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Re: Vietnam MIA Identified, Coming Home

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: October 07, 2003

"Body of soldier who lost his life fighting in Vietnam returns home this weekend

Megan Hughes on a soldier's body returning home

(Columbia) Oct. 7, 2003 - The body of Staff Sergeant Larry Holden is returning to American soil. Sgt. Holden gave his life fighting for America 35 years ago in Vietnam.

Holden's wife of six years, Judy, was never really able to say goodbye, "He just told me he'd be back. He never told me goodbye. He wouldn't say goodbye."

A week before he was supposed to come home for Judy's 21st birthday trip to Hawaii his search and rescue helicopter, an HH-3 Jolly Green Giant out of Da Nang Air Force Base, faced enemy fire and went down with four men inside.Witnesses said it exploded on impact, but no bodies were found.

Judy says there was no hope of finding the bodies, "There was no hope of getting down to the crash site, too infested with Vietcong. They couldn't get to it."

She had to had to explain it to their daughters, Stephanie, then four, and Tina, two, "That was the hardest thing I had to do was tell the girls."

Tina Joyner says she always wondered about her father growing up, "As a kid we'd go to an airport, and I'd see a man walking in uniform, and I'd look at his face and wonder. I knew it wouldn't happen, but I was a kid, I guess."

Stephanie DeLoach misses the father she never really knew, "He was the father I didn't get to grow up knowing."

Holden was highly decorated for his efforts in Vietnam, earning the Silver Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Hear, the National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal with two Bronze Service Stars. In 1983 US Senator Strom Thurmond presented the family with the POW/MIA Medal.

Judy eventually re-married and moved the family to Hampton, South Carolina, but she and her daughters never forgot the husband and father they lost in Vietnam.

Now, 35 years later, they're learning the military didn't forget him either. Last November, after political wrangling with the Vietnamese government, the US finally excavated the crash site and identified Larry Holden.

Saturday, his remains will come home, "We'll have closure and he can rest in peace in his own soil." Judy left Tuesday night for Hawaii, where she'll pick up Larry Holden's remains. Judy says she'll keep flying the MIA flag until all missing soldiers are found.

Holden will be laid to rest in Hampton County this weekend. A funeral with full military honors is planned for Holden on October 11 at the St. Paul Cemetery in Hampton.

Reporting by Megan Hughes

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