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Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

Vietnam-era Green Beret finally returns home
April 29th, 2011 @ 10:34am
By MITCH WEISS
Associated Press


CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - No one had seen Sgt. 1st Class Donald Shue since he was on a mission in Laos during the Vietnam War in November 1969, so his sister was skeptical when Army officials called a few months ago to say his remains had been found.

"I said, 'No you didn't. I don't believe it. It's been 42 years. You don't have any proof of that,'" his sister Betty Jones told The Associated Press. Then they revealed the clue that identified Shue: a Zippo lighter with his name inscribed on it.

Army officials visited her home and showed her the lighter. When she saw it, she broke down and cried.

"That was the most joyful thing I ever looked at. I knew it was Donnie," she said.

Now, four decades later, the North Carolina soldier is coming home. Thousands are expected to pay their respects this weekend in Concord, where Shue was born, and nearby Kannapolis, where he was raised. Jones, 74, of Kannapolis, called the burial a homecoming.

"We've been praying and praying and praying for this day," Jones said. "This will finally give us some closure."

Shue will be honored by family, friends, veterans groups and politicians. Two Apache helicopters from the state National Guard will accompany a procession Saturday from Charlotte to a funeral home in Kannapolis. Along the way, it will stop in Concord and Kannapolis for ceremonies.

On Sunday, veteran groups plan to honor Shue and his family again, lining the streets near the funeral home for a procession to the cemetery in Kannapolis, where a military marker with his name sits over an empty grave.

At least 1,000 members of Rolling Thunder and the Patriot Guard Riders, veterans' motorcycle groups, are expected to participate.

Some veterans faced a much different reception upon returning from Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, amid massive peace protests against the unpopular war.

By late 1969, when Shue was reported missing, tens of thousands of U.S. troops had been killed. Full-scale U.S. involvement began when the first fighting units arrived in the country in 1965.

Jones recalled when her brother, the youngest of six children, enlisted. He dropped out of high school and wanted to join to fight in the war. Shue was under 18, so her father had to give his permission.

"He didn't want him to go. But my daddy knew Donnie wanted to do something for his country," Jones said.

She said her brother was a "bright boy. He was always smiling."

Monty Clark said he met Shue in 1966, and the two were part of the "Bushmasters" _ a group that raced motorcycles around town. Shue had even designed the group's logo _ a snake wrapped around the word "Bushmasters." That's when Shue decided he wanted to join the military, and the two were supposed to enlist together. But Clark wound up staying in school, while Shue left school and joined up.

The pals kept in touch constantly, until Clark got one final letter. Shue wrote that he had made the Green Berets and was headed overseas for a secret mission. Shue promised to tell him all about it when he came back to the U.S. But he never did.

"I always wondered what happened to Donnie," Clark said. "We knew in our hearts that something terrible had happened."

When Shue is laid to rest, the motorcycle group will get back together and wear T-shirts with the logo Shue designed in the 1960s, Clark said.

Shue was last seen alive in Laos in November 1969. He was with two other Special Forces soldiers and was wounded. At the time, Special Forces ran secret missions inside Laos and Cambodia, gathering intelligence on the North Vietnamese who were sneaking into South Vietnam through the Ho Chi Minh trail.

A few days after Shue went missing, two Green Berets visited her home. The family was devastated, but none more so than their father. He died two years later.

"I think he died of a broken heart," Jones said. "He just loved that boy."

In 1979, the Army classified Shue as killed in action.

"We held out hope that he was alive even though we knew. We just wanted him brought home," she said.

In 1975, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and conquered the nation. When bitter relations between the United States and Vietnam began to thaw in the 1990s, teams of Army forensic experts headed into Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam looking for the remains of U.S. soldiers. There are more than 2,600 soldiers still missing from the war.

It was a Laotian farmer who found Shue's remains _ which the investigators confirmed after uncovering the Zippo lighter.

Jones and her two sisters had held out hope that he may have been in a secret prison camp, though she's happy his long journey is over.

"He's back home," she said. "Back home where he belongs."

RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

BRIERFIELD -- There's a spot marked in a small country graveyard near here for the long lost Green Beret.
Now, after 43 years of uncertainty, the grave in Ashby Cemetery can be filled.

