Repatriation service honors six Vietnam War casualties

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Repatriation service honors six Vietnam War casualties
5/20/2009 Cpl. Scott Schmidt, Unit Headquarters Marine Corps
ARLINGTON, Va.

A throng of family members and Marine veterans gathered amidst the white grave markers of Arlington National Cemetery to remember the service and sacrifice of six Vietnam War casualties May 14.

After 41 years, the remains of the six Marines killed in Vietnam have been identified and repatriated.


Lance Cpls. Kurt LaPlant, Luis Palacios, Ralph L. Harper, Felix Flores and Pfcs. Catarino Morelos Jr. and Jose Ramon Sanchez died while serving in the Quang Tri Province of South Vietnam on June 6, 1968.

According to Prisoner of War and Missing in Action Affairs officials, a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter was attempting an emergency extraction of Marines with 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, then engaged with hostile forces. The aircraft was hit by enemy ground fire, crashed and rolled down a steep hillside, killing 12 of the 23 crewmen and passengers on board. Initially, the remains of eight Marines, including Morelos and Flores, were recovered and identified leaving only four Marines unaccounted for and presumed dead.


From June 20 to July 15, 2006, a joint U.S. and Vietnam investigation team began excavating the suspected crash site and recovered human remains, including an identification tag for LaPlant. While at the site, a Vietnamese national turned over human remains to the team that he claimed to have found amid the wreckage of a U.S. helicopter.

In May 2007, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Honolulu started the identification process of the recovered remains. During the analysis, teeth were matched to Flores and Morelos using their radiographs and bitewings. JPAC also identified remains of Palacios and LaPlant. However, they were unable to individually identify any of the remains belonging to Harper or Sanchez.


Honoring their service and commitment to their brothers in arms, the families of Morelos and Flores requested the unidentified remains be placed with them in a group burial. Honors were rendered and burial flags were presented to each family during the service as a final salute to the sacrifice made by each Marine.


Col. Daniel A. Pinedo, a nephew of Morelos who escorted the remains from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Honolulu, told family members how Morelos “was the youngest of the aunts and uncles and I was the oldest (at age 12) of the nieces and nephews, so naturally we had a bond.”


Some of the other individuals present at the ceremony also reflected on memories shared with the fallen.

The event gave them closure, because the family members know they're “with their fellow Marines here at home and in our hearts,” said Rev. Robert Finnamore who presided over the service.


http://www.onemarinesview.com/one_marines_view/2009/05/repatriation-service-honors-six-vietnam-war-casualtiesnever-forget.html

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for reminding the world of your fallen brothers and their loved ones that have waited so long for this homecoming.

Travesty of media silence:

Received the story from One Marines View on the repatriation service honoring six United States Marines returned home to their loved ones after forty one years. Forty one years that no doubt felt like a hundred and forty one years to those loved ones as days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and then year after year went by with not one word.

Curious to see know how much attention was paid to their home coming I did a Google search with key words copied and pasted exactly as recorded in the title on the first post on this thread. The search was telling in that as of May 25, 2009 only military blogs, military websites, a defense industry news letter, a veterans website, this post from PF, one conservative website/blog (all of us referencing as our source One Marines View or Marine Corps News) took the time to remind the nation of the return of these six Marines who so long ago went to fight a war to free a people from oppression. While the main stream media was far to busy filling air time with sound bites and video clips that contain 99.9% of absolute nonsense.

www.onemarinesview.com,
www.leatherneck.com, and www.supportingourtroops20008.blogspot.com (blogspot.com gives credit to One Marines View) www.marines.mil/NEWS/Pages/usmcnews.aspx
www.militaryspot.com/news/category/news
www.goldcoastchronicle.com/feature/service-honors-six-vietnam-war-heros/
www.aerotechnews.com/local/
www.marinesofindiana.com/2009/01/department-of-indiana-spring-2009.html



That’s it. Yahoo search, ask.com results not much difference give or take one or two. I tried using the full title as given in the article adding the major networks including Fox and came up empty. Searched by date using both the date of the report and the date of the ceremony, drilled down several pages on Google looking for a hit on the story buried beyond the first few pages. Came up zip.

No words to describe my sadness. Although the thoughtless unconcern of the MSM is no sudden revelation.

Salute to JPAC and the USMC for the determination to keep the promise of never leaving their brothers and sisters behind.
Thank you Lord, I know these men and women, in every branch of service are a gift from you to this nation. Amen

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I did not know or serve with these men but have had them in my heart since June 2002 when I travel back to Vietnam with the C.O. at LZ Loon where these men fell. I was able to go to Arlington to help the families place closure now after 41 years. God Bless.
Semper Fi
Bob

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Salute and thank you for your service Bob. I can tell you from first hand experience those families will never forget your show of support for them. Angels on your six, Marine.

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