, Kan.; Chief Master Sgt. Calvin C. Glover, Steubenville, Ohio; Chief Master Sgt. Thomas E. Knebel, Midway, Ark.; Chief Master Sgt. Melvin D. Rash, Yorktown, Va.; and Master Sgt. Gary Pate, Brooks, Ga., were buried as a group June 11 in Arlington National Cemetery. The individually identified remains of each Airman were previously returned to their families for burial.

On May 22, 1968, these men were aboard a C-130A Hercules on an evening flare mission over northern Salavan province, Laos. Fifteen minutes after the aircraft made a radio call, the crew of another U.S. aircraft observed a large ground fire near the last known location of Colonel Mason's aircraft. Search and rescue attempts were not initiated due to heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area.

Analysts from DPMO developed case leads with information spanning more than 40 years. Through interviews with eyewitnesses and research in the National Archives, several locations in Laos and Vietnam were pinpointed as potential crash sites.

Between 1989 and 2008, teams from Laos and the Vietnam, led by the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command, pursued leads, interviewed villagers and conducted 10 field investigations and four excavations in Quang Tri province, Vietnam. They recovered aircraft wreckage, human remains, crew-related equipment and personal effects.

Scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA, which matched that of the crewmembers' families, as well as dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.

Since late 1973, the remains of 927 Americans killed in the Vietnam War have been accounted for and returned to their families. With the accounting of these Airmen, 1,719 servicemembers still remain missing from the conflict.

For additional information on the DOD's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169.