Burial for James Leslie Moreland -- missing in action in Vietnam since Feb. 7, 1968 -- will be May 14 in this isolated cemetery off Bibb County 2, south of Montevallo. Moreland was born in Bessemer on Sept. 29, 1945, moved to California in high school and in 1965 went to Vietnam as a medic in the elite Army Special Forces.

The 22-year-old was presumed dead after a ferocious battle at Lang Vei in South Vietnam. But his body wasn't recovered or identified. Finding the body and securing an ID turned into a decades-long quest until last month, when DNA earlier submitted by five relatives matched remains found at Lang Vei.

"It was very emotional coming up on the 43rd anniversary," said Linda Brown, 62, the youngest of the five Moreland siblings. The family had all come to accept James was dead, but they persisted on finding his body, Brown said.

"I had never given up," said Brown, who lives in Washington state near sister Edna Anita LaMoine, 73. "I said I wouldn't care if they identified just one bone fragment so we could say, 'Yes, it is our brother.'"

Unknown to the Moreland family at the time, a Christmas Day gift in 1972 to a 12-year-old girl added one more person to the long pursuit for answers. Kathy Strong of Walnut Creek, Calif., remembers asking for an MIA bracelet because it was the cool thing to have at the time. Santa Claus brought a bracelet with the name: James Leslie Moreland.

Now 50, Strong became close to members of the Moreland family after her hometown newspaper, the Contra Costa Times, several years ago chronicled how she had worn the bracelet for decades and had grown increasingly interested in Moreland's story.

Strong plans to attend the upcoming burial in Alabama, where she said she will relinquish her bracelet to be buried with the remains.

"My promise was to keep it until he came home and then give it back," Strong said.

Moreland's commanding officer, Paul Longgrear, who is an ordained minister, will officiate the service.

Longgrear led a strike force unit, which included Moreland, to help defend a Special Forces camp near the Laotian border. The camp was a "thorn in the side of the North Vietnamese," Longgrear said, and on Feb. 6, 1968, it came under heavy attack from enemy tanks. He said he remembered Moreland being seriously wounded in the head as he went to fetch a machine gun in an open area, aiming to keep it out of enemy hands. In the ensuing explosions and subsequent takeover, some men escaped, some were captured, some were killed. Moreland's body was never recovered.

"He was a great guy -- a great looking kid with a lot of confidence," said Longgrear, who lives in Pine Mountain, Ga. "He had that swagger. Green Beret tend to be that way."

Moreland's early childhood years were spent in the Birmingham area and in Selma, his sisters said. He went to Lyman Ward Military Academy in Camp Hill in the eighth and ninth grades. The family moved to southern California in 1962, and Moreland became an all-county football player at Western High School in Anaheim, playing on the same team as Andy Messersmith, who went on to become a Major League baseball player. After graduation, Moreland attended Fullerton Junior College but ultimately followed his two older brothers' footsteps into the military, albeit a different branch.

"I tried my best to get him to come to the Navy," chuckled retired Navy Seabee and older brother Robert D. Moreland, 75, of Lakeside, Calif. "But he liked to skydive."

When on June 5, 1978, the Army declared Moreland "presumed dead," his mother, Gladys Parks, organized a memorial service for him at Ashby Cemetery and dedicated a large granite marker in her son's memory. They played 'Ballad of the Green Beret' and tears flowed, Brown remembered.

Moreland's mother died April 1, 2001, but she talked to The Birmingham News in 1978 about the memorial.

"I just felt this memorial was one way I can honor him," she said. "But to me he's not dead. If they could have ever found some trace of him to give me, some little something to prove they found him, I could accept it. ... Maybe someday I will."

Dorothy Moreland, 81, of Montevallo, who is widower of the oldest Moreland sibling, Roger, said it is sad Parks won't see this day. But there's some comfort to be taken, she supposes, in the burial arrangement putting Moreland next to the graves of his mother and father.

When they lay him to rest, "brother'll be back home between mommy and daddy," she said.



RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

#17
 'Mission Accomplished': Vietnam Veteran's Remains Make it Home Nearly Half-Century Later

The remains of a fallen Vietnam pilot returned home Thursday, 45 years after Lt. Commander William Patrick Egan was shot down.

His whereabouts were unknown until a DNA sample provided by his niece a decade ago matched bone fragments a farmer in Laos turned over to U.S. officials in late 2009.

