Remains identified of four U.S. MIAs found in Laos
REUTERS
WASHINGTON - The remains of four U.S. Army soldiers who died together 35 years ago in Laos during the Vietnam War have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The soldiers were lost on March 20, 1971, on a mission to extract troops in the Savannakhet Province of Laos, when their UH-1 H Huey helicopter was hit by enemy ground fire and exploded, the Pentagon's POW/MIA office said in a statement.
The remains were identified as those of Maj. Jack Barker of Waycross, Georgia; Capt. John Dugan of Roselle, New Jersey; Sgt. William Dillender of Naples, Florida and Pfc. John Chubb of Gardena, California.
Barker and Dugan were piloting the helicopter with Dillender and Chubb on board, the statement said.
Their remains were recovered during investigations by joint U.S.-Lao search teams and recently identified by American forensic experts in Hawaii, the Pentagon said.
More than 58,000 Americans and 2 million Vietnamese were killed in the Vietnam War.
A total of of 839 Americans have been found and accounted for in Southeast Asia since the end of the war and 1,807 remain missing. Of those found and identified, 208 have been from losses in Laos.