News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci
(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: DPMO Update

Date: July 22, 1998

Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update July 16, 1998

THREE SERVICEMEN ACCOUNTED FOR

The remains of three American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from Southeast Asia have been identified.

The first two are U.S. Marine Corps Capt. John B. Sherman of Darien, Conn., and U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert F. Preiss Jr., of Cornwall, N.Y.

On March 25, 1966, Sherman was dive-bombing enemy positions in Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam when his F-8E Crusader was struck by enemy ground fire. The aircraft crashed in Quang Nam-Da Nang Province. A ground search for his remains was not possible because of enemy activity in the area.

In April and May 1993, a joint team of U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam investigators interviewed several local informants in Quang Nam-Da Nang Province who provided information about the crash of a U.S. aircraft. The U.S. team, led by the Joint Task Force Full Accounting, reported that two of the informants recalled an incident in March or April 1966 in which they buried the body of an American pilot near a crash site. Two other witnesses reported they disinterred the remains in 1990, which they turned over to the joint team.

The joint team surveyed the crash and burial sites indicated by the local informants and found aircraft wreckage as well as pilot-related items. The remains and other items were returned to the U. S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, where laboratory analysis confirmed the identification.

On May 12, 1970, Preiss was the leader of a reconnaissance team that came under enemy fire in Laos. He suffered a mortal wound but because of enemy action and difficult terrain his body could not be recovered. Six days later, a recovery team failed to locate PreissÍ body. The team reported that a rock slide had covered the body with large boulders.

In March and April of 1995, a joint U.S./Lao PeopleÍs Democratic Republic team investigated PreissÍ loss in Xekong Province. The team conducted a ground search along the banks of the stream in the vicinity of the loss location with negative results. In May 1995, another joint team interviewed villagers nearby and persuaded them to take the team to a place where remains allegedly had been seen. The team did recover some personal equipment and possible human remains.

A third trip was made to the area in April 1997. This team recovered material evidence, however no remains or personal effects were found during this investigation. In early 1998, another joint team excavated the site where they recovered possible human remains and personal effects.

Anthropological analysis of the remains and other evidence by CILHI confirmed the identification of Preiss.

Vietnam unknown identified

The Armed Forces Identification Review Board (AFIRB) approved the identification by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory of the remains interred in 1984 as the Vietnam Unknown in the Tomb of the Unknowns. The remains are those of U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie. The identification was made possible by the use of mitochondrial DNA comparison and forensic examination using state-of-the-art technology not available in 1984. The AFIRB determination is the last step in the established identification process.

Prior to the AFIRB's determination, the report documenting the work of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, and the Defense Prisoner of War /Missing Personnel Office and the resulting recommended identification was reviewed independently and confirmed by three outside consultants with acknowledged expertise in forensic science. On July 7, the report was conveyed personally to the primary next-of-kin, Mrs. George C. Blassie, for her review. The funeral with full military honors for Lt Blassie was held near St. Louis, Mo., on July 11.

With the identification of Capt. Sherman, SSgt Preiss and Lt. Blassie, 497 Americans have been accounted for since the end of the war in Southeast Asia, with 2,086 still unaccounted-for.

FILM COLLECTION ARRIVES IN LAOS

More than 1,080 reels of archival films from the Vietnam war have arrived in Vientiane, Laos from Vietnam for review by American and Lao analysts. The films arrived in 55 cases aboard an American C-130. The flight was met by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs Bob Jones and Brigadier General Terry Tucker, commander of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting. The film review project was begun by JTF-FA in 1993 in an effort to determine if American MIAs were captured on film. Shortly after the project began, it was learned that a large portion of the collection still resided in Hanoi. Nearly 12,000 reels of film have been reviewed jointly by U. S. and Lao investigators.

DPMO INTERVIEWS KOREAN WAR VETS

Analysts from the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office are attending two veteransÍ reunions this month, the 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division in Columbus, Ohio, and the 2nd Infantry Division in Des Moines, Iowa. They are conducting interviews to obtain information about servicemen still unaccounted-for from the Korean War. Information from these interviews will be used to support research on sites under investigation by joint CILHI/North Korean recovery teams which this year are operating near both the 24th Infantry Regiment and the 9th Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division loss areas from November 1950.