"The first thing I would say is mission accomplished; those are the best words," Linda Sanders told Houston's ABC affiliate KTRK. "I always was worried about him, but I always knew he'd be home, eventually. I didn't think it was going to take this long."

A Navy officer presented Egan's widow, Anne Egan, with an urn containing his remains.

"I've been waiting for them to find him all these years," she told the Houston Chronicle. A burial is scheduled for Saturday.

Egan's A1-H Skyraider was shot down April 19, 1966 during a then-secret mission bombing a military complex in Laos. At the time, the military only listed Egan as missing before later acknowledging the classified mission, the Chronicle reported.


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RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)


Pilot downed in Vietnam in '66 is returning home

Veronica M. Cruz Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Saturday, February 11, 2012 12:00 am | Comments


COURTESY OF JEFF WALLING
Lt. Col. Charles Walling was shot down in 1966 over South Vietnam while providing air support for Marines.

...Before Carolyn Poston's younger brother left for Vietnam in 1966, she made one request.

"Chuck, make sure you come back."

More than 40 years after his plane was downed, and he was declared missing in action, the remains of Phoenix Air Force fighter pilot Lt. Col. Charles Walling will return to the states for a proper military burial.

After Walling was declared missing in action, Poston, who now lives in Tucson, remembers going to Luke Air Force Base several times with her family hoping to find her brother's face among the photos of prisoners of war.

Now she has answers for people who ask what became of her brother.

Charles Walling was an ambitious and athletic young man with a passion for planes.

"It's no small task to become a fighter pilot and that was really his dream," said his brother John Walling, who now lives in California. "He really went after that and that was his joy."

Charles Walling joined the ROTC program at Arizona State University and learned to fly before joining the Air Force in 1961, Poston said. He learned to pilot an F-102 fighter plane at Williams Air Force Base in Mesa and was stationed in Okinawa in the early 60s.

At the end of 1964 Walling's squadron was transferred to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to learn to fly a new plane, the F-4 Phantom. From there he went to train at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

In June of 1966, then-Capt. Charles Walling went to Vietnam as a volunteer replacement pilot when his wife, Julie, was six months pregnant with their second son, Mike.

"I was already born and my mom was pregnant with my brother and so they decided that he'd go ahead and volunteer so he could be home when my brother was born," said Jeff Walling, who was just over a year and half old when his father left.

To finish his tour in time to be home for his son's birth, 27-year-old Charles Walling was required to complete 100 missions, said Jeff Walling, owner of Tucson Re-Bath. He was stationed at the Cam Ranh Air Base in South Vietnam.

It was during his 45th assignment, a close air support mission to provide backup for Marines on the ground by swooping down and bombing the enemy, that his F-4, was shot down in the Dong Nai province northeast of Saigon on Aug. 8, 1966, Jeff Walling said.

Both Charles Walling and his co-pilot 1st Lt. Aado Kommendant were declared missing in action.

In 1994, investigators found pilot survival gear and Charles Walling's dog tags.

At a 2006 meeting of the National League of POW/ MIA Families in Washington, D.C., the family's caseworker said a new excavation of the crash site was planned.

The search was completed in 2010 and a few bone fragments belonging to Walling were recovered from the site.

"I guess you could say it's the end of a 45-year mystery," Jeff Walling said. "I think it also shows the dedication of the military, of them never leaving a man behind and to what lengths they'll go."

A full military service for Charles Walling is planned for mid-June at Arlington National Cemetery.

"I think all of us are so thankful that the government is continuing to pursue these unanswered questions for so many families," John Walling said.



Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/pilot-downed-in-vietnam-in-is-returning-home/article_33a7c833-019d-54e6-a6e1-f07c85cdba43.html#ixzz1mDggvJ9d
RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

Remains identified as 6 airmen from Vietnam War missing since 1965
Published July 05, 2012FoxNews.com

The remains of six servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors, the Department of Defense's POW/Missing Personnel Office announced Thursday.

The crew aboard an AC-47D aircraft nicknamed "Spooky" failed to return from a combat strike mission in southern Laos on Dec. 24, 1965. All contact with the crew was lost following an initial "mayday" signal. Search efforts for the crew and aircraft were unsuccessful.

