News-Info-Alerts

Re: Remains Identified

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: September 08, 2003

"Remains of Vietnam era MIA pilot from Mobile identified

The Associated Press

The remains of an Air Force captain from the Mobile area whose helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam War have been identified and will be returned to relatives, federal officials said.

The remains of Capt. Richard C. Yeend Jr., missing in action since June 9, 1968, were found in February and identified last week, said Larry Greer, a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department's MIA office.

Greer spoke to the Mobile Register for a story in Tuesday's papers.

"We always knew he had died because it was witnessed," he said. "But even so, he was never found and that haunted us," said Richard Yeend's brother, Mike Yeend.

Yeend, who graduated from McGill Institute in Mobile and from Auburn University, and three crew mates were trying to rescue a downed Marine pilot just over the border of Vietnam in Laos when they were shot down, said Greer.

Yeend, 29 at the time, was co-pilot of an HH-3E "Jolly Green Giant" rescue helicopter.

Yeend's family is planning a private memorial service, Mike Yeend said.

Yeend, who owns a Mobile jewelry store with his brother Tom Yeend, said a representative from Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, notified the family on Thursday that his brother's remains had been found and identified.

Greer said bone fragments and teeth found in February have been identified as those of Yeend and the other three men who went down with the helicopter.

Experts compared teeth found at the site with Yeend's dental X-rays, Greer said. The remains were shipped to the Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base in Oahua, Hawaii, he said.

"Family members are very, very appreciative that we have kept this mission going ... and have spent time and money to bring this warrior back," Greer said. "It allows them to finally close a chapter in their lives."

Mike Yeend said a list of the items found at the crash site included buckles from uniforms, part of a boot sole and an Air Force issue .38-caliber pistol.
Greer said there are still 1,882 Americans listed as missing in action in Vietnam and nearby countries. He said the remains of 701 former MIAs have been found and identified.

In 1998, some Vietnam veterans began an intensive effort to find the helicopter that Yeend was on when he disappeared.

In November 1998 a pilot and a flight engineer who had flown numerous helicopter missions during the Vietnam war gathered at Hurlburt Field in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to try to determine where the helicopter had gone down.

The veterans, using a computer simulation program, were able to pick out three likely spots where Yeend's copter could have gone down in the jungle. Four days of searching the areas by a Defense Department team, however, failed to turn up any sign of Jolly Green 23.

The crash site was eventually found on the Laotian side of the border, about 10 miles from where the searchers' best guess had placed it, Greer said.
In May 2002, Laotian villagers reported what they be lived was the wreckage of a helicopter in their area, Greer said. A team of U.S. investigators converged on the site the following November found a number of human remains, including lots of teeth from the four crew members.

Greer said Yeend's remains soon will be returned to family members in the Mobile area.

It will be left up to the family to decide whether the remains will be buried in Alabama, in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., or elsewhere. A full, military funeral will be provided if the family requests it, authorities said.

Richard Yeend entered the Air Force in March 1963 and was assigned to duty in Vietnam in February 1968. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, the Silver Star, the Air Force Medal with four oak leaf clusters and the Purple Heart.

Information from: The Mobile Register
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