thedrifter
05-27-03, 03:55 PM
Missing Navy Crewmembers Found And Identified
May 27, 2003
(703)428-0711(public/industry)
MISSING NAVY CREWMEMBERS FOUND AND IDENTIFIED
The remains of nine U.S. Navy crewmembers, missing in
action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and their
remains are being returned to their families for burial.
The nine are identified as Cmdr. Delbert A. Olson,
Casselton, N.D.; Lt. j.g.'s Denis L. Anderson, Hope, Kan.;
Arthur C. Buck, Sandusky, Ohio; and Philip P. Stevens, Twin
Lake, Mich.; Petty Officers 2nd class Richard M. Mancini,
Amsterdam, N.Y.; Michael L. Roberts, Purvis, Miss., Donald N.
Thoresen and Kenneth H. Widon, Detroit and Petty Officer 3rd
class Gale R. Siow, Huntington Park, Calif.
A group burial will be held at Arlington National Cemetery on June 18, 2003.
The nine departed Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force
Base on Jan.11, 1968 onboard a Navy OP-2E Neptune aircraft for a
mission over Laos to drop sensors which detected enemy
movements. During its last radio contact, the crew reported
they were descending through dense clouds. When they did not
return to their home base, a search was initiated but found no
evidence of a crash. Two weeks later, an Air Force aircrew
photographed what appeared to be the crash site, but enemy
activity in the area prevented a recovery operation.
Between 1993 and 2002, six U.S.-Lao investigation teams
led by the Joint Task Force Full Accounting interviewed
villagers in the surrounding area, gathered aircraft debris and
surveyed the purported crash site scattered on two ledges of
Phou Louang Mountain in Khammouan Province. During a 1996
visit, team members also recovered identification cards for
several crewmembers, as well as human remains.
Full-scale recovery missions by the U.S. Army Central
Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) in both 2001 and 2002
yielded additional remains, as well as identification of other
crewmembers. More than 1,900 Americans are missing in action
from the Vietnam War, with another 86,000 MIA from the Cold War,
the Korean War and WWII.
Sempers,
Roger
May 27, 2003
(703)428-0711(public/industry)
MISSING NAVY CREWMEMBERS FOUND AND IDENTIFIED
The remains of nine U.S. Navy crewmembers, missing in
action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and their
remains are being returned to their families for burial.
The nine are identified as Cmdr. Delbert A. Olson,
Casselton, N.D.; Lt. j.g.'s Denis L. Anderson, Hope, Kan.;
Arthur C. Buck, Sandusky, Ohio; and Philip P. Stevens, Twin
Lake, Mich.; Petty Officers 2nd class Richard M. Mancini,
Amsterdam, N.Y.; Michael L. Roberts, Purvis, Miss., Donald N.
Thoresen and Kenneth H. Widon, Detroit and Petty Officer 3rd
class Gale R. Siow, Huntington Park, Calif.
A group burial will be held at Arlington National Cemetery on June 18, 2003.
The nine departed Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force
Base on Jan.11, 1968 onboard a Navy OP-2E Neptune aircraft for a
mission over Laos to drop sensors which detected enemy
movements. During its last radio contact, the crew reported
they were descending through dense clouds. When they did not
return to their home base, a search was initiated but found no
evidence of a crash. Two weeks later, an Air Force aircrew
photographed what appeared to be the crash site, but enemy
activity in the area prevented a recovery operation.
Between 1993 and 2002, six U.S.-Lao investigation teams
led by the Joint Task Force Full Accounting interviewed
villagers in the surrounding area, gathered aircraft debris and
surveyed the purported crash site scattered on two ledges of
Phou Louang Mountain in Khammouan Province. During a 1996
visit, team members also recovered identification cards for
several crewmembers, as well as human remains.
Full-scale recovery missions by the U.S. Army Central
Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) in both 2001 and 2002
yielded additional remains, as well as identification of other
crewmembers. More than 1,900 Americans are missing in action
from the Vietnam War, with another 86,000 MIA from the Cold War,
the Korean War and WWII.
Sempers,
Roger