Those on board were Air Force Col. Joseph Christiano of Rochester, N.Y.; Col. Derrell B. Jeffords of Florence, S.C.; Lt. Col. Dennis L. Eilers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chief Master Sgt. William K. Colwell of Glen Cove, N.Y.; Chief Master Sgt. Arden K. Hassenger of Lebanon, Ore.; and Chief Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Col. Joseph Christiano's oldest child, Barbara Annechino, was 21 at the time, and said that she had never given up hope that her dad may be alive, the Democrat and Chronicle reports.

Christiano was 43 years old at the time of the crash in Laos. He was a career serviceman and veteran of World War II and Korean War.

A joint United States-Lao People's Democratic Republic search team investigated a crash in Laos in 1995, when villagers said they remembered seeing an aircraft crash in December 1965. The team was able to recover small pieces of wreckage, which prompted further investigation.

The joint search and recovery teams returned to the site four times between 1999 and 2001, conducting additional interviews with locals as part of the investigation. The team then began excavating the site, but did not recover any human remains at the time.

More than 300 American personnel are missing from Laos, where the U.S. bombarded supply lines of communist guerrillas fighting U.S. forces in neighboring Vietnam.

Search efforts were suspended until 2010. The Department of Defense reported that the joint team has since recovered human remains, personal items and military equipment, which scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command identified using dental records and other evidence.

The six men's remains will be buried as a group in a single casket representing the entire crew on Monday in Arlington National Cemetery, the Department of Defense said.

"It is a great honor and that this crew really deserves. They really are heroes," Annechino told the Democrat and Chronicle.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

    U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

On the Web:
http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=16115
Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132   Public contact:
http://www.defense.gov/landing/comment.aspx
or +1 (703) 571-3343

________________________________________
IMMEDIATE RELEASE   No. 463-13
June 25, 2013
   
________________________________________
Soldier Missing from Vietnam War Accounted For

            The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that a soldier, missing from the Vietnam War, has been accounted for and will be buried with full military honors along with two of his crew members.
            Army Spc. 5 John L. Burgess, of Sutton Bay, Mich., was the crew chief of a UH-1H Iroquois helicopter that crashed in Binh Phuoc Province, South Vietnam.  Also, killed in the crash were 1st Lt. Leslie F. Douglas Jr., of Verona, Miss.; lst Lt. Richard Dyer, of Central Falls, R.I.; and Sgt. 1st Class Juan Colon-Diaz, of Comerio, Puerto Rico. Another crew member, Pfc. John Goosman, survived the crash and was rescued.  Remains representing Dyer, Colon-Diaz, and Burgess, will be buried as a group in a single casket, on July 2, at Arlington National Cemetery.
            On June 30, 1970, while on a command and control mission, the helicopter was struck by enemy fire, causing it to crash. Shortly thereafter, friendly forces recovered remains of Douglas, Colon-Diaz, and Dyer.  The three men were individually identified and buried with full military honors.  At that time, no remains were attributed to Burgess.
            From 1992 to 2012, more than a dozen joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams investigated the case, in Binh Phuoc Province, recovering human remains, personal effects, military equipment, and aircraft wreckage associated with this loss.   
            Burgess was accounted for using forensic and circumstantial evidence.
            For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1420.


Information from the VHPA records
Helicopter UH-1D 66-16693
________________________________________
Information on U.S. Army helicopter UH-1D tail number 66-16693
The Army purchased this helicopter 0867
Total flight hours at this point: 00002255
Date: 06/30/1970 MIA-POW file reference number: 1645
Incident number: 70063030.KIA
Unit: B/227 AVN
South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: YU372568
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Reference Notes. Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Also: 1645 ()
Loss to Inventory

Crew Members:
CE SP5 BURGESS JOHN LAWRENCE BNR
AC 1LT DOUGLAS LESLIE FORREST JR KIA
AC 1LT DYER RICHARD KIA
G PFC GOOSMAN JOHN RES

