Airmen missing in action from Vietnam War identified

  • Published
WASHINGTON (AFNEWS) --  Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office officials announced April 24 that the remains of two Air Force members missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors. 

They are Col. Norman D. Eaton of Weatherford, Okla., and Lt. Col. Paul E. Getchell of Portland, Maine. 

Colonel Eaton will be buried April 25 at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., and Colonel Getchell will be buried later this spring at Arlington. 

The two crewed a B-57B Canberra bomber participating in a nighttime attack on targets Jan. 13, 1969, in Salavan Province, Laos. The target area was illuminated by flares from a C-130 Hercules; however, the flares dimmed as the B-57 began its third bombing run on the target. The crew was low on fuel, but decided to continue the attack run without illumination. The C-130 crew received a radio transmission indicating that the B-57 was off target and seconds later, the plane crashed. Both colonels could not be recovered at the time of the incident. 

In 1995, a joint U.S.-Lao People's Democratic Republic team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, investigated the incident and interviewed a Laotian citizen who recalled the crash. Another joint U.S.-L.P.D.R. team surveyed the site and found wreckage and crew-related materials consistent with the citizen's report. 

In 2003, a joint U.S.-L.P.D.R. team excavated the crash site and recovered Colonel Eaton's identification tag. The team was unable to complete the recovery and subsequent teams re-visited the site five more times between 2004 and 2005 before the recovery was complete. As a result, the teams found Colonel Getchell's identification tag, human remains and additional crew-related items.  

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