News-Info-Alerts

Re: Michigan MIA To Be Buried At Arlington

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: March 21, 2002

From Marty Eddy, POW Committe of Michigan. For more info contact Marty directly.

"Prisoner of War Committee of Michigan
Marty Eddy, President
Phone: 248.214.6398
Eddypowmia@aol.com

For Immediate Release

Arlington Services Set for Vietnam MIA from Westland, MI

SSG Refugio Thomas (Tommy) Teran of Westland, MI will be buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, April 19, 2002, nearly thirty-two years after disappearing during a battle in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam.

Funeral services are scheduled for 9am Friday, April 19 at the Ft. Myer Chapel, Arlington. Immediately following the church service, a horse-drawn caisson bearing SSG Teranís flag-draped casket will lead the funeral procession to the burial site, where a military graveside service will take place.

Tommy, a graduate of Wayne Memorial High School, enlisted in the U.S. Army is 1969 after working briefly for Ford Motor Company. He was serving with the 101st Airborne Division at Henderson Hill in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam when his position adjacent to an ammunition dump was overrun on May 6, 1970. Teran and another paratrooper, SSG Larry Gene Kier, were last seen running toward a barricade. However, when the last of the US casualties were picked up the next morning, Teran and Kier could not be found.

The remains of Teran and Kier were recovered through several US-Vietnam JFAs (Joint Field Activities), beginning in the early 90s. Local villagers also provided remains in August 1992. SSG Teranís identity was confirmed through the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) process, in which a blood sample from a maternal relative is compared to mtDNA extracted from a small bone fragment of recovered remains.

SSG Teranís parents, Ann and Refugio (Tom), still reside in Westland. In addition to his parents, he is survived by a brother, Enrique Ricardo, and two sisters, Monica and Vilma.

Michigan services for SSG Teran scheduled so far include a Memorial Mass at 11:30am Saturday, April 13, 2002 at St. Theodore Church in Westland, MI; a Memorial Service at 3pm Sunday, May 5, 2002 at Bova VFW Post #9885 in Westland, MI; and the addition of Teranís return date to the ìMichigan Remembersî POW/MIA Memorial in Novi, MI on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Friday, September 20, 2002 (time TBD).

According to the Department of Defense, the current number of Americans still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War is 1,936; 60 of them are from Michigan. Of the 1,936 total unaccounted for, 1,461 are in Vietnam, 409 in Laos, 58 in Cambodia and 8 in the territorial waters of the Peopleís Republic of China."