Exhumation request granted for remains of Vietnam soldier
Associated Press
The U.S. Air Force will exhume the body of a Vietnam soldier buried earlier this month in North Texas after his second wife - who did not know about the burial - requested he be moved closer to her home in Louisiana.
The second wife of Chief Master Sgt. Luther L. Rose, of Howe, Texas, said she had not been informed of the ceremony and only found out after reading an article in a Louisiana newspaper. Beverly Rose was married to the soldier at the time of his death and said she wanted her husband's body buried closer to her home in Haughton, La.
Luther Rose was buried Aug. 6 with military honors in Akers Cemetery in Sherman at the request of Janise Langford, his daughter from his first marriage. Rose had been listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War since 1966, when his plane went down over Laos.
The remains of Rose and other crew members were recovered in 1995 by a joint U.S.-Lao excavation team and underwent a wide array of forensic testing at the military laboratory in Hawaii.
Military officials decided to grant her request and disinter the soldier's remains, Air Force spokesman Gary Lott said Tuesday.
"A funeral service and burial will follow in Haughton," Lott said. "At this time, a date and time have not been set for disinterment or subsequent burial in Louisiana."
Lott said Air Force Mortuary Affairs had maintained contact with all families involved in the "unfortunate circumstance."