News-Info-Alerts

Re: Vietnam MIAs ID'd and Returned

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: December 19, 2003

"Air Force Officer's Remains Are Returned From Vietnam

Saturday, December 20, 2003; Page B08


Remains of an Air Force officer from Salisbury, Md., who was missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial, the Defense Department said yesterday.

The Pentagon said Maj. Richard W. Cooper Jr. was the navigator on a B-52D taking part in a bombing run over Hanoi on Dec. 19, 1972, when his plane was hit by an enemy surface-to-air missile. The plane crashed, and survivors later said Cooper had been unable to eject.

The crash site was discovered in 1994, and Cooper's remains were discovered and identified by anthropological analysis and DNA matching, the Pentagon said.

Remains of a second crew member, an aerial gunner from Louisiana, were also identified and returned, the Pentagon said.
 
© 2003 The Washington Post Company

and

31 years later, Md. airman is buried

Associated Press
12/20/2003

SALISBURY, Md. -- Exactly 31 years after his plane was shot down in Vietnam, Air Force Maj. Richard W. Cooper Jr., a Salisbury native, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Friday.

Cooper, 30 when he died, was the navigator and one of six crew members on a B-52 conducting a bombing run of Hanoi when his craft was struck by an enemy surface-to-air missile and crashed about six miles southwest of Hanoi on Dec. 19, 1972, the Department of Defense said.

Four crew members parachuted from the plane and were captured and held as prisoners of war until March 1973. They reported that Cooper and Chief Master Sgt. Charlie S. Poole of Gibsland, La., the tail-gunner, had been unable to eject from the craft, according to the DOD. They were listed as missing in action.

In 1997, U.S. investigators of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command found items that were determined to be the B-52's wreckage. Cooper's captain's insignia near the wreckage led investigators to identify Cooper; DNA samples were used to identify Poole. The identifications were confirmed this year.

Poole was also buried Friday at Arlington, the Pentagon said.

©2003, The News Journal

and

Pentagon Identifies Two MIAs from Vietnam War

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The remains of two U.S. airmen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified and returned to their families for burial, the Pentagon said on Friday, eight years after they were found.

Maj. Richard Cooper, Jr. of Salisbury, Maryland, and Chief Master Sgt. Charlie Poole of Gibsland, Louisiana, were returning from a bombing run over Hanoi on Dec. 19, 1972, when their B-52D Stratofortress bomber was hit by an enemy missile and crashed about six miles southwest of the city.

Cooper was the navigator on the bombing mission and Poole was the aerial gunner.

Other U.S. aircraft were unable to establish radio contact with the downed six-man crew and a search and rescue mission was not attempted because the area was under enemy control, the Pentagon said.

However, four of the crew were captured and held as prisoners of war. When released in 1973, they reported Cooper had been unable to eject from the airplane.

Each crewman also said they saw only three other parachutes leaving the bomber, the Pentagon said.

U.S. investigators visiting a Vietnamese military museum in 1993 and 1994 found photographs, records and artifacts that they believed were linked to the crashed bomber.

After determining the likely crash site, a joint U.S-Vietnam excavation in the fall of 1995 found B-52 wreckage, personal effects and human remains. A second excavation in early 1996 uncovered more personal effects and remains.

Anthropological analysis by the Central Identification Laboratory, as well as mitochondrial DNA matches, confirmed the identification of the two men, the Pentagon said.

More than 1,800 Americans remain missing in action from the Vietnam War.

© Reuters 2003"