News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Remains Returned

Date: December 09, 1999

No. 188-M
MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS
December 9, 1999

The remains of four American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from the Vietnam war have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States.

They are identified as Navy Capt. Norman E. Eidsmoe, Rapid City, S.D.; Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael E. Dunn, Naperville, Ill.; Army Capt. David May, Hyattsville, Md.; and Army Chief Warrant Officer Jon E. Reid, Phoenix, Ariz.

On Jan. 26, 1968, Eidsmoe and Dunn were flying a night low-level bombing mission over North Vietnam off the carrier USS Ranger. Approximately 30 minutes after takeoff, their A-6A Intruder disappeared from the carrier's radar, as expected. Accordingly, they radioed that they were six minutes from the target, but no further radio contact was heard. The plane did not return to the carrier, and a search and rescue mission was initiated, but without results.

In 1992 and 1993, four separate investigations led a U.S.-Vietnamese team to a Vietnamese farmer who described the crash, gave investigators a pilot's flight bag with Dunn's name inscribed, and described his burial of some remains in an unmarked grave. Then in 1997, a joint team conducted an excavation in a flooded rice paddy, where they recovered remains and pilot-related items. Another team continued the excavation in 1998 where they recovered additional materials.

On Feb. 20, 1971, May and Reid were flying their UH-1C Huey helicopter on an emergency resupply mission over Laos when they were hit by enemy ground fire and crashed. A search and rescue mission was repulsed by hostile fire.

In 1994, 1996 and 1998, U.S. and Lao investigators interviewed villagers in the area of the crash, then initiated an excavation which recovered human remains as well as portions of an identification tag with the name "May, David M." Analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii confirmed the identification of each of these four servicemen.

The U.S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the governments of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People's Democratic Republic that resulted in the accounting of these servicemen. We hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future. Achieving the fullest possible accounting for these Americans is of the highest national priority.