News-Info-Alerts

Re: Arlington - 32 Years Later

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: June 09, 2002

"Vietnam remains finally buried

BY SARAH FOWLER SUN-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU

ARLINGTON, Va.--With full military honors, the remains of four soldiers were buried in a single coffin Friday at Arlington National Cemetery.

The remains included those of two Chicagoans. The military funeral for Master Sgt. Thomas E. Heideman and Capt. Craig B. Schiele came nearly 32 years after their deaths, following a lengthy investigation into the fatal 1970 helicopter crash in Laos.

But the burial didn't bring closure for Schiele's sister, who was 23 when her brother died. "It's like having a wound reopened. There will always be questions about what happened," said Lynn Schiele of Hazel Crest. She added, "When you lose someone ... there's no real closure, there's always a loss."

Against a backdrop of endless rows of white tombstones, the service began with a military procession followed by family members of the two Air Force soldiers. A military band opened the ceremony with the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" as pallbearers carried the silver coffin to the grave site. A seven-member Air Force firing party fired a three-round salute near the service's end.

The CH-3E helicopter carrying Heideman and Schiele crashed into the Laotian jungle Oct. 24, 1970, killing two Laotians and leaving behind 10 survivors. Most of Schiele's body was recovered the next day and later buried in his wife's hometown of Bartlesville, Okla. But fire from the crash burned much of the aircraft, preventing Heideman's remains from being identified.

With Heideman still listed as MIA, excavation teams returned to the crash site in 1994 and 1995. Human remains and personal artifacts retrieved from the site were analyzed at the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, but could not be positively linked to any of the four men.

Lt. Col. Tom Erstfeld of the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office said investigators had hoped to find DNA samples they could link to Heideman. But because of fire damage and the passage of time, he said, "They didn't determine DNA on anybody."

On the basis of physical and circumstantial evidence, forensic experts from the Hawaiian lab concluded that the remains were those of Schiele, Heideman and the two Laotians. The remains of the four were buried in a single casket because they could not be individually identified.

Questions remain for both families, but Friday's service provided an opportunity to finally honor the men.

"There are a lot of lingering questions for all of us," said Schiele. "I'm just grateful for the honor for my brother."

"They deserve to be honored, and it's been 31-1/2 years," said Heideman's daughter Sandra Evans, who was 14 when her father died.

As his family's only child, Heideman could have refused combat duty, but went to Vietnam anyway when his orders came.

"He felt it was his duty ... knew if he was ever called to go, he would," Evans said.

The Heideman children agreed to the burial in spite of the uncertainty so that their grandmother, Olivette Heideman, 92, could see her son laid to rest.

"She felt like he deserved it," Evans said. "He was her only child."

Another daughter of Heideman's, Mary Ann Buonforte, who was 15 when her father died, said her grandmother had been waiting a long time for Friday's service.

"For her, this is a closure. She was afraid she was never going to live to see this." "