Passengers and/or other participants:
SFC COLON-DIAZ JUAN, AR, PX, KIA

REFNO Synopsis:
SYNOPSIS: On June 30, 1970, SP5 John L. Burgess was the crew chief of a UH1H helicopter on a command and control mission when it was hit by enemy fire, crashed, and burned near the Cambodia/South Vietnam border in Phuoc Long Province, South Vietnam. The other individuals aboard the aircraft included 1Lt. Leslie F. Douglas, Jr., 1Lt. Richard Dyer, SFC Juan Colon-Diaz, and PFC Goosman. PFC Goosman, who was thrown clear of the aircraft (he was probably the door gunner), was the only survivor of the crash. PFC Goosman later stated that he pulled the aircraft commander clear of the aircraft, but because of the fire, was unable to free any of the crew members or the one passenger from the aircraft. Goosman was able to determine that no one else had survived the crash. He remained at the scene of the crash site until friendly troops arrived to secure the aircraft wreckage. The remains of the four crew members were placed in four body bags and evacuated. Major Knudson, who arrived shortly after the crash, landed in a secure LZ adjacent to the crash and picked up Goosman and the 4 body bags. They were transported directly from the crash site to medical facilities located at Camp Gorvad, Phuoc Vinh, South Vietnam. Graves Registration at Camp Gorvad forwarded the four body bags to the mortuary at Than San Nhut to undergo autopsies. At the mortuary, as identification was conducted, it was determined that they only had 3 sets of remains rather than four. While processing the remains at the mortuary, it was discovered that one of the body bags contained portions of the upper torso and another bag contained portions of the lower torso of the same individual. After this discovery, they were combined and positive identifications made of the three individuals, Douglas, Dyer and Colon-Diaz. Than San Nhut Mortuary never received any remains correlating to SP5 Burgess, and it was believed that the remains of Burgess were either burned beneath the wreckage of the aircraft or incinerated in the fire which engulfed the aircraft after it crashed. The mortuary suggested another search of the crash site area, but additional searches were not considered possible because of enemy presence in the area. When a final review of aerial photographs was made in 1973, there was no evidence of the crashed aircraft.

War Story:
I was not thrown from the aircraft. I was still in the gunners well when the aircraft was smashed in the trees. I freed myself from the wreckage and I got LT Douglas out of the pilot's seat. I carried him about 50 feet from the crash site as I returned to the aircraft, it caught fire and I was not able to get anyone else out. I returned to LT Douglas and I held him in my arms until he died. From John Goosman.
This record was last updated on 07/03/2006
________________________________________
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: The VHPA Webmaster Gary Roush.
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Date posted on this site: 01/22/2013
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Copyright © 1998 - 2012 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association






RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

Soldier Missing From Vietnam War Accounted For (Phipps)
15-041 | June 08, 2015


Chief Warrant Officer 3 James L. Phipps
Chief Warrant Officer 3 James L. Phipps (Photo by Phipps Family)

The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of three U.S. servicemen, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be buried with full military honors.
Army Chief Warrant Officers 3 James L. Phipps, 24, of Mattoon, Ill., and Rainer S. Ramos, 20, of Wiesbaden, Germany, were the pilots of a UH-1C Iroquois (Huey) helicopter gunship that was shot down in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam. Also aboard the aircraft were door gunners Staff Sgt. Warren Newton, 18, of Eugene, Ore., and Spc. Fred J. Secrist, 19, of Eugene, Ore. The crew was assigned to Troop C, 7th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 14th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade. The crew will be buried, as a group, on June 17, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.
On Jan. 9, 1968, the crew was on a mission over Quang Tin Province (now part of Quang Nam Province), South Vietnam, when the Huey was struck by ground fire, causing it to crash and explode in a North Vietnamese bunker and trench system. The crew was declared missing in action. On Jan. 20, 1968, a U.S. led team recovered the body of Secrist and he was returned to his family for burial.
Between August 1993 and August 2011, U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams surveyed and/or excavated the site three times. From Aug. 6-21, 2011, a joint U.S./S.R.V. team recovered human remains and personal effects.
In the identification of the recovered remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) analyzed circumstantial evidence and used forensic identification tools, to include mitochondrial DNA, which matched Secrist's sister and brother. Remains not individually identified represent the entire crew and will be buried as a group.
Today, 1,627 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. The U.S. government continues to work closely with the governments of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to recover Americans lost during the Vietnam War.
For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for Americans, who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or call (703) 699-1420.
RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

#22
BOGOTA - A U.S. Marine from Bogota, missing in action since 1969, has been identified through DNA found at the scene of a military plane crash, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Marine Corps Reserve 1st Lt. William C. Ryan (Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

"Marine Corps Reserve 1st Lt. William C. Ryan, missing from the Vietnam War, has now been accounted for," the he Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a statement.

