Re: Ex-POW Pilots Hanoi Taxi & Remains Home

Date: May 29, 2004

"Ex-U.S. POW in Emotional Return for Vietnam Remains 

By Christina Toh-Pantin

HANOI (Reuters) - Former Vietnam War prisoner Edward Mechenbier returned to Hanoi on Friday for the first time in 31 years, but the Air Force pilot stayed just long enough for a special mission -- to repatriate his comrades' remains.

Piloting the same C-141 plane dubbed the "Hanoi Taxi" that flew him to freedom in 1973 after nearly six years in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," Major-General Mechenbier spent several hours at the capital city's main airport for the solemn ceremony. The war ended in 1975 with the defeat of the U.S.-backed South Vietnam by the northern communists.

Two sets of remains believed to be from U.S. servicemen Missing In Action (MIA) housed in small wooden boxes were placed in metal coffin-sized boxes for transport on Friday to the military forensic laboratory in Hawaii for identification.

The remains were retrieved from two sites in the central Vietnam provinces of Quang Binh and Quang Tri. Families will be notified following if identification is confirmed.

"Coming back here as part of this mission is very emotional to me," Mechenbier told reporters as he stood near the plane he had piloted from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

He said he had not thought about revisiting Vietnam until he was asked a month ago if he wanted to participate in the repatriation.

"LUCKY TO BE ALIVE"

"I consider myself very, very lucky to be alive and still be out flying," said the pilot, who will retire from a 40-year career following Friday's assignment.

Mechenbier was on his 80th mission over north Vietnam when his F-4C Phantom II fighter was shot down in June 1967. He was imprisoned in the Hoa Lo prison that U.S. POWs dubbed the "Hanoi Hilton." Like other inmates suffered mistreatment.

He declined to discuss details, saying: "I think what happened is a matter of history, but that's just something that happens in war."

Asked if he bore any animosity toward his former captors, he said: "Absolutely not. They were doing their job, I was doing mine."

Mechenbier said he wants to return to Vietnam for a longer visit. "I hope to come back some time as a tourist after I retire," he said.

More than 1,800 American servicemen remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War. Since 1973, over 700 sets of U.S. remains have been recovered and identified.

About 300,000 Vietnamese are missing from the conflict.

Washington and Hanoi have pledged to step up cooperation to find MIAs on both sides.

Many of the remains have been painstakingly excavated from deep jungles or paddy fields in missions that yield tiny bits of evidence such as bone and metal fragments.

(Additional reporting by Ho Binh Minh and Nguyen Van Vinh in HANOI)
© 2003 Reuters Limited"