News-Info-Alerts

Re: Vietnam Remains Identified

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: October 23, 2002

"United States Department of Defense
News Release

No. 541-02
IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 22, 2002

REMAINS OF MIA FROM VIETNAM IDENTIFIED

The remains of Army Capt. Larry F. Lucas of Marmet, W.Va., a U.S. soldier previously unaccounted-for from the war in Vietnam, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with military honors.

Lucas and another crewman were flying a reconnaissance mission in their OV-1 Mohawk aircraft over Savannakhet Province, Laos, when they were hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire. As the crew of another OV-1 watched, the aircraft entered a steep dive, crashed and exploded. The other crewmember ejected from the aircraft before the crash and was rescued.

Other aircraft searched the area for a survivor, but with negative results. No parachute was seen and no radio transmissions were heard from Lucas.

Between January 1990 and September 1999, four joint U.S.-Lao on-site investigations were led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting. During two of these investigations, excavations recovered aircraft debris, pilot-related artifacts and human remains. Forensic scientists from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii identified the remains.

There are currently more than 1,900 Americans unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia. "