On May 11, 1969, Ryan was the radar intercept officer of an F-4B aircraft on a combat mission over Laos. The aircraft was hit by enemy fire and the pilot lost control, calling several times for Ryan to eject but receiving no response, according to the agency.

The pilot ejected before the aircraft crashed; Ryan did not not.

The pilot was rescued and Ryan was declared dead later that day.

In 1990, investigators with the United States and Vietnam visited the crash site and spoke with witnesses. According to NorthJersey.com, even though Ryan's aircraft seat was found at the scene, the investigation dragged for years.

Between May 2012 and 2016, six different excavations were conducted, according to NorthJersey.com.

According to his biography, Ryan was born April 24, 1944 in Hoboken and grew up in Bogota. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966 and earned his wings at naval flight training school in Pensacola, Fla.

Ryan was sent to Vietnam in Aug. 1968 and listed as missing in action on May 11, 1969.

In all, he flew over 300 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and numerous Strike/Flight Air Medals.

Ryan is survived by his wife, Judy, and a son, Michael, who was only a year old when his father was missing in action.

Services will be held at Arlington National Cemetery on May 10.




RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

Successful search for remains of missing SASR soldier in Vietnam
September 9, 2016 12:56pm

John Morcombe

In 2008 Private David Fisher was the last member of the Australian Army who had been killed to have his body repatriated back to Australia from Vietnam. Pictured are Australian troops preparing to board a helicopter near Nui Dat.
In 2008 Private David Fisher was the last member of the Australian Army who had been killed to have his body repatriated back to Australia from Vietnam. Pictured are Australian troops preparing to board a helicopter near Nui Dat.
THREE weeks ago a new name was added to the Manly War Memorial and blessed on Vietnam Veterans Day, August­ 18.

The timing of the addition of Warrant Officer Ron Lees' name to the memorial was significant — it was the 50th anniversary of his death in Vietnam and the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.

WO Lees was killed during the early years of the Vietnam War and his body wasn't immediately repatriated because his family couldn't afford the cost.

As war rolled on and the death toll mounted, the Government decided to repatriate those who fell — but not those who had already been buried in foreign soil.

Last year the Federal Government relented and in June WO Lees' body was finally brought home, as were those of his colleagues.

Private David Fisher was one of four peninsula men killed in the Vietnam War

In 2008 Private David Fisher was the last member of the army to be repatriated from Vietnam.
WO Lees was the fourth peninsula man killed in the Vietnam War and Manly local studies librarian John MacRitchie has been investigating the other three — Warrant Officer John Bond, Major Malcolm McQualter and Private David Fisher.

What he found was that Pte Fisher was the last member of the army to be repatriated from Vietnam — and as recently as 2008 — and the third last of any Australian servicemen to be repatriated from Vietnam.

The return of the final two Australian servicemen, both members of the air force, in 2009 marked a significant day and a fitting tribute to the many Australians who spent so much time and effort­ searching for the service personnel whose bodies lay somewhere in Vietnam but had no known grave.

Pte Fisher was born in London in 1946 but by 1958 he was living with his family in Bolingbroke Pde, Fairlight.

By 1963 the family was living in Grandview Grove at Seaforth and by 1968 in Curban St, Balgowlah Heights. David Fisher was conscripted into the army on July 17, 1967, and was allocated to the Royal Australian Infantry.

Pte Fisher underwent Special Air Services selection in 1968 and was posted to 2 SAS Regiment in December that year and to 3 SASR in February 1969.

Australian Army soldiers checking for mines in South Vietnam
Brian Manns, of the Unrecovered War Casualties — Army unit, was involved in the successful search for Pte Fisher's remains and wrote about it on the Australian Army's website.

"On 27 September 1969, he was a member of an SASR patrol in an area to the west of the Nui May Tao in Long Kanh province, Vietnam," he wrote.

"After a number of contacts, the patrol requested a 'hot extraction'.

"During this extraction Pte Fisher fell into thick jungle from a rope that suspended him below the helicopter. Several air and ground searches over of the next week failed to find any trace of Pte Fisher.

"He was officially listed as 'missing in action presumed dead'."


Pte Fisher's mates from 2 Squadron Special Air Service Regiment at his Ramp Ceremony at RAAF Base Richmond.
By the end of the Vietnam War six Australian servicemen were still listed as missing in action.

This is where the Unrecovered War Casualties — Army unit comes in. It is, according to its website, "responsible for matters associated with the identification and recovery of Australian servicemen who remained unaccounted­ for all from all wars".

