- Oct 9, 1999
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War sucks. Up close, it is dirty and ugly, mind-bending and soul-sapping. Vietnam was all that and more. Over 50,000 young Americans never made it back home, and for what?
But, at least we Americans go to the ends of the earth to bring the bodies of the fallen back to home and hearth, and, say what you want about the blood and sin of the rest of it, this is a good thing.
But, at least we Americans go to the ends of the earth to bring the bodies of the fallen back to home and hearth, and, say what you want about the blood and sin of the rest of it, this is a good thing.
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, killed in action during the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
Army Capt. James M. Johnstone, of Baton Rouge, La., will be buried Dec. 12, in Arlington National Cemetery. On Nov. 19, 1966, Johnstone was the pilot of an OV-1A Mohawk aircraft that crashed while conducting a daytime reconnaissance mission over Attapu Province, Laos. Nearby U.S. aircrews reported seeing the wing of Johnstones aircraft hit a tree during a climb to avoid a nearby ridgeline. No parachutes were seen exiting the aircraft. Heavy enemy presence in the area prevented recovery efforts.
From 1993 to 2009, joint U.S.-Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), interviewed multiple witnesses, and conducted several investigations and excavations of the crash site in Attapu Province. The teams located human remains, military equipment, an identification card bearing Johnstones name, and aircraft wreckage of an OV-1A, which correlated with the last known location of Johnstones aircraft.
To identify the remains, scientists from JPAC analyzed circumstantial evidence and used forensic identification tools, such as dental comparisons.
Today, the U.S. government continues to work closely with the governments of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to recover Americans lost during the Vietnam War.