Missing pilot from Vietnam War identified Published June 22, 2005 WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The remains of an Air Force pilot missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified and returned to his family in Savannah Ga., according to the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. A burial service is scheduled for July 3.Capt. David Phillips Jr. of Miami Beach, Fla., was attacking enemy targets over July 3, 1966, the Kien Giang Province in South Vietnam when his F-5 "Freedom Fighter" was hit by enemy ground fire and crashed. Captain Phillips was unable to eject from his aircraft before the crash, and radio contact was lost. Heavy enemy ground fire prevented an immediate search.From 1993 to 2000, joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams conducted four investigations for information on Captain Phillips' disappearance. Interviews with 10 villagers over seven years led to the probable location of the crash site. One of the teams found fiberglass pieces that were consistent with the survival kit from the ejection seat on an F-5.During two excavations in 2003 and 2004, human remains, aircrew-related artifacts and personal effects were recovered by teams from Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. Laboratory analysis of the remains by forensic scientists led to Captain Phillips' identification.Of the 88,000 Americans missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, 1,833 are from the Vietnam War, with 1,397 of those within Vietnam. Another 750 Americans have been accounted for in Southeast Asia since the end of the Vietnam War. Of the Americans identified, 524 are from within Vietnam.More information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans is available online at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo.