POW/MIA ACCOUNTING COMMAND (JPAC)
RELEASE NO. #06-14
Apr. 19, 2006
JPAC EXPERTS SEARCH FOR MIAs IN VIETNAM
HICKAM AFB, HAWAII Ð The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command deployed five teams to Vietnam for the 85th Joint Field Activity this week. The teams will search for and recover sites associated with airmen missing from the Vietnam War.
JPAC deployed three Recovery Teams, a Research Investigation Team, and one Investigation Team.
Recovery Team One will search for a F-8E Crusader pilot who crashed in 1966 while providing low-altitude machine-gun suppression. During the mission, the pilotÕs plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, crashed, and exploded. JPAC is now looking for answers to resolve the mystery of the pilotÕs fate.
Recovery Team Two will excavate an aircraft crash site associated with an E-1B Tracer loss on Oct. 8, 1967. Five service members are unaccounted-for from this loss. While ground search-and-recovery teams failed to locate the missing aircrew at the time, aerial search crews identified the aircraft three days later at an apparent crash site. However, the site was deemed too dangerous to access because it was located on a precarious 80-degree mountain slope.
Recovery Team Three will have two missions. RT Three will search for the location of an A1-G Skyraider pilot who disappeared in Southern Vietnam in 1968. The pilot vanished after successfully destroying three enemy tanks. While another pilot witnessed ground fire strike the aircraft about three minutes before the plane crashed, he did not see the pilot of the A1 eject.
RT Three will also search for a pilot lost in 1971 on a combat mission in Southern Vietnam under heavy ground fire. Reports suggest that the pilotÕs UH-1H helicopter crashed into treetops and then burst into flames. No one was seen exiting the aircraft. JPAC experts will search the region where the aircraft was last seen in the hope of pinpointing the site for a future recovery mission.
The Research Investigation Team is charged with researching achieves gathering bits and pieces of information to generate leads for the Investigation Teams. The ITs use the information to correlate sites to missing military members. IT members also help prepare for future recoveries by surveying sites, interviewing witnesses, and noting logistical concerns about potential recovery locations.
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"Until they are home"