MIA Remains

Lest We Forget

This many years after the end of the Vietnam War, Korean War and even WW II you may think it is not possible to account for our servicemen listed as MIAs. Not True. It is possible and remains are being discovered to this day. Below, is an article about such a discovery. For more information about the discovery of our servicemen listed as MIAs visit The P.O.W. Network.

Too many of our servicemen are still unaccounted for. The search must continue.

Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update
November 9, 1999

MISSING IN ACTION SERVICEMEN IDENTIFIED

The remains of seven American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. They are identified as Major Thomas H. Amos, USAF, of Springfield, Mo.; Captain Mason I. Burnham, USAF, of Portland, Ore; Sergeant First Class William S. Stinson, US Army, of Georgiana, Ala.; and four other servicemen. Their names are not being released at the request of their families.
On April 20, 1972, Amos and Burnham were flying escort to an AC-130 on a night mission over Quang Nam Province near the Vietnam-Laos border. As another aircrew marked a target, Amos radioed that he was lining up his F-4D Phantom aircraft for the ordnance run. Shortly thereafter, the crew of the AC-130 reported seeing a large fireball on the ground. Subsequent attempts to contact Amos and Burnham were unsuccessful. Search efforts were continued for three days but proved unsuccessful.
In May 1993, a joint US/Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) team traveled to Quang Nam-Da Nang Province and interviewed two local villagers who claimed to have possession of remains collected from the crash site of a jet aircraft. At that time, the men also produced material evidence, including identification tags for both Amos and Burnham.
Two months later, a second team reinterviewed the two villagers who added that the remains in their possession had been turned over to the Vietnamese government the previous May. In January 1994, a third joint team took possession of those remains. Other teams traveled to the supposed aircraft crash site in 1994, 1995, and 1998 to obtain additional evidence to support identification. Additional remains were recovered as were numerous crew-related items and aircraft wreckage. On June 1998, the site was closed to further excavation because of the presence of large amounts of unexploded ordnance.

November 17, 1999

Remains of eight U.S. Navy sailors who were missing in action from World War II have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States.

Lt. Maurice S. Smith, Lodi, Calif.
Ensign Edward W. Riepl, Herndon, Kan.
Petty Officer 1st Class Clifford M. Pindell, Washington, D.C.
Petty Officer 1st Class James W. Pearson, Alliance, Neb.
Petty Officer 2nd Class William R. Pipes, Chickasha, Okla.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Merlin J. Rich, Wheeler Township, Mich.
Petty Officer 1st Class William H. Osborne, Martinsville, Va.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Vernon H. Stolz, Saginaw, Mich.

On Aug. 6, 1942, these crewmen were flying a routine patrol mission whose search sector took them over the island of Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. The weather was reported as adverse, and the aircraft never returned to its home base in New Caledonia. Searches failed to uncover any traces of the PBY-5 Catalina aircraft or crew. In 1994, the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, notified the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii that relic hunters had discovered the crash site of an American aircraft on Espiritu Santo (now part of the Republic of Vanuatu.) A CILHI recovery team excavated the site in March and April 1994 and recovered human remains, personal effects, and crew-related items among fragments of the aircraft wreckage.

The remains of 17 US Air Force airmen shot down during the Cold War have been identified as a group and were buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 1998.

The airmen were crewmembers aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft on Sept. 2, 1958 when it was shot down by MiGs over Soviet Armenia. The C-130 was flying a reconnaissance mission near the Armenian border when it strayed into Soviet territory. The aircraft crashed and burned with 17 crewmen on board.... A subsequent review of the case by the Air Force concluded that no crewmen had been able to escape from the aircraft. Given the incomplete nature of the remains recovered from the crash site and those of the six men previously identified, a group remains identification was made for the entire crew.

Identified in 1958:
Capt. Rudy J. Swiestra, Compton, Calif.
Capt. Edward J. Jeruss, New Haven, Conn.
1st Lt. Ricardo M. Villarreal, Laredo, Texas

Identified in 1996:
Airman 2nd Class Archie T. Bourg, Jr., Lake Charles, La.

Identified in 1997:
Capt. John E. Simpson, Richland, Wash.
Airman 2nd Class Gerald H. Medeiros, New Bedford, Mass.

Identified as a group in 1998:
Capt. Paul E. Duncan, Richland, Wash.
MSgt. George P. Petrochilos, Levittown, Pa.
Tech. Sgt. Arthur L. Mello, Erie, Pa.
Staff Sgt. LaRoy Price, Hodgenville, Ky.
Airman 1st Class Robert J. Oshinskie, Shamokin, Pa.
Airman 2nd Class James E. Ferguson, Jr., Kingsford Hghts, Ind.
Airman 2nd Class Harold T. Kamps, Lena, Wis.
Airman 2nd Class Clement O. Mankins, Point Marion, Pa.
Airman 2nd Class Robert H. Moore, West Monroe, La.
Airman 2nd Class Joel H. Fields, Cynthiana, Ky.

Out of respect for his family's privacy, one serviceman's name is not being released.

With the group identification of these 17 men, 18 Americans have been identified from Cold War losses, and 123 are still unaccounted-for.

The Above Information Is From The P.O.W. Network