Remains from Vietnam War identified

[darrels joy]

WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- An Airman missing in action from the Vietnam War has been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

He is Chief Master Sgt. Luther L. Rose of Howe, Texas.

On June 23, 1966, Chief Rose was serving as a gunner on an AC-47 Spooky gunship on a nighttime armed reconnaissance mission over southern Laos. At about 9:25 p.m., an aircrew member radioed, ?we have a hot fire,? and another radio transmission was heard to order, ?bail out.? Witnesses reported the aircraft was on fire before crashing into a heavily wooded area 30 miles northeast of Tchepone, in Khannouan Province, Laos.

No parachutes from the six-man crew were observed and no emergency beepers were heard. An aerial search of the site found no evidence of survivors.

In cooperation with Lao government officials, a joint team of U.S. and Lao specialists traveled to a suspected crash site in Khammouan Province in October 1994 where a villager took them to an area where personal effects, aircraft wreckage, crew-related materials and a crew member?s identification tag were found.

In May and June 1995, a joint U.S.-Lao team excavated the site where they recovered human remains as well as identification from other aircrew members. The U.S. recovery team members were from the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. Scientists there applied a wide array of forensic techniques to the recovered remains, including comparisons of dental charts and x-rays, as well as the use of mitochondrial DNA sequencing.

More than 88,000 Americans are missing in action from all conflicts. Of these, 1,855 are from the Vietnam War.