News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: US CINCPAC Release

Date: April 12, 2001

"NEWS RELEASE #015-01
April 12, 2001

American servicemen remains from helicopter crash to arrive in Hawaii Friday

U.S. Pacific Command Public Affairs
Updated Copy

CAMP H.M. SMITH, HAWAII -- The remains of seven U.S. servicemen who died in a helicopter crash Saturday in Vietnam will be honored at an arrival ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Hickam Air Force Base.

Prior to the remains being returned from Vietnam, a repatriation ceremony will be held at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, to honor the U.S. servicemen. At the repatriation ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson and the Commander of Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, Brig. Gen. Harry B. Axson Jr., will honor the Americans killed. The remains will then be placed aboard a U.S. C-17 by an honor guard consisting of personnel from all four U.S. military services for the flight back to the United States.

Following the repatriation ceremony, Axson and the U.S. contingent will escort the remains back to the United States. An all-service honor guard will honor their arrival in Hawaii at a ceremony Friday at Hickam Air Force Base.

Following the Hickam ceremony, the remains will be taken to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii for final identification prior to returning them to their families.

The U.S. servicemen and nine Vietnamese were onboard a Vietnamese MI-17 helicopter when it crashed Saturday, April 7, in Quang Bing Province, Vietnam, which is 250 miles south of Hanoi. They were conducting operations in preparation for the 65th Joint Field Activity. Joint Field Activites are month-long operations held four times a year in Vietnam to recover and return the remains of American servicemen still unaccounted for as a result of the Vietnam War. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

More information about the accident is available on the www.pacom.mil website. Information about the U.S. government’s worldwide full-accounting mission can be found on the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Affairs Office website at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

Note: Media interested in covering the event should contact 2nd Lt. Christopher Anderson at the Hickam Public Affairs Office at 449-6368 no later than 4 p.m., April 12. News media wishing to attend the arrival ceremony at Hickam AFB must arrive at the Hickam front gate no later than 12:15 p.m. Apr. 13. The Hickam Public Affairs Office personnel will escort news media to the base operations building for the ceremony."