thedrifter
12-19-03, 08:26 PM
Two Servicemen Missing in Action in Vietnam Identified
Two airmen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified
and returned to their families for burial. They are Maj. Richard W. Cooper, Jr., of
Salisbury, Md.; and Chief Master Sgt. Charlie S. Poole, of Gibsland, La.
On December 19, 1972, Cooper and Poole were crewmembers aboard a B-52D
Stratofortress bomber participating in the Linebacker II bombing of Hanoi, North
Vietnam. Cooper was the navigator and Poole was the aerial gunner. At the
completion of their bombing run, their bomber was struck by an enemy surface-to-air
missile and crashed about six miles southwest of Hanoi. No other aircraft on the
mission were able to establish emergency radio contact with the crew, and no
parachutes were sighted. There was no search and rescue attempt mounted due to
enemy control of the area.
It was subsequently learned that four of the crew had been captured and
were being held as prisoners of war. Upon their release in 1973, they reported that
Cooper had been unable to eject from the aircraft. Each of the surviving crewmen
reported having seen only three other parachutes, thus accounting for all four
survivors.
In 1993 and 1994, U.S. investigators of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting
Command found photographs, records and artifacts in a Vietnamese military museum
that correlated to the crashed B-52. Later in 1994, another U.S. team interviewed
Vietnamese informants, visited a purported crash site, and determined that it was
most likely the site of the B-52 loss. In the fall of 1995, a joint U.S.-Vietnamese
team excavated the site where they found B-52 wreckage, crew-related items, personal
effects and human remains. The crash site was so large that a second excavation was
conducted in early 1996 when additional remains and personal effects were discovered.
Anthropological analysis of the remains by the Central Identification
Laboratory, as well as mitochondrial DNA matches, confirmed the identification of
these two men. Of the more than 88,000 Americans missing in action from all
conflicts, more than 1,800 are from the Vietnam War.
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Two airmen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified
and returned to their families for burial. They are Maj. Richard W. Cooper, Jr., of
Salisbury, Md.; and Chief Master Sgt. Charlie S. Poole, of Gibsland, La.
On December 19, 1972, Cooper and Poole were crewmembers aboard a B-52D
Stratofortress bomber participating in the Linebacker II bombing of Hanoi, North
Vietnam. Cooper was the navigator and Poole was the aerial gunner. At the
completion of their bombing run, their bomber was struck by an enemy surface-to-air
missile and crashed about six miles southwest of Hanoi. No other aircraft on the
mission were able to establish emergency radio contact with the crew, and no
parachutes were sighted. There was no search and rescue attempt mounted due to
enemy control of the area.
It was subsequently learned that four of the crew had been captured and
were being held as prisoners of war. Upon their release in 1973, they reported that
Cooper had been unable to eject from the aircraft. Each of the surviving crewmen
reported having seen only three other parachutes, thus accounting for all four
survivors.
In 1993 and 1994, U.S. investigators of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting
Command found photographs, records and artifacts in a Vietnamese military museum
that correlated to the crashed B-52. Later in 1994, another U.S. team interviewed
Vietnamese informants, visited a purported crash site, and determined that it was
most likely the site of the B-52 loss. In the fall of 1995, a joint U.S.-Vietnamese
team excavated the site where they found B-52 wreckage, crew-related items, personal
effects and human remains. The crash site was so large that a second excavation was
conducted in early 1996 when additional remains and personal effects were discovered.
Anthropological analysis of the remains by the Central Identification
Laboratory, as well as mitochondrial DNA matches, confirmed the identification of
these two men. Of the more than 88,000 Americans missing in action from all
conflicts, more than 1,800 are from the Vietnam War.
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: