Remains of Missing U.S. Serviceman Found in Laos
Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=121313
American Forces Press Service
U.S. Air Force Col. Francis J. McGouldrick Jr.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2013 – The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
U.S. Air Force Col. Francis J. McGouldrick Jr. of New Haven, Conn., will be buried Dec. 13, at Arlington National Cemetery. On Dec. 13, 1968, McGouldrick was on a night strike mission when his B-57E Canberra aircraft collided with another aircraft over Savannakhet Province, Laos. McGouldrick was never seen again and was listed as missing in action.
After the war in July 1978, a military review board amended his official status from missing in action to presumed killed in action.
Between 1993 and 2004, joint U.S/Lao People’s Democratic Republic teams attempted to locate the crash site with no success. On April 8, 2007, a joint team located a possible crash site near the village of Keng Keuk, Laos.
From October 2011 to May 2012, joint U.S./L.P.D.R. teams excavated the site three times and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage consistence with a B-57E aircraft.
In the identification of McGouldrick, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as mitochondrial DNA — which matched McGouldrick’s great nephew and niece.
Today there are 1,644 American service members that are still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website or call 703 699-1169
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Body of New Haven Air Force colonel missing in Vietnam since ’68 identified
Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20131209/body-of-new-haven-air-force-colonel-missing-in-vietnam-since-68-identified
Posted: 12/09/13, 4:10 PM EST |
A New Haven Air Force colonel, missing from the Vietnam War, has been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors, the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced Monday.
U.S. Air Force Col. Francis J. McGouldrick Jr. will be buried Dec. 13 at Arlington National Cemetery, the DOD said in a release. McGouldrick was 39 on Dec. 13, 1968, when he was on a night strike mission and his B-57E Canberra aircraft collided with another aircraft over Savannakhet Province, Laos, the release said.
McGouldrick was never seen again and was listed as missing in action.
In July 1978, a military review board amended McGouldrick’s official status from “missing in action to presumed killed in action,” the release said.
“Between 1993 and 2004, joint U.S/Lao People’s Democratic Republic teams attempted to locate the crash site with no success. On April 8, 2007, a joint team located a possible crash site near the village of Keng Keuk, Laos,” the release said. “From October 2011 to May 2012, joint U.S./L.P.D.R. teams excavated the site three times and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage consistence with a B-57E aircraft.”
Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command scientists and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory “used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as mitochondrial DNA – which matched McGouldrick’s great nephew and niece,” to identify McGouldrick, the release said.
There remain 1,644 American service members still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, the DOD said.
A Voice for the Laotian Who do not have Voice 