Naturally, the greatest number of servicemen whose remains have never been found fell on the Western Front in World War I, although­ there are still thousands missing from World War II.

The army's website says the search for the six missing servicemen in Vietnam was as important as those who fell in any other conflict.

"Unrecovered War Casualties — Army commenced a careful examination of all available Australian records and unit war diaries and interviewed­ Australian veterans involved in the incident in which Pte Fisher was lost," the website says.

"They also appealed to the Australian Vietnamese community for help.

"Armed with the information gathered in Australia, the team travelled to Vietnam in March 2008 to find information from local sources.

"What followed was two weeks of interviews with former­ Vietcong and North Vietnamese soldiers.


The rugby team of Pte David Fisher, the last missing Australian digger in Vietnam. He is pictured third from left in the back row.
"In archived documents, Unrecovered War Casualties — Army discovered a small piece of information that had previously escaped attention.

"It was a reference to the discovery of a pool of water 'red in colour' that was just outside of the original designated search area. The find was considered significant enough at the time for a sample of the water to be given to the 1st Australian Field Hospital for analysis.

"No record of what happened to the sample was found.

"Another key piece of information­ came from a member of the Australian Vietnamese community.

"He told investigators that in October of 1969 he and another soldier found the body of a 'dead American' (Fisher, like most SASR soldiers, wore US camouflage uniform) and had buried his body in a shallow grave beside­ the Suoi Sap.

"He was able to provide a detailed description of the location­.

"The missing piece in the Pte Fisher puzzle was a more precise indication of where Pte Fisher may have landed.

"Details of the direction and speed of the aircraft and the time of flight before the fall were calculated and applied­ to a map.

"It became apparent that earlier searches had concentrated on an area too close to the roping extraction point.

"In August 2008, Unrecovered War Casualties — Army returned to Vietnam and began the careful examination of the area bordering the Suoi Sap from its confluence with the Song Ray to the newly plotted area of interest­.


The names of four local men who died in the Vietnam War, including Pte David Fisher, are inscribed on the Manly War Memorial
"While examining a shallow pool of water a Vietnamese team member, close to the Suoi Sap, found a large piece of bone believed to be human.

"Also found was a piece of plastic from the inside of an Australian-issue collapsible water bladder used by the SASR in Vietnam.

"The next day, after examining a photograph of the bone fragment an Australian forensic anthropologist was able to confirm that it was most likely the lower end of a human femur (thigh bone). This was supported by the director of the Military Forensic Institute in Hanoi.

"After Vietnamese Army engineers conducted an unexploded­ ordnance search, work commenced to recover Pte Fisher's remains before the return of the wet season. Following a week of careful excavation more remains were unearthed along with Pte Fisher's dog tags.

"Pte David John Elkington Fisher was repatriated to Australia by the Army in October­ 2008."

He was cremated at Macquarie Park on October 14, 2008, with full military honours. The two airmen who were still missing were found in 2009, so all Australian servicemen killed in Vietnam have been accounted for.
RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

The remains of a U.S. Green Beret who went missing in action during the Vietnam War nearly 47 years ago have been recovered.

The remains of Army Maj. Donald G. Carr of San Antonio, Texas were returned to his family after DNA analysis helped identify the fallen hero, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Monday.

Records show Carr was assigned to Mobile Launch Team 3 with the 5th Special Forces Group when he went on a reconnaissance mission from which he failed to return. On July 6, 1971, Carr's flight crashed during bad weather and a ground team failed to immediately locate the spot where the plane went down.

Carr was declared missing in action.

The Defense agency said between September 1991 and March 2014, joint U.S. and Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic teams conducted more than 25 investigations and site surveys, but could not locate his remains.

In April 2014, however, a Vietnamese citizen contacted U.S. officials about possible remains found in Kon Tum Province. The wreckage included personal items belonging to Carr and his remains were identified through DNA.

A service is set to be held Friday to honor Carr and he'll be buried at the San Antonio National Cemetery.

Currently there are 1,598 American servicemen and civilians from the Vietnam War still declared missing. Their names are recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. Carr's name, which is part of the memorial, will now include a rosette to indicate he had been accounted for.

Lucia I. Suarez Sang is a Reporter & Editor for FoxNews.